Company Description Why Wellmark : We are a mutual insurance company owned by our policy holders across Iowa and South Dakota, and we've built our reputation on over 80 years' worth of trust. We are not motivated by profits. We are motivated by the well-being of our friends, family, and neighbors-our members. If you're passionate about joining an organization working hard to put its members first, to provide best-in-class service, and one that is committed to sustainability and innovation, consider applying today!
Learn more about our unique benefit offerings here.
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Job Description As the Team Leader Sales Operations, you will play a critical role in shaping and executing sales and distribution strategies across multiple market segments, including employer group (B2B), individual (B2C), and Medicare. You'll guide an Agile, cross-functional team to deliver customer-centric solutions that drive business outcomes, while also overseeing the enhancement of sales systems, processes, and analytics. By partnering with product managers, sales leaders, and other internal/external stakeholders, you'll ensure alignment with go-to-market plans, regulatory requirements, and organizational goals.
We are seeking a collaborative, results-driven leader who thrives in dynamic environments and is motivated by solving complex challenges. The ideal candidate brings experience in driving initiatives, leading complex implementations, change management, and sales operations within a competitive, regulated industry. Strong analytical skills are essential, with the ability to translate data into strategic insights that optimize growth, retention, and compliance. Equally important are leadership qualities: coaching, developing, and empowering team members to grow their capabilities while maintaining a strong customer-centric mindset and commitment to high-quality delivery.
Qualifications Required: - Bachelor's degree or direct and applicable work experience.
- 5+ years of operational work experience that reflects successful management of complex/integrated business systems, applications, or platforms and operational business processes, driving a team to deliver results, and an understanding of the Agile/Product delivery model.
- Working knowledge of related sales strategies/tactics, product teams, segments, etc. Balances subject matter expertise and business acumen with strong understanding of customers' needs.
- Experience delivering products/programs and skilled at ensuring quality, time and stakeholder expectations are met while maintaining alignment with strategy.
- Leadership skills typically gained through a combination of product/project or informal leadership that demonstrates knowledge of work processes, services, and leadership competencies. Ability to effectively coach and mentor others and lead with a team-centric approach to work through change.
- Strong analytical and critical thinking skills combined with a creative, continuous improvement-focused approach. Proactively recommends improvements to systems/processes.
- Demonstrated ability to understand complex systems and integrations, analyze issues, determine root cause, and introduce and implement solutions.
- Establishes clear goals/expectations, develops plans, aligns resources, and monitors progress.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills. Demonstrated ability to effectively present information and facilitate discussions with stakeholders, including senior or executive leaders.
- Strong consulting and relationship management skills. Effectively influences others to break down barriers, resolve conflict, and foster collaboration.
- Strong critical thinking, problem solving, and analytical skills with the ability to use data to inform decisions and make concise, independent, and defensible recommendations.
- Supports team members with creative problem solving and identifying/implementing process improvements.
- Self-starter who works well under pressure while remaining adaptable, open to feedback, and focused during unanticipated challenges. Effective at anticipating needs and taking action.
- Proficient with Microsoft Office (e.g. Word, Excel, Outlook) and other relevant web-based applications (e.g. Sales Frontier-CRM, BlueSouce, etc.). Strong technical aptitude to learn new systems and applications quickly.
- Ability to travel if needed (up to 5%).
Preferred: - Bachelor's degree.
- Knowledge of Wellmark's sales strategies/tactics, product distribution, etc. is a plus.
Additional Information a. Provide leadership and oversight for a team who manages day-to-day operations of sales systems and applications (e.g. Sales Frontier-CRM, vendor extract process, enrollment platform etc.). Serves as a point of escalation for the team and ensures timely resolution of issues with minimal disruption to business processes.
b. Provide day-to-day leadership of financial and human resources, primarily focusing on employee and leader coaching, development, performance improvement, coordination and budgeting for multiple staff, and department(s) specific functions/services.
c. Support the development and execution of data analysis and insights that lead to distribution channel effectiveness. Analyzes sales and distribution performance across channels and segments, developing and refining KPIs to assess effectiveness; synthesizes data and market intelligence to recommend strategic adjustments that optimize growth, retention, and compliance within a complex, competitive insurance environment.
d. Foster operational excellence by cultivating strong business and technology partnerships to collaboratively identify and address end-user needs. Drive alignment across teams to ensure solutions are purposeful, scalable, and continuously optimized to support strategic objectives.
e. Provide oversight to ensure business requirements are identified, aligned to, documented as user stories, and refined so those requirements can be handed off to a Product Owner (PO) to prioritize and manage.
f. Monitor each system and/or application release by understanding each release, ensuring the development and execution of all user acceptance testing (UAT) and business regression testing is documented, occurs timely, and accounts for all scenarios.
g. Oversees the design, implementation, and continuous improvement of dashboards and performance analytics to measure product team effectiveness and return on investment. Monitor and analyze production support metrics to assess incoming requests versus resolution rates. Evaluate staffing levels, system workflows, and issue trends to optimize support efficiency and value delivery for sales teams. Provide strategic insights to sales leadership to enhance distribution effectiveness and guide decision-making.
h. Leads the development and ongoing refinement of payment strategy for critical selling channels, including general agency, Retail agency, and agents. Ensures alignment of incentive structures with enterprise sales goals, regulatory compliance, and market competitiveness. Collaborates with Finance, Compliance, Legal, segment performance, and Distribution leadership to evaluate compensation models that drive acquisition, retention, and profitability across commercial, Medicare, and individual markets.
i. Leads and champions change management initiatives across the sales organization within the highly regulated health insurance landscape; supports defining future-state objectives, aligns cross-functional stakeholders, and drives adoption of new processes and tools to enhance agility and operational efficiency.
j. Other duties as assigned.
This job requires a non-compete agreement. An Equal Opportunity Employer The policy of Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield is to recruit, hire, train and promote individuals in all job classifications without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, veteran status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or any other characteristic protected by law.
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