Lead Associate, Product Management - Group Insurance

We are seeking a strategic and execution driven product management leader to serve as Lead Associate, Statutory Disability and Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) Product Management within our Employee Benefits (EB) business. This role will be responsible for the successful design, development, implementation, and maintenance of statutory disability and PFML programs, while ensuring regulatory compliance.

The Lead Associate will oversee the full product lifecycle across active and emerging states and play a critical role in advancing Protective’s Employee Benefits growth and expansion in the PFML market.

Key Responsibilities
•    Lead the end-to-end product lifecycle for Statutory Disability and PFML products, including market entry and expansion, product enhancements, renewals, and ongoing optimization.
•    Ensure timely and accurate implementation of new state programs and legislative changes, translating regulatory requirements into actionable product, operational, and system strategies.
•    Lead the development and execution of product filings, including end-to-end ownership of filing strategy and coordination with Legal and Compliance.
•    Oversee the development, maintenance, and governance of product specifications, supporting tools, and related documentation, aligned with EB methodologies and practices.
•    Drive product design, standardization, and scalability, ensuring consistency across states while maintaining flexibility to meet regulatory requirements.
•    Lead product performance monitoring and market intelligence efforts, including profitability, growth, competitive positioning, and survey-driven insights to benchmark EB against competitors.
•    Partner with internal and external research teams, Marketing, and Sales to inform product positioning, value proposition development, go-to-market strategy, and sales enablement.
•    Partner with Actuarial and Underwriting to support pricing strategy, rate development, forecasting, and loss ratio performance.
•    Lead cross-functional alignment across Legal, Marketing, Claims, Operations, Underwriting, Actuarial, Finance, Technology, and Sales across all stages of the product development process.
•    Drive product governance routines and decision frameworks to enable effective prioritization and execution.
•    Serve as the central product authority and subject matter expert for statutory disability and PFML, ensuring alignment on strategy, regulatory interpretation, risk evaluation, and execution across stakeholders.
•    Oversee operational readiness and execution for product launches and enhancements, including systems, processes, documentation, and cross-functional training.
•    Represent Product, in partnership with Legal and Compliance, in engagement with industry groups and trade associations, as appropriate.
•    Support and lead broader product strategy initiatives as assigned by EB management.

Required Skills and Abilities
•    Strong people skills and proven ability to lead in a highly matrixed, cross-functional environment, influencing senior stakeholders and driving execution.
•    Strategic mindset and strong judgment, with the ability to navigate ambiguity, define clear priorities, and drive decisions through execution; consistently contributes thoughtful continuous improvement perspectives and new ideas.
•    Strong analytical and strategic thinking skills, with the ability to translate complexity into clear decisions and actionable plans.
•    Strong product and project management capabilities, with advanced knowledge of agile methodologies and project management tools.
•    Ability to work autonomously and collaboratively to develop solutions and achieve objectives under limited oversight.
•    Executive-level communication and presentation skills.
•    Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
•    Ability to travel as needed (~10–15%).

Education and Experience
•    10+ years of experience in product management within the employee benefits industry, with expertise in PFML, statutory disability, and multi-state regulatory environments.
•    Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration or related field (MS / MBA preferred).
•    In-depth knowledge of group insurance products.
•    Strong experience with product filings, legislative interpretation, and regulatory compliance.
•    Proven ability to effectively engage and manage external partners, including consultants, research firms, and third-party service providers, in support of product initiatives.

Employee Benefits
We aim to protect our employees' wellbeing through a broad benefits offering. For example, we protect physical wellbeing through health, dental and vision insurance. We protect mental wellbeing through mental health benefits and an employee assistance program. We protect time away from work with a variety of paid time away benefits (e.g., paid time off, paid parental leave, short-term disability, and a cultural observance day). We protect financial wellbeing through contributions to healthcare accounts, a pension plan, and a 401(k) plan with Company matching. All employees are encouraged to protect their overall wellbeing by engaging in ProHealth Rewards, Protective’s platform to improve wellbeing while earning cash rewards.  
Eligibility for certain benefits may vary by position in accordance with the terms of the Company’s benefit plans.
Diversity and Inclusion
At Protective, we are committed to providing an inclusive culture where all employees are able to fully contribute and thrive. Our goal is to grow and develop our people, attract diverse talent and support strong, diverse communities.
We support diversity, equity, and inclusion by working to develop a culture of inclusion and belonging led by leaders who develop potential and embrace all skills and abilities. Our aim is to create an equitable environment for all leaders and employees that will drive performance and impact business strategy. In this way, we can increase overall diversity for leadership roles and pipelines of talent by maturing our hiring practices, robust development opportunities and focus on retention of key talent.

We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer committed to being inclusive and attracting, retaining, and growing the talents of a diverse and inclusive workforce.

#LI-SB1