Job Description

How will your role impact First Command?

First Command was founded in 1958 by a retired military officer who was enthusiastic about helping service members and their families strengthen their financial security. The company is seeking a leader who shares this passion for our mission and who can lead the strategy and team responsible for solutions offered through the financial coaching relationship with our clients. The Solution Strategy Leader is accountable for the business outcome delivery, value realization, stakeholder management and customer experience across the portfolio. This leader is responsible for rationalizing and optimizing the financial solutions portfolio through best in class business partners for the benefit of clients, Advisors, and the company.

What will you be doing?

• Defines, aligns, rationalizes, and optimizes financial solutions for the portfolio that enables the company vision of lifelong financial security for our Nation's military families.
• Designs and manages a balanced portfolio and related partners to maximize the impact of the portfolio.
• Jointly leads a strategic client solutions portfolio with Digital Product Management.
• Supports the long-term strategies of the First Command business model through solutions that align with evolving client needs and preferences.
• Leverages the available resources, including intellectual and influential capital of key business partners to further company growth and deliver innovative solutions to clients.
• Ensures solution strategy alignment with the organization's vision, growth strategy, and go-to-market approach.
• Builds trusted relationships and influences stakeholders at all levels of the organization.
• Maintains strong knowledge of client and persona journeys across products and product experiences while owning a horizontal, enterprise view.
• Identifies gaps and recommends new solutions and services to add to the First Command product portfolio that enables client achievement of financial goals and Advisors to better serve clients.
• Remains knowledgeable on industry, regulatory, competitive, and partner trends translating insights, risks, and opportunities for the company through proactive reporting and communication.
• Responsible for tracking sales and profitability by product line and product in order to make informed business decisions and recommendations to stakeholders.
• Partners with Marketing and Training to ensure the proper positioning and compelling value proposition of financial solutions.
• Partners with the CIO and Investment Management Team to align business partners with investment strategies, philosophies, and policies.
• Collaborates with the CFO and the Advisor Operations and Integrated Sales teams to provide product sales forecasts, trends and insights, and to ensure the proper deployment and support of solutions.
• Establishes and maintains business partner relationships, including due diligence on solution offerings, ongoing scorecards, protocols for distribution network engagement and marketing and sales campaigns to support Advisor education and production.
• Aligns with Legal and Compliance teams to manage risk, ensure compliance with regulatory and company policies, conduct due diligence
• Negotiates and maintains selling agreements and commission schedules for solutions.
• Serves on critical oversight committees including the Internal Risk, Investment Oversight, and Compliance by Design Committees.
• Maintains high standards of service support to all Advisors, Advisor staff and clients in relation to account and solution servicing.

Supervisory Responsibility

• Leads a team of high performing financial product management professionals who ensure business outcomes, quality of delivery of services, and product performance standards that align with client needs and expectations.
• Financial products include brokerage, advisory and managed investments, life insurance, annuities and related services provided through partners to enable lifetime financial security for First Command clients.

What skills/qualifications do you need?

Education

• Undergraduate degree in finance or business related required
• MBA in related field preferred

Work Experience

• At least 10-15 years in the financial services industry with experience in direct sales of all products, as well as deployment of new products and services to Advisors
• At least 5 years managing an operational team for fee based and retail investment solutions
• Demonstrated working knowledge of leading wealth management technology platforms and capabilities
• Demonstrated track record of developing and delivering successful financial products
• Experience in negotiating selling agreements with business partners on new product solutions
• Experience developing product sales and service delivery training

Certifications

• Advanced professional qualifications preferred (CFP, CLU, etc.)
• Licensed and registered to sell and supervise investment, advisory and life insurance products required (Series 7, 63 or 65; Series 24 or willingness to obtain within 6 months of hire).

Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Understands the components of a product management ecosystem to define the platform, products and solutions, the value proposition, competitive positioning, and business cases that drive support for ongoing investments for growth.
• Ability to define and translate product portfolio vision into actionable roadmaps in collaboration with key stakeholders (customers, prospects, partners, and Advisors).
• Executive presence and strong presentation skills with experience presenting to executive and board leadership.
• Experience with voice of customer strategy development and execution, channel development, insights implementation, clear and demonstrable impact to customer experience, program, and product management.
• Customer obsessed - deep empathy and understanding in service of creating frictionless journey-based experiences, innovating to address customers' known and unknown evolving needs.
• Demonstrates and can draw connections and think horizontally for the bigger picture to connect to a common goal.
• Understands product management's role within agile and its connection to the broader business strategy.
• Knowledge of investment industry and the business of Broker/Dealers and Registered Representatives.
• Knowledge of the Registered Investment Advisor business and associated Investment Advisor Representatives.
• Knowledge of the life insurance industry and the business of a general insurance agency and insurance agents.
• Knowledge the general insurance industry including disability and long-term care and the brokering of those products.
• Knowledge of basic regulatory and compliance requirements of the investment, insurance and advisory business.
• Knowledge of the general customer service support models within the Financial Services Industry.
• 20% travel for Industry events, Advisor, and partner engagement.

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