Health & Benefits Senior Associate

As a Health and Benefits Senior Associate, you will contribute to a wide variety of complex projects involving the design, financing, and ongoing management of the full spectrum of health and benefit programs. You will serve as the lead project manager on select projects, interface with vendors and key clients internally and externally, create client deliverables and ensure quality standards are met. You will have the opportunity to significantly grow your health and benefits business acumen as well as your financial, project management and client relationship skills by working on cutting edge projects alongside leaders in the industry.

The Role

• Materially contribute to core health and benefits projects involving the design and management of group medical, dental, life, disability and time off benefits for large, complex clients including:  
  • Benefit plan analysis, design, cost savings and funding strategies 
  • Vendor procurement, negotiation, and optimization 
• Incorporation of specialized health management, absence and disability management, pharmacy, data analytics and compliance strategies
• Partner with Consultants to deliver superior project management on select clients 
• Perform financial analysis including developing pricing and employee contributions strategies, modeling plan design alternatives and calculating reserves
• Conduct benchmarking studies and other research, provide value added analyses and summaries
• Analyze and compare vendor products, services and contracts
• Design, distribute and evaluate responses to survey and Request For Proposals
• Build relationships internally and collaborate effectively on cross-functional teams
• Review analytical work, mentor and develop junior level staff
• Contribute to the development of new intellectual capital 

The Requirements

• 5+ years’ experience dealing with the financials of health and welfare plans, ideally gained in a benefit consulting/brokerage firm or health underwriting/ actuarial function of an insurance company
• Proven ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously and produce quality deliverables on time and within budget
• Flexibility and proven ability to identify and resolve issues
• Strong client service orientation and ability to respond to all communications effectively and in a timely manner
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Self-starter attitude and ability to work individually and as part of a team
• Strong financial skills; prior experience in health and welfare product pricing, underwriting or valuation work strongly preferred 
• Proven experience creating project plans and successfully leading teams in execution of the project against plan guidelines   
• Demonstrated success in managing client issues and relationships 
• Desire and ability to expand relationships with current clients 
• Polished and well developed oral and written communication skills 
• Self-starter attitude and ability to work individually and as part of a team 
• Flexibility and proven ability to identify and resolve issues 
• Strong analytical, creative and integrative skills 
• Experience in training/mentoring junior staff  
• Excellent Microsoft Office skills, particularly in Excel and PowerPoint  
• Availability to travel on an as needed basis 
• State Life and Health license required within 90 days of joining 
• Bachelor’s degree required, preferably with significant quantitative course work   

EEO, including disability/vets