Director, Strategic Business Design

We’re determined to make a difference and are proud to be an insurance company that goes well beyond coverages and policies. Working here means having every opportunity to achieve your goals – and to help others accomplish theirs, too. Join our team as we help shape the future.          

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Discovery & Experience Vision

Leads user-led discovery and experience definition, translating future-state journeys into actionable experience architecture that informs epics and MVP boundaries and keeps agile delivery aligned to user and business value, without backlog ownership. Responsibilities include:

• Defining North Star journeys and future-state experience models that guide transformation efforts

• Establishing experience principles that inform decision-making

• Leading user, stakeholder, and operational discovery to uncover root problems and opportunities — including user research, interviews, observations, journey analysis, and data review to understand real behaviors, pain points, and unmet needs

• Synthesizing research and insights into clear problem statements, opportunity areas, and experience priorities; translating insights into North Star experience direction

• Reframing strategic challenges into clear, outcome-driven problem statements grounded in user insight and evidence

• Shaping strategic choices, influencing priorities, and unblocking complex decisions before work enters delivery at epic and feature levels

• Institutionalizing discovery as a repeatable, core capability across value streams​

Service Design & Workflow Architecture

Designs end-to-end services and workflows that align user needs and operational processes, enabling technology, AI, and digital transformations. Responsibilities include:

• Creating journey maps and service blueprints that connect front-stage experience with back-stage operations systems and data

• Identifying friction points, inefficiencies, and automation opportunities across the organization

• Designing future-state workflows that enable digital capabilities, AI, and scalable operations

• Mapping impacted business capabilities and dependencies across teams, value streams, and platforms

• Supporting agile product teams in defining MVPs, sequencing work, and breaking initiatives into incremental, value-focused delivery slices, without owning backlogs — agile product teams will own backlogs and MVPs

• Serving as a leader coach to help create maturity across agile products in discovery and user design principles; creating playbooks, standards, and structures to enable an organization of design thinkers​

Strategy to Delivery Translation

Enables the organization to convert strategy and experience vision into clear, actionable delivery direction. Responsibilities include:

• Decomposing future-state journeys into logical value slices that inform epics and MVP boundaries

• Partnering with product and technology leaders to enable the breakdown and sequencing of delivery roadmaps

• Ensuring capabilities and initiatives stay anchored to intended outcomes and user value; enabling iterative value realization

• Surfacing critical business needs, constraints, and dependencies early to inform solution direction and designs​

Value Stream Alignment & Value Enablement

Creates a shared understanding across business, product, operations, and technology while preparing the organization for change. Responsibilities include:

• Facilitating alignment across value streams on problems, priorities, and transformation direction

• Bringing early clarity to organizational, operational, and technology impacts early in the design process — not after delivery

• Highlighting role, workflow, and behavior shifts to inform change planning and enable smooth adoption

• Reinforcing an outcome-first mindset; helping teams define measurable goals and key results tied to delivered value

• Enabling smoother implementation by partnering with change, agile product, and delivery teams

• Strengthening discovery, design thinking, and problem framing practices across all teams​​

Qualifications

Required qualifications include:

• 7+ years of experience in business architecture, service design, or product strategy & discovery

• Expertise in design thinking, early-stage discovery, and solution shaping for complex, cross-functional initiatives

• Demonstrated systems-thinking mindset with experience designing end-to-end services and workflows across people, processes, data, and technology

• Experience in large, matrixed, or regulated organizations navigating competing priorities and interdependencies

• Working knowledge of data, analytics, and AI-enabled solutions

• Experience shaping executive-level decisions, including presentation of options, trade-offs, and recommendations

• Proven ability to work across multiple product lines and value streams

• Strong knowledge of agile and lean methodologies with experience enabling agile teams

• Strong communication, storytelling, and influencing skills with a proven ability to translate complexity into clarity

• Bachelor's degree required; advanced degree or certifications preferred.

• Candidates should be prepared to discuss case studies or work examples illustrating early-stage discovery, service or workflow design artifacts. This role does not require detailed UI or visual design portfolios.

• Able and willing to travel up to ~10% of the time.

Compensation

The listed annualized base pay range is primarily based on analysis of similar positions in the external market. Actual base pay could vary and may be above or below the listed range based on factors including but not limited to performance, proficiency and demonstration of competencies required for the role. The base pay is just one component of The Hartford’s total compensation package for employees. Other rewards may include short-term or annual bonuses, long-term incentives, and on-the-spot recognition. The annualized base pay range for this role is:

Equal Opportunity Employer/Sex/Race/Color/Veterans/Disability/Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity or Expression/Religion/Age

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