Vice President, Innovation – Blue Shield of California – Oakland, CA

POSITION SUMMARY:

As a nonprofit health plan, Blue Shield of California is guided by our mission and values, which encourage innovation and focus our efforts on transforming the current healthcare system into one that is worthy of our family and friends. Blue Shield of California’s Innovation team is an in-house team responsible for engaging business leaders across the enterprise in developing and pursuing innovation strategies that will help us further our mission. As change agents, the Innovation team will not only help formulate these strategies but will also engage with cross-functional teams in their pursuit.

Reporting to the Chief Innovation Officer, the VP, Innovation will help identify, analyze, evaluate, and champion strategies and initiatives that will deliver growth and transformation for Blue Shield of California. He/she will independently consult with cross-functional teams of senior leaders to address and resolve key strategic challenges and develop multi-year strategic visions and roadmaps. The VP will be responsible for providing thought leadership and structure for ambiguous business problems and/or new opportunities. He/She will work with junior team members and stakeholders across all levels and functions to translate strategies into specific, results-driving initiatives. This will also include evaluating changes needed to bring the vision to life, including structure, incentives, processes, etc. The VP will also provide support and monitor progress during implementation.

The VP will be responsible for partnering with cross-functional teams. Since this VP will serve as a “change agent,” experience (and comfort) with coaching and influencing teams without formal authority is important for success in this role. The VP will have significant day-to-day exposure to business leaders internally across the organization. As a result, the VP must have strong communication and collaboration skills. Furthermore, the VP will contribute to driving a culture of innovation by exploring trends, innovations, and business opportunities that align with the corporate strategy. He/She will be responsible for creating Executive Committee-level updates to influence decisions about new projects / initiatives and will have significant exposure to business leaders across the organization. Since our Innovation team operates like an internal consulting group, specific assignments will vary over time.

The VP will manage high level responsibilities with his/her peers and manage day-to-day initiatives for his/her direct reports. He /She will be an integral partner to the Vice President of Corporate Development when managing partnerships with large businesses or early-stage companies. The VP will also be responsible for steering committees, owning the adoption and scaling of innovation capabilities, speaking at all-hands meetings with C-suite executives, and implementing a multi-year Blue Shield Innovation Roadmap with peers.

SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Work with Senior-level Executives across functions and channels to develop near and long-term visions and roadmaps.
• Apply human-centered innovation (Design Thinking) and other innovation methods to all initiatives.
• Provide thought leadership on structuring complex, ambiguous business problems and provide fact-based, leading-edge thinking, frameworks and business tools.
• Lead projects and major innovation initiatives with cross-functional stakeholders across levels without direct reporting line for successful design and implementation.
• Partner with analytics teams to design compelling analyses and build business cases to inform strategic tradeoffs and decisions.
• Deliver high-impact presentations for Senior-level Executive audiences to influence action on strategic recommendations. Interface with Executive Leadership Team Members and have the gravitas to drive the conversation as a lead representative of BSCA’s Innovation function.
• Translate strategy into specific business initiatives and develop tools to measure and evaluate them.
• Co-lead process transformation and improvement of core processes across the enterprise.
• Partner with Corporate Development and work to improve the organizations efforts around co-innovation, co-development and strategic partnering to foster and create an environment of innovation, both internally and externally. Design framework using innovation principles and methodology to help the organization learn how to better partner with external and early-stage companies.
• Ability to understand venture capital and investment as well as represent BSCA on various boards when needed/required.
• Through active partnership with Chief Innovation Officer, assist in proactively surfacing the portfolio of strategic innovation activities across the enterprise to ensure investment is balanced across businesses, focus areas, risk and opportunity size. Help support the business leaders with practices, processes, tools and training to ensure successful execution of these initiatives.
• Work with the Chief Innovation Officer and other leaders across the organization to enhance the member experience by surfacing, developing and testing capabilities, tools, models to uncover desirability, viability and feasibility.

Qualifications

QUALIFICATIONS:

The Vice President, Innovation must be a well-rounded, seasoned and strategic leader capable of effecting system-wide change through influence and persuasion.

• BA/BS Degree required, MBA or MA/MS preferred.
• 12 years of relevant work experience in Innovation and/or strategy consulting.
• Proven experience leading or assisting in the transformation of an organization through the incubation and implementation of innovation agendas.
• Experience managing a high-performing team and developing less experienced team members (with or without formal reporting relationship).
• Excellent communication and facilitation skills (oral, written and listening).
• Ability to understand, organize and communicate complex information in an easily understandable format tailored to a variety of audiences.
• Ability to influence key decision-makers to challenge conventional practices and instill an innovation mindset into decision-making processes.
• Change management experience/exposure and inspiring leadership skills to help shift culture, accelerate results, and keep employees motivated and engaged during the process.
• High-energy, passionate, and proven track record of developing and implementing strategies.
• Executes following a “Teams Win” philosophy, fostering a positive, collaborative environment.

Physical Requirements

Office Environment – roles involving part to full time schedule in Office Environment. Based in our physical offices and work from home office/deskwork – Activity level: Sedentary, frequency most of work day.
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