Head of Data and Analytics for Pet Insurance

Description and Requirements
MetLife
Recognized on Fortune magazine's list of the 2024 "World's Most Admired Companies", Fortune World's 25 Best Workplaces™ for 2024, as well as the 2024 Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For ®, MetLife , through its subsidiaries and affiliates, is one of the world's leading financial services companies; providing insurance, annuities, employee benefits and asset management to individual and institutional customers.
With operations in more than 40 markets, we hold leading positions in the United States, Latin America, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. With over 150 years of disciplined risk-management experience, MetLife provides deep expertise in skillfully navigating markets with the goal of delivering strong, risk-adjusted returns. The firm's client-centric culture enables a singular focus on creating tailored solutions designed to help their clients meet their unique objectives - both today and moving forward in future.
MetLife is one of the largest institutional investors in the U.S. with $609.3 billion of total assets under management as of September 30, 2024. The company is ranked #60 on the Fortune 500 list for 2024. MetLife is committed to building a purpose-driven and inclusive culture that energizes their people. The company's employees work every day to help build a more confident future for people around the world.
The Team
The position sits within the newly consolidated Data and Analytics (D&A) organization supporting the U.S. Business of MetLife. U.S. D&A assists all business lines of MetLife's U.S. business (about 2/3 of MetLife Global by earnings) with everything related to data, analytics and data science, from data infrastructure, data governance, data engineering, data modeling, data analysis to business intelligence, data science and AI.
The Role
MetLife is seeking an experienced VP of Data and Analytics for the Pet product within its Group Benefits business. Pet insurance is the fastest growing business within MetLife, with quickly expanding consumer demand. You can be part of the team that plans to create the largest Pet insurer in the country. Reporting directly to Glenn Hofmann, the U.S. Data Officer, this position will oversee all D&A efforts for this product line, and all D&A personnel working on this portfolio. The role spans all relevant D&A functions, from data infrastructure design, data engineering/modeling/analysis all the way to data science and daily support for all deliverables. The person in this role will be on the extended leadership team for the Pet business.
Key Responsibilities

• Executive leadership: Serve as a vital member of the extended Pet insurance leadership team, participating in strategic planning and goal setting. Build strategic partnerships with key business, Technology and other leaders.
• Team Development & Cultural Transformation: Lead the cultural shift from traditional technology-focused data team to a business-outcome-driven mindset. Develop training programs for pet domain knowledge and communication skills. Redesign performance metrics to emphasize business impact and stakeholder satisfaction.
• Initiative delivery: Co-develop and execute the data and analytics roadmap for Pet, aligned with business objectives and enterprise data strategy.
• Claims automation: Given the exponential growth of the Pet business, claims cost management is essential. Enhance auto-adjudication models to substantially increase auto-adjudication rates, as well as processing speed, while maintaining accuracy.
• Data hub and reporting modernization: Continue building a new data hub for all pet data.
• Dashboards and reporting: Enhance several operational dashboards (loss ratio, churn, sales and marketing, etc.) Rationalize and migrate about 100 production reports to new data infrastructure.
• Data Science: Ideate, design and execute various data science solutions that provide meaningful business outcomes, in collaboration with major stakeholders. For Pet, this means heavy use of OCR, NLP and LLMs, and building a brand-new ontology for animal health claims.
• Governance and data expertise: Establish governance frameworks for data modeling, metadata, data quality and related regulatory compliance. Create D&A-side data owners and data stewards who function as data community leaders and facilitators for pet-related data domains to tackle highly complex and routine data decisions.
• Global team and resource management: Fully integrate a global team spanning by balancing U.S. employees, India-based employees (both in multiple locations) and consulting resources. Drive consistent culture and performance standards to maximize effectiveness. Design career development paths for high-potential talent.
• Proactive D&A leadership: Proactively identify and propose data-driven solutions to business challenges, leading analytics organization beyond traditional service provider role to become strategic innovation partner driving business transformation.

Required Qualifications

• Master's degree in Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, or related quantitative field. B.S. degree with continuing education could be equivalent.
• 15+ years of progressive experience in data analytics leadership
• 10+ years of pet, medical or P&C insurance experience, or other consumer financial services experience with similar complexity.
• Experience with employee benefits plans is a plus.
• Demonstrated expertise in advanced analytics, statistical modeling, and data science, including classical, modern (ML/non-parametric) and AI methodologies. Proficiency in statistical programming languages (Python, R).
• Expertise with OCR, various NLP techniques, LLMs and building ontologies is required.
• Expertise in data engineering, data governance and Data/ML Ops and related software and procedures. Proficiency in SQL.
• Expertise in Business Intelligence, including the creation and maintenance of custom and standard reporting packages. Proficiency in some related software packages (Tableau, PowerBI, etc.)
• Experience with Hadoop and MS Azure is a plus.
• Proven track record of leading analytics teams and delivering business value via creative data solutions while interacting with many stakeholders in a complex organization.
• Excellence in stakeholder management and executive communication
• Understanding of legacy insurance platforms and modernization initiatives

Location
This position can be based at our Cary, NC office, our Bridgewater, NJ office, or our corporate headquarters in NYC. We are currently on hybrid schedule with 3 days per week in office.
Travel Requirements
10 - 20% required for stakeholder meetings, office location visits and industry conferences.
Benefits We Offer
Our U.S. benefits address holistic well-being with programs for physical and mental health, financial wellness, and support for families. We offer a comprehensive health plan that includes medical/prescription drug and vision, dental insurance, and no-cost short- and long-term disability. We also provide company-paid life insurance and legal services, a retirement pension funded entirely by MetLife and 401(k) with employer matching, group discounts on voluntary insurance products including auto and home, pet, critical illness, hospital indemnity, and accident insurance, as well as Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and digital mental health programs, parental leave, volunteer time off, tuition assistance and much more!
About MetLife
Recognized on Fortune magazine's list of the 2024 "World's Most Admired Companies", Fortune World's 25 Best Workplaces™ for 2024, as well as the 2025 Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For ®, MetLife , through its subsidiaries and affiliates, is one of the world's leading financial services companies; providing insurance, annuities, employee benefits and asset management to individual and institutional customers. With operations in more than 40 markets, we hold leading positions in the United States, Latin America, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.
Our purpose is simple - to help our colleagues, customers, communities, and the world at large create a more confident future. United by purpose and guided by empathy, we're inspired to transform the next century in financial services. At MetLife, it's #AllTogetherPossible . Join us!
MetLife is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All employment decisions are made without regards to race, color, national origin, religion, creed, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, marital or domestic/civil partnership status, genetic information, citizenship status (although applicants and employees must be legally authorized to work in the United States), uniformed service member or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law ("protected characteristics").
If you need an accommodation due to a disability, please email us at [email protected]. This information will be held in confidence and used only to determine an appropriate accommodation for the application process.
MetLife maintains a drug-free workplace.
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