Head of Card Strategy and Operations

Optum is a global organization that delivers care, aided by technology to help millions of people live healthier lives. The work you do with our team will directly improve health outcomes by connecting people with the care, pharmacy benefits, data and resources they need to feel their best. Here, you will find a culture guided by diversity and inclusion, talented peers, comprehensive benefits and career development opportunities. Come make an impact on the communities we serve as you help us advance health equity on a global scale. Join us to start Caring. Connecting. Growing together.

Optum Financial is helping to transform health care by delivering end-to-end integrated financing and payment solutions embedded within the health care ecosystem, enabling seamless and frictionless health payments and financial experiences.

The Head of Card Strategy & Operations role will develop strategies and plans to deliver and manage card and collateral across Optum Financial. The Head of Card Strategy will analyze economic considerations, evaluate vendors, manage experiences, develop forecasts, estimate costs, and manage program/project budgets as well as lead technical product teams.

Solutran's payment form factor will evolve to resemble current payment cards. The future card iteration will include tap-to-pay and remove the barcode. Unlocking this feature set will allow for Apple and Google Wallet integration and support a digital first model. The future card requires retailer projects to enable EMV (chip) and NFC (tap-to-pay).

The ideal candidate will have proven experience with payment technologies such as EMV, NFC, payment terminals, encryption, and payment network integration. They will be an industry leader who defines, translates, and executes strategies or functional/operational objectives for Optum Financial.

You'll enjoy the flexibility to work remotely * from anywhere within the U.S. as you take on some tough challenges.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Lead a team of highly talented and motivated Product Managers and Product Owners to build a best-in-class end to end user experience
• Develop next generation solutions for the card, collateral, and financial services experience
• Define and execute strategies that impact customer and consumer markets; including but not limited to physical and digital strategies, sourcing of materials, production capacity, and day-to-day operations across card and collateral
• Leverage data to inform strategies; analyze trends and provide insight to leaders to help influence business strategies
• Establish and/or implement internal and/or external service level agreements to ensure the ability to monitor and measure performance (e.g., turnaround time; quality; effectiveness)
• Review, create, and/or maintain workflows to ensure they are up-to-date and operationally efficient and continuously improve the business
• Lead a complex program that spans multiple businesses and vendors while influencing multiple senior level leaders in a matrixed organization
• Develop and champion a product vision and roadmap including new functionality that drives a best-in-class payment experience and aligns with the business strategy
• Ensure the product roadmap delivers great business value while continually improving the omni-channel consumer experience
• Instill processes to keep roadmap highly visible and accessible to all stakeholders
• Make product decisions based on data, metrics and most importantly, the various consumers involved to create new experiences that delight
• Collaborate with talented engineering, technology, and design teams to deliver high velocity features using agile methodologies
• Partner with the P&L leadership, vendors, and Optum Technology to define and deliver solutions
• Act as a liaison between business partners and the leadership team to enable execution of critical priorities and problem solving
• Identify and outline key functionality required across workstreams for a successful implementation of EMV, NFC, and other payment technologies
• Become the subject matter expert for Solutran payment technologies
• Track and manage issues, risks, assumptions, action items, and decisions through to resolution
• Work with minimal direction on complex, technical initiatives
• Establish and maintain solid, collaborative working relationships with internal and external stakeholders

You'll be rewarded and recognized for your performance in an environment that will challenge you and give you clear direction on what it takes to succeed in your role as well as provide development for other roles you may be interested in.

Required Qualifications:

• 8+ years of experience with full product lifecycle management experience including strategy, design, development, management
• 8+ years as a product owner, including experience in defining, owning, and managing product design and roadmap
• 8+ years of senior leadership experience
• 8+ years of combined experience in progressively larger operations within and across businesses
• 4+ years of experience identifying, contracting, managing and negotiating with external vendors
• 4+ years of experience in manufacturing and / or industrial engineering & design
• 3+ years of technical experience with Payment Card Chip EMV technology, Near Field Communications (NFC), payment terminals, or payment networks
• 3+ years of experience in fraud risk detection and mitigation
• 3+ years of experience in settlement reconciliation and pursuant investigation
• 3+ years of managing 3rd party API integrations ie: AML/Fraud monitoring, account verification, IDV, and KYC
• 3+ years of experience with updates and expansion to existing API capabilities, liasing between clients and internal technical teams to cater to client needs while maintaining scalability

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience using data analysis tools (e.g., A|B test software, Tableau) and/or scripting languages (e.g., SQL, Python) to inform product decisions
• Experience implementing Apple and Samsung Wallets
• Experience implementing card program controls and configurations according to client specifications
• Experience in technical stack, platform architecture, and software integration design, and APIs
• Debit / credit card and collateral operations leadership experience
• Proficiency and experience developing and optimizing Structured Query Language (SQL) to analyze and query data
• Thorough understanding of card networks, payment service providers, BIN's, Payment card types (debit, credit, prepaid, etc.), merchant partners, and alternative payment methods
• Excellent Microsoft Office skills (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
• Leadership position in Fintech and/or Financial Services industries
• Demonstrated success defining and launching products in an Agile environment

*All employees working remotely will be required to adhere to UnitedHealth Group's Telecommuter Policy

California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, or Washington Residents Only: The salary range for this role is $122,100 to $234,700 annually. Pay is based on several factors including but not limited to local labor markets, education, work experience, certifications, etc. UnitedHealth Group complies with all minimum wage laws as applicable. In addition to your salary, UnitedHealth Group offers benefits such as, a comprehensive benefits package, incentive and recognition programs, equity stock purchase and 401k contribution (all benefits are subject to eligibility requirements). No matter where or when you begin a career with UnitedHealth Group, you'll find a far-reaching choice of benefits and incentives.

Application Deadline: This will be posted for a minimum of 2 business days or until a sufficient candidate pool has been collected. Job posting may come down early due to volume of applicants.

At UnitedHealth Group, our mission is to help people live healthier lives and make the health system work better for everyone. We believe everyone-of every race, gender, sexuality, age, location and income-deserves the opportunity to live their healthiest life. Today, however, there are still far too many barriers to good health which are disproportionately experienced by people of color, historically marginalized groups and those with lower incomes. We are committed to mitigating our impact on the environment and enabling and delivering equitable care that addresses health disparities and improves health outcomes - an enterprise priority reflected in our mission.

Diversity creates a healthier atmosphere: UnitedHealth Group is an Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action employers and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law.

UnitedHealth Group is a drug-free workplace. Candidates are required to pass a drug test before beginning employment