The successful candidate will have broad-based experience in Marketing, experience working with multiple countries/geographies in relation to developing key sponsorship programs. Key also is strong understanding of business-to-business marketing in employer benefits as well as direct-to-consumer engagement marketing in a highly-regulated industry. Agency business development experience is a plus, coupled with an entrepreneurial mindset to create partnerships, promotions and sponsorships not traditionally seen in the health insurance space. In addition, s/he should have experience in business case development to gain support for new initiatives, as well as ability to establish measurements and metrics to determine program effectiveness.

S/he must be able to operate effectively in a highly matrixed organization and manage a team of professionals at a distance and must be comfortable with creating vision, selling new ideas and gaining financial support from internal partners. This requires identifying, influencing and leveraging others in- and outside of their area to achieve success. The candidate will also be responsible for representing the organization externally in developing new partnerships and executing contracts on behalf of Cigna, requiring excellent negotiation skills, attention to detail and professional presence.

The incumbent is responsible for effective, day-to-day management of team’s activities and longer-term projects. They will work with others within the business area to develop and manage a three-to-five year strategy and should be focused on providing the most value for the organization for its spend and continually find new ways to drive efficiency within existing programs and the courage to make recommendations to improve long-standing practices. S/he also is accountable for understanding regulatory and industry compliance issues in order to provide ideas, program and promotional concepts that Marketing can effectively execute.

The Head of Events, Sponsorship and Promotions Marketing will:

• Develop the vision, strategy and platforms to create a consistent and long-term plan for enterprise global and market-level sponsorship, including a cross-functional committee to gain support and evaluate new sponsorship requests.
• Oversee and ensure effective execution of Cigna's core enterprise sponsorships including Disney, Healthy Kids Challenge, Calhoun Bike Ride and others to be developed at a local level in our business footprint.
• Develop executive-level reports and recommendations on sponsorships programs and events based on effectiveness.
• Support local markets with sponsorship negotiations to extract the most value and ensure effective ways to measure success.
• Lead and enhance Cigna promotions initiatives to engage consumers in new channels, including but not limited to the Mobile Learning Lab (English and bi-lingual English/Spanish).
• Create new programs at a global, local or regional level in partnerships and sponsorships with potential business partners and co-branding opportunities that leverage channels and provide measurable ways for Marketing and Sales to effectively reach and engage its key audiences and build relationships.
• Ensure all activities are tied to an integrated marketing communications plan, partnering with external and internal creative and media agency colleagues, marketing/communications, Brand, Digital, PR, Social and other Marketing and Business functions.
• Work with Sr. Director and lead for hundreds of broker and sales events in the US to provide strategic input to help advance key tenets for the corporation.
• Support Cigna's Investor’s Conferences as needed from message development, content and theme creation, event management and on-site execution.
• Develop a “speakers’ bureau” strategy to promote Cigna as a thought leader at external conferences aligned to our target audiences and serve as part of thought leadership team relative to marketing approaches and share best practices across organization.
• Mentor and develop team with varying functional responsibilities and expertise through effective coaching and guidance, empowering and enabling strong leadership
• Ensure development of tools and processes to track activities and oversee maintenance of dashboards, program evaluations, reports, budget and other departmental functions.

This position is located in Hartford, CT. 

• Bachelor’s degree and 10+ years of applicable work experience in a corporate or agency setting; Master’s degree preferred. Global sponsorship/event/promotion experience required along with strategic evaluation and recommendation abilities.
• Marketing; communications; business; education; consumer package goods, financial services or research experience.
• Strong analytical skills with a strong understanding of metrics and measurement and business case development.
• Ability to identify opportunities for improvement, and influence others in a dynamic matrix environment.
• Effective negotiation and critical decision-making skills, along with the ability to influence others and manage expectations.
• Ability to quickly grasp the specific requirements for, and impacts of, business partnership and sponsorship opportunities.
• Strong relationship management skills: ability to foster collaboration, value other perspectives and gain support/buy-in through excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Ability to create a vision and sell new concepts and ideas to internal and external audiences.
• Excellent people manager, motivator and thought leader; comfortable with and able to influence employees directly and indirectly across the enterprise.
• Effective team leadership experience inclusive of managing individual contributors and managers. Able to define vision, priorities and results across a team with varying functional responsibilities.
• Experience in building out new functional capabilities and developing and growing teams.
• Experience evaluating business needs, developing and successfully implementing marketing communications or other programs/processes that help achieve objectives.
• Results oriented with ability to manage multiple priorities in a systematic way, establish and meet timelines and ensure appropriate metrics and measurements.
• Solid knowledge of Legal and Compliance requirements related to our industry and health care reform both in the US and in our ex-US markets.
• Excellent verbal and written communications skills.
• Agile learner with a thirst for knowledge.
• Bilingual preferred.