AVP, Agile Marketing Lead

Position:  AVP, Agile Marketing Lead

Job Location: New York, NY, Bridgewater, NJ, or Remote

The Company:

MetLife (NYSE: MET), through its subsidiaries and affiliates, is one of the world’s leading financial services companies, providing insurance, annuities, employee benefits and asset management to help its individual and institutional customers navigate their changing world. Founded in 1868, MetLife serves approximately 100 million customers, has operations in more than 40 countries and holds leading market positions in the United States, Japan, Latin America, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. MetLife has an employee population of approximately 43,000 and is ranked #50 on the Fortune 500 list for 2022.  In 2021, we were named to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) for the sixth year in a row. DJSI is a global index to track the leading sustainability-driven companies. We are proud to have been named to Fortune magazine’s 2023 list of the “World’s Most Admired Companies.”            

The Role: 

The Global Brand and Marketing organization is going through an unprecedented transformation. At the core of this transformation is a focus on delivering value to our businesses and customers. To unlock this value, we must transform into a data driven organization and embrace agile methods, to fuel our ability to ensure marketing is an investment with predictable contribution to business growth.

This agenda requires an energized and passionate leader who can inspire marketers to pursue an agile mindset while imbedding agile practices into the DNA of our organization. As the Agile Marketing Lead, you will spearhead this transformation and will be responsible for agile enablement, adoption & implementation across the entire marketing organization.

As a senior leader you will also need to understand the complexities of our business and create the optimal conditions that will maximize the benefits of our agile transformation. This requires partnering with senior leaders to understand our needs and build agile processes unique to our organization to deliver on expected key results.

Additionally, you will need to leverage your expertise to steward change management routines and help drive our operating model evolution. This requires you to be able to combine your extensive expertise implementing agile methods in large organizations with your seasoned agile coaching background to help leaders navigate and embrace this change. This is an exciting position that requires a highly charismatic leader who can inspire our organization in our journey towards agile transformation.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead agile enablement and transformation across the entire marketing organization. Ensure successful adoption of all methods and processes across all regions.
• Influence and partner with senior marketing leaders to help develop and implement operating model changes based on business goals and priorities.
• Build a sustainable agile model to create the optimal conditions that will maximize the benefits of agile transformation. Create agile processes for our unique ways of working and pod needs (e.g. Growth pods, Web pods, Social pods, etc.).
• Own the outcome-based plan for each increment of the transformation. Build and maintain the maturity model and training curriculum, helping teams accelerate improvements.
• Analyze the organization's existing structure, identify opportunities, and implement improvements to help teams deliver better outcomes in a faster, more efficient manner.
• Coach, mentor, and guide senior leaders and agile pods to figure out the best solutions for their specific challenges. Support Product Owners to ensure successful implementation.
• Drive cultural change by championing an agile mindset, ensure the organization is at the forefront of best practices and evolve our agile framework based on our changing needs.
• Guide and coach teams to help them stay on track with agile techniques, fine-tuning approaches as needed to ensure their overall plans are being met.
• Oversee a team of agile coaches that will support agile teams ongoing pursuit of delivering business outcomes. Create a community for agile coaching support across all pods.
• Connect and liaise to the broader Agility at MetLife training program and resources. Identify and embed relevant practices into the marketing organization.
• Be an advocate for agile culture and values. Lead by example and embody what it means to embrace agile methodologies. Adoption of these methods, tools and practices will require an ability to gain consensus across a matrixed organization.

Key Relationships:

• Reports to: GBM Chief of Staff
• Other Key Stakeholders: Local & Regional CMOs, Pod Product Owners, Local LOB business leaders, Functional leaders and partners

Essential Business Experience and Technical Skills:

• 10+ years of experience as an agile lead in large-enterprise environments, specifically in marketing organizations.
• Led agile transformation initiatives at scale and has demonstrated success enabling implementation through process and stakeholder management.
• Experience leveraging agile methods and principles to influence high-performing operating models.
• Ability to drive consensus across senior business & marketing leaders, with a focus on improving agile maturity.
• Experience coaching up and down organizations, including leadership teams, executives, delivery teams and individuals.
• Experience running agile teams as an Agile Coach or scrum master, helping teams achieve optimal performance. 
• At least three years of exposure to global projects across multiple markets and geographies is preferred.
• Agile certifications (e.g., Scrum Alliance, SAFe). Coaching certifications (e.g., CTI, ICF) a plus.
• Collaborative, high energy, a team player. A natural coach and mentor.
• Driven to learn, grow and stretch as a member of an evolving Marketing organization. 
• Outstanding interpersonal and communications skills, with an ability to influence associates and change behavior. 

MetLife Success Principles

The Global Brand & Marketing team strives to attract, develop, and retain diverse talent with the potential to be future leaders of the department and of MetLife as a whole. The Global Brand & Marketing team seeks professionals who demonstrate high intellectual capacity to understand complex matters facing the company, combined with strong leadership competencies to motivate and inspire higher performance by all professionals. The Global Brand & Marketing team takes an active role in developing the skills of the broader team and guiding their professional growth. By promoting skill development and career advancement for its professionals, the Global Brand & Marketing team is better positioned to serve its internal business partners and to help achieve MetLife’s vision of becoming a world-class leader in the insurance, retirement savings, investments and employee benefits industries.

• Experiment with Confidence – Courageously learn and test new ideas without fear of failure
• Act with Urgency – Demonstrate speed to action with agility and determination
• Seek Diverse Perspectives – Source ideas and feedback to expand thinking and make informed decisions
• Seize Opportunity – Drive responsible growth and identify areas for continuous improvement
• Champion Inclusion – Foster an environment where everyone is valued, heard, and can speak up
• Create Alignment – Partner with others across the organization with candor and transparency
• Take Responsibility – Be accountable and act in pursuit of the right outcomes
• Enable Solutions – Anticipate and address obstacles while managing risk
• Deliver What Matters – Execute meaningful priorities and follow through on commitments

MetLife is intentionally cultivating a purpose-driven and inclusive culture that values and builds a diversity of talent to innovate for today, tomorrow and the future so that the company can continue to fulfill its promise to its customers in the communities it serves around the world.

The wage range for applicants for this position is $151,000 to $201,300. This role is also eligible for annual short-term incentive compensation and stock based long-term incentives. MetLife offers a comprehensive benefits program, including healthcare benefits, life insurance, retirement benefits, parental leave, legal plan services and paid time off. All incentives and benefits are subject to the applicable plan terms.

We want to make it simple for all interested and qualified candidates to apply for employment opportunities with MetLife.  If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request to accommodations@metlife.com or call our Employee Relations Department at 1-877-843-3711.

MetLife is a proud Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action employer dedicated to attracting, retaining, and developing a diverse and inclusive workforce. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment at MetLife without regards to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, national origin, marital or domestic/civil partnership status, genetic information, citizenship status, uniformed service member or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

MetLife maintains a drug-free workplace.

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