Complex Proposals and Product Strategist

At The Standard, you’ll join a team focused on putting our customers first.
Our continued success is driven by a high-performance culture. We’re looking for people who are collaborative, accountable, creative, agile and are driven by a passion for doing what’s right – across the company and in our local communities.
We offer a caring culture where you can make a real difference, every day.
 
Ready to reach your highest potential? Let’s work together.

Job Summary

Our Employee Benefits Division is growing! We are hiring a Complex Proposals and Product Strategist to manage the ecosystem of our National Account Consultant Partners RFI’s, RFPs (Request for Information / Proposal questionnaires) and specialized large case requests. You will closely partner with the Strategic Partner Consultant, National Accounts Practice Leader, Absence Management Practice Leader, Voluntary Practice Leader, and EB Sales roles, to comprehensively understand the requirements of the case, and the value proposition of the broker /consultant. You will engage with internal functional area SMEs to understand our capabilities and differentiation opportunities, as well as identify methods of answering specific customer needs. You will synthesize these inputs to develop a creative and persuasive proposal that articulates differentiation and customer value creation potential and support the translation through to finalist for consistency. This role will influence the team and process as we look at the segmentation of the RFP/RFI processes. It's a high functioning, expert level individual contributor that will both inform and create strategy as well as manage and steward large/national account RFPs.

• Recommend & execute the RFI/RFP strategy: Explore the unique broker and employer / case needs combined with sales strategy. Examine known / likely competitors solution approaches and stage attack/defend views. Synthesize the inputs to recognize our critical differentiation and customer value creation opportunities addressing their key buying criteria.

• Manage the Process and Complete the Submission: Project Manage all activities and elements of the process including kick-off, expectation setting, information gathering to completion and delivery acceptance. Partner with assigned Proposal Analyst to pull standard responses from Qvidian for pre-fill. Engage with Field and SMEs on draft responses throughout the process ensuring final agreement before submission. Collaborate with Sales Enablement for required additional materials. Partner with Functional Area representatives on non-standard requests.

• Support Finalist Development Team: by providing insights gathered during the proposal process and the crafted responses to ensure consistency of story.

• Provide Capability Feedback: Track win/loss and capture feedback. Capture all non-standard requests and our basic response view in a report. Provide the report to Executive, Functional Area representatives and Product (Agile and Traditional) for potential future action and prioritization.

*Ability to work remotely within the US is a requirement of the role*

Skills and Background You’ll Need

• Strong background in employee benefits (EB) with RFP writing experience

• Superior written and verbal communication skills

• Ability to work well under high-pressure deadlines

• Experience using Qvidian preferred

• EXPERIENCE: 8+ years of direct employee benefits (EB) experience and 3+ years RFP writing

• EDUCATION: Bachelor’s degree in marketing, business or related field preferred

Key Behaviors of a Successful Candidate

• Customer Focus: Solicits ideas and generates solutions for complex customer needs; acts on new ideas, assessing and testing risks.

• Winning Together: Identifies mutual interests and interdependencies of team; communicates within and across teams to break down barriers and achieve goals

• Driving Success: Proactively initiates work that contributes to overall team performance; is quick to make things happen.

Why join The Standard?

We have built an enduring legacy of stability, innovation and financial strength thanks to the contributions of the talented, creative and compassionate people who choose to work at The Standard. To ensure we can attract and retain the best talent, when you join The Standard you can expect:

• A rich benefits package including a 401(k) plan with matching company contributions

• An annual incentive bonus plan

• Generous paid time off

• A supportive and responsive management approach

• Opportunities for career growth and advancement 

• Paid time off to volunteer

• An employee giving program that double matches your donations to eligible nonprofits and schools

• Much more!

#LI-REMOTE

Please note - the salary range for this role is listed below. In addition to salary, our package includes incentive plan participation and comprehensive benefits including medical, dental, vision and retirement benefits, as well as an initial PTO accrual of 164 hours per year. Employees also receive 11 paid holidays and 2 wellness days per year.

• Eligibility to participate in an incentive program is subject to the rules governing the program and plan. Any award depends on various factors, including individual and organizational performance.

• Performance guarantees may be applied to roles with highly incentivized compensation plans for a specified period of time, to support a new hire’s transition into the sales incentive plan.

Salary Range:

$102,500.00 - $150,250.00

Standard Insurance Company, The Standard Life Insurance Company of New York, Standard Retirement Services, Inc., StanCorp Equities, Inc. and StanCorp Investment Advisers, Inc., marketed as The Standard, are Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity employers. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, sex, national origin, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability, or veteran status or any other condition protected by federal, state or local law. The Standard offers a drug and alcohol free work environment where possession, manufacture, transfer, offer, use of or being impaired by an illegal substance while on Standard property, or in other cases which the company believes might affect operations, safety or reputation of the company is prohibited. The Standard requires a criminal background investigation, employment, education and licensing verification as a condition of employment. All employees of The Standard must be bondable.