Vice President, Program Operations

Vice President, Program Operations

We are seeking a strategic and execution-focused Vice President of Program Operations to lead our North America Health and Talent Solutions business into the future. This role will focus on driving operational excellence, leading critical transformation initiatives, and building the capabilities needed to support scalable, sustainable growth.

The ideal candidate is a proven leader with deep Health & Benefits and/or Talent Consulting industry experience, experience building and leading teams, exceptional project management discipline, and a strong track record of partnering across business lines to deliver measurable business outcomes.

This is a hybrid role (at least 3 days a week in office) with the flexibility to work both virtually and from our Bannockburn, IL or Chicago, IL offices.

What the day will look like Strategic Leadership & Transformation

• Define and lead a multi year business transformation roadmap for the North America Health and Talent Solutions business
• Translate strategic objectives into clear programs and initiatives that drive business process optimization, technology transformation, and capacity creation.
• Develop and track KPIs to measure the impact of transformation initiatives on efficiency, client outcomes, quality, and profitability.

Team Leadership

• Lead and develop a high performing team of six business operations and transformation professionals.
• Set clear goals, priorities, and development plans for the team, fostering a culture of accountability, innovation, and continuous improvement.
• Provide coaching, direction, and support to ensure the team delivers on complex, cross functional initiatives on time and within scope.

Cross Business Partnership & Collaboration

• Serve as a trusted partner to leaders across multiple business areas including executive leadership, sales and client consulting, and key areas of Aon's parent organization
• Facilitate alignment on priorities, dependencies, and resources needs to ensure that transformation initiatives support broader business strategies.
• Drive collaborative problem solving, ensuring impacted stakeholders are engaged early and often, and that solutions are practical, adoptable, and sustainable.
• Promote a "one-team" mindset, breaking down silos and building shared ownership for change and results across functions and geographies.

Business Process Optimization

• Lead efforts to analyze, redesign, and standardizecritical endtoend business processes to improve quality, speed, scalability, and client experience.
• Implement best practice operating models, governance, and controls to improve consistency and reduce risk.
• Use data and process metrics to identify bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and opportunities for simplification and automation.

Technology Transformation

• Partner closely with Technology/IT and business stakeholders to assess, select, and implementplatforms and tools that enable modern, efficient ways of working.
• Ensure that technology solutions are grounded in real business needs, with strong user adoption and clear change management plans.
• Champion data driven decision making, helping the business better leverage analytics, dashboards, and reporting.
• We are making significant investments in automation and AI-based capabilities

Capacity Creation & Operating Efficiency

• Identify and execute initiatives that free up capacity across the organization by improving workflows, optimizing teams, and enabling automation.
• Build business cases that quantify the impact of transformation initiatives on capacity, cost, and growth.
• Partner with Finance and Aon's Project Management office to realize, track, and sustain benefits over time.

How this opportunity is different

• Modernize and simplify how we work.
• Implement technology and process innovations that scale with our growth.
• Create capacity so our teams can focus more on delivering value to clients and less on administrative friction.
• Ensure our operations and capabilities are aligned with our long term strategy and the evolving needs of our clients

Skills and experience that will lead to success

• 10+ years of experience in the Health & Benefits or Human Capital / Talent industry (required).
• Deep understanding of the professional services operating model, client lifecycle, regulatory and market dynamics, and the realities of frontline teams.
• Proven experience leading business operations, transformation, or strategy execution in a matrixed organizational environment
• Demonstrated success in leading teams, preferably including people managers and senior individual contributors.
• Strong track record of cross functional collaboration, with the ability to influence without authority and align diverse stakeholders around common goals.

Strategic & Analytical Thinking

• Able to connect highlevel strategy to practical initiatives, roadmaps, and execution plans.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to interpret data, identify trends, and drive data informed decisions.

Change Leadership & Communication

• Exceptional communication…