Embark

Director, Life & Disability Services Excellence

Embark$120K — $170K *
Healthcare
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • University degree in healthcare, business, or related field.
  • Minimum of 10 years in group insurance and disability case management, with progressive management experience.
  • Proven success in coaching and developing senior managers.
  • Strong relationship-building skills with internal and external stakeholders.
  • Strong business and financial acumen.
  • Knowledge of Life & Critical Illness benefit lines and litigation processes.
  • Excellent communication and negotiation skills; bilingualism in English and French is an asset.

Responsibilities

  • Lead teams in Life and Critical Illness (CI) to enhance decision quality and disability management.
  • Develop and execute training strategies for embedding quality standards into daily workflows.
  • Oversee initiatives aimed at improving claimant experience throughout the claim process.
  • Design and maintain Curated Care pathways and disability management frameworks.
  • Establish governance models to ensure external provider alignment with quality standards.
  • Lead the development of standards ensuring quality and regulatory alignment.
  • Drive technology and data initiatives to enhance decision-making processes.

Benefits

  • Comprehensive benefits plan including health and dental coverage, fully employer-paid from day one.
  • Flexible work environment promoting work-life balance.
  • Robust professional development opportunities for career growth.
  • Collaborative culture valuing employee contributions and expertise.
  • Opportunity to shape product strategy contributing to meaningful innovation.
Full Job Description

Position Type:

Permanent

Reporting to the Vice President, Life & Disability, the Director, Life & Disability Services Excellence is accountable for defining and maintaining quality standards, Curated Care pathways, and quality frameworks that guide day-to-day decision making across Life & Disability.

This role establishes disability management and quality guardrails that enable operational teams to act early, act consistently, and move claims forward with confidence, balancing claimant outcomes, defensibility, and financial performance across STD, LTD, Life, CI, Quality, and Appeals. The Director serves as the enterprise-wide disability management and quality resource for complex, high-risk claims, including litigation and appeals, providing expert guidance and escalation support to ensure sound, defensible decisions.

The Director owns the design and evolution of Curated Care pathways, provider network architecture, and quality measures, ensuring they are practical, scalable, and fully embedded in operations. In close partnership with Operations and Technology, the Director leverages data, AI, and technology to anticipate emerging trends, support early intervention, improve recovery outcomes, and translate standards into effective training and capability development across teams.

Your responsibilities:

People Leadership

  • Provide leadership and direction to teams responsible for Life and Critical Illness (CI), medical consultants and training teams to ensure consistent disability management judgment, strong decision quality, and sustained capability development.

Training and Program Oversight

  • Own the training strategy and execution for Life & Disability Services Excellence, ensuring disability management standards, Curated Care pathways, and quality expectations are embedded into day-to-day practice.

  • Oversee the design, delivery, and governance of training programs supporting claims, appeals, and litigation, aligned with best practices and regulatory expectations.

  • Identify, plan, and implement initiatives that improve quality and enhance claimant experience across the claim journey.

  • Oversee risk mitigation strategies and provide escalation direction for complex, high-risk, or sensitive claims.

Care path design

  • Design and maintain Curated Care pathways, disability management frameworks, and standards that define how Disability care is delivered.

  • Ensure pathways are fully enabled through training, guidance, and decision support, not just documentation.

  • Conduct environmental scans and integrate emerging disability management, regulatory, and industry trends into both pathway evolution and training strategy.

Vendorand Provider ecosystem

  • Establish governance models that ensure external providers actively support Medavies Curated Care pathways, disability management standards, performance expectations, and metrics.

  • Drive accountability, consistency, and quality across the provider ecosystem to support strong claimant outcomes and accessibility to care.

Governance and Quality

  • Leadthe development of standards that ensure quality, defensibility, and alignment with regulatory expectations.

  • Enableexecution by translating standards into training, tools, and change initiatives that drive consistent adoption.

  • Conduct audits and leverage insights to enhance training and operations practices.

Technology, Data & AI Enablement

  • Accountable for the disability management and quality business ownership of core platforms (including FINEOS and other supporting technologies), ensuring they enable Curated Care pathways, quality standards, and defensible decision making.

  • Define and prioritize disability management, quality, andAI enabledrequirements for FINEOS and related systems in partnership with Technology, Data, and Operations teams.

  • Ensure technology solutions support defensible, consistent, andevidence based, and defensible disability decisions across Life and Disability services.

  • Build organizational capability and confidence in the use of technology and AI by promotingchange adoption, and responsible innovation practices.

  • Identifyand enable opportunities where technology and AI can enhance quality, consistency, efficiency, and scalability whilemaintainingstrong governance and defensibility.

Driving execution and leading change

  • Understand the organizations core business operations and strategic plans to translate priorities into action plans for Life and Disability Services through innovative problem-solving solutions.

  • Drive strategic change in alignment with organizational objectives.

  • Define new approaches to achieve results by improving or transforming culture, systems, products, or services, and help others overcome resistance to change.

What You Bring

  • University degree in healthcare, business, or a related field.

  • A minimum of 10 years of related experience in group insurance, specifically within disability case management with progressive management experience.

  • A strong track record of coaching and developing senior managers and other leaders at varying levels.

  • Ability to build effective relationships with both internal and external stakeholders and thrive in a fast-paced environment where you can prove your exceptional organization and prioritization capabilities.

  • Strong business and financial acumen.

  • Knowledge of Life & Critical Illness benefit lines.

  • Knowledge in the area of litigation.

  • Ability to nurture and develop professional teams and inspire, motivate and engage staff to provide consistent high levels of quality service.

  • Excellent interpersonal, communication, presentation and negotiation skills.

  • Bilingualism (English/French) is a strong asset.

Leadership Capabilities

As the Director, Life & Disability Services Excellence, you will demonstrate leadership aligned with Medavies values of Caring, Accountable, Responsive, Innovative and Community-minded and will bring the following capabilities:

  • Strategic Planning: Identify priorities, think ahead, and making informed decisions that support long9-term goals.

  • Building Partnerships: Develop strong relationships across teams and with partners to achieve shared results.

  • Customer Focus: Make decisions that prioritize members and clients needs.

  • Execution: Focus teams on key priorities, measuring progress, and ensuring accountability for outcomes.

Whats in It for You

A purpose-driven organization dedicated to improving the well-being of Canadians.

A comprehensive benefits plan, including health and dental coverage that is 100% employer paid from day one, plus wellness benefits, health resources, and fitness center discounts.

A flexible work environment that supports work 6life balance and empowers employees to thrive.

Robust professional development opportunities, including leadership programs, ongoing learning, and career growth pathways.

A collaborative and inclusive culture where your expertise is valued, your voice matters, and your contributions help shape our product strategy.

The opportunity to shape our product strategy and digital ecosystem across Canada, contributing to meaningful innovation and measurable business outcomes.

Salary Range: $120,335.12-$170,000

This posting is for an existing vacancy within our organization / Ce poste est actuellement vacant au sein de notre organisation.

The Base Pay range may vary depending on the successful candidate or other relevant job-related factors such as knowledge, skills, qualifications, experience and education/training. In addition to Base Pay, eligible Medavie employees may participate in various performance-based incentive programs. Payments under these programs are discretionary and subject to both individual and organizational results.  

About Embark

Embark is a self-driving truck company that develops autonomous technology for long-haul trucking. The company was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. Embark's technology is designed to improve safety and efficiency in the trucking industry by reducing the number of accidents caused by human error and increasing the speed and reliability of deliveries. The company has partnerships with major trucking companies and has completed numerous successful test runs of its autonomous trucks.
Learn more about Embark
Size
200 employees
Market Cap
$50 million
Industry
Founded
2011
NASDAQ

Similar Jobs

More Healthcare Jobs

Find similar Director, Life & Disability Services Excellence jobs: