Executive Director — AEP Applicant Services

Ignite your passion for product innovation by leading customer-centric development, inspiring solutions, and shaping the future with your strategic vision and influence.

As a Product Director in Digital Acquisitions and Enablement Platform organization, you will lead the Applicant Onboarding product area, owning strategy, roadmap, and execution to modernize and scale end-to-end applicant services. You will drive innovation that improves applicant outcomes, increases operational efficiency, and strengthens risk and controls—while advancing a self-service, platform-first model that enables Lines of Business to launch and evolve onboarding experiences faster and more safely.

This role requires a product leader who combines deep technical credibility (including strong AI/GenAI literacy) with executive-level communication skills to engage confidently with Lines of Business product customers, operations, technology, and control partners.

Job responsibilities

• Oversees the product roadmap, vision, development, execution, risk management, and business growth targets

• Leads the entire product life cycle through planning, execution, and future development by continuously adapting, developing new products and methodologies, managing risks, and achieving business targets like cost, features, reusability, and reliability to support growth

• Coaches and mentors the product team on best practices, such as solution generation, market research, storyboarding, mind-mapping, prototyping methods, product adoption strategies, and product delivery, enabling them to effectively deliver on objectives

• Owns product performance and is accountable for investing in enhancements to achieve business objectives

• Monitors market trends, conducts competitive analysis, and identifies opportunities for product differentiation

• Lead the modernization, growth, and maintenance of applicant services strategies, ensuring alignment with organizational standards and priorities.

• Establish strong relationships with partners and providers to ensure seamless applicant experiences and represent applicant services in interactions with local regulators.

• Coordinate across Operations, Client Service, and Technology to align service development with overall market strategy, while partnering with Compliance to adhere to regulatory frameworks.

• Maintain a strong focus on risk and controls, ensuring issues are identified, escalated, and managed effectively and transparently.

• Plan and deliver innovative information to applicants efficiently in various formats, contributing to documentation related to applicant services.

• Demonstrate principled leadership in aspects of culture and conduct, articulating the organization's competitive proposition and key differentiators.

Required qualifications, capabilities, and skills

• 8+ years of experience or equivalent expertise delivering products, projects, or technology applications

• Extensive knowledge of the product development life cycle, technical design, and data analytics

• Proven ability to influence the adoption of key product life cycle activities including discovery, ideation, strategic development, requirements definition, and value management

• Experience driving change within organizations and managing stakeholders across multiple functions

• Comprehensive knowledge of the applicant lifecycle and solid understanding of business processes and risk controls.

• In-depth understanding of market participants, client requirements, and market practices, demonstrated through established relationships and previous achievements.

• Proven track record in delivering and managing change effectively, with strong analytical, problem-solving, and process re-engineering skills.

• Exceptional communication and presentation skills, with the ability to convey clear, concise messages and leverage the broader organization to achieve objectives.

• Excellent organizational and time management skills, with the ability to manage and prioritize multiple tasks across different time horizons while meeting deadlines.

• Proven ability to manage teams both directly and through dotted-line relationships, as well as across support areas to achieve overall objectives, with a strong understanding of the regulatory environment and its impact on applicant services.

Preferred qualifications, capabilities, and skills

• Recognized thought leader within a related field

• Demonstrated leadership delivering self-service platforms and reusable capability models at scale.

• Strong applied AI/GenAI product delivery experience (use-case selection, measurement, governance partnership, monitoring, and responsible rollout).

• Confident executive presence with the ability to secure sponsorship, align diverse stakeholders, and communicate market and strategy narratives effectively.

• External industry engagement (forums, panels, standards groups) relevant to onboarding/applicant services.