VP Strategy & Innovation

We are driven to do more. More for our customers and the financial professionals who offer our products. If you are driven to do more and love the challenge of pursuing more, Athene is your kind of company. You will find we offer more than the basics to create an inclusive and dynamic work environment at our various locations.

Purpose:

We are on a mission to redefine retirement. Working at the intersection of Apollo’s New Markets business and Athene’s Strategy & Innovation team, we’re building the next generation of retirement income and buffered accumulation solutions for RIAs, hybrid advisors, and independent wealth platforms. This Vice President will lead a first-of-its-kind effort: integrating annuities and insurance-based strategies directly into model portfolios—treating guaranteed income and principal protection as core portfolio features, not sidecar add-ons. You’ll drive market discovery, product design, and platform integration across Apollo and Athene’s capabilities, helping bridge the gap between traditional investment portfolios and the insurance-based tools that can enhance them. You’ll also work closely with teams embedding private assets into managed accounts to ensure a seamless, next-generation portfolio experience that includes income guarantees, downside protection, and differentiated return sources.

Accountabilities:

What You’ll Do:

Market & Opportunity Development

• Own the strategy to bring retirement income and buffered annuity solutions into the RIA and independent advisor market—through models, managed accounts, and advisor platforms
• Identify advisor and allocator pain points around risk management, income generation, and portfolio resilience
• Segment advisor archetypes and define the integration pathways for annuities within model portfolios, UMA platforms, and retirement frameworks

Product Strategy & Design

• Partner with Athene’s product team to define annuity structures that are liquid, transparent, and portfolio-friendly—enabling integration into models as a fixed income alternative or outcome-based building block
• Work with Apollo’s product team to pair annuity solutions with private market strategies to enhance yield, income certainty, or portfolio longevity
• Establish selection criteria, modeling frameworks, and illustrative use cases for portfolio-ready annuities—e.g., buffered ETFs vs. RILAs vs. guaranteed income riders

Model Portfolio Innovation

• Lead the design of model portfolios that include annuities as a core or satellite allocation—aligned to risk/return objectives, retirement needs, and fiduciary standards
• Define allocation logic, performance benchmarking, and reporting frameworks that support adoption in managed accounts
• Collaborate with internal teams or external RIAs to pilot these models in a scalable, advisor-centric way

Piloting & GTM Execution

• Build business cases for innovation, secure investment, and run pilots across RIA aggregators and advisory platforms
• Lead platform integration: working across Envestnet, Orion, eMoney, or TAMP ecosystems to embed annuity and hybrid models into planning, billing, and reporting workflows
• Partner with marketing and distribution to develop advisor engagement strategies, positioning, and education around portfolio-integrated annuities

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Serve as a bridge across Apollo and Athene functions—aligning product, tech, legal, operations, and distribution to bring new categories of retirement solutions to market
• Ensure strategic coherence with Apollo’s broader wealth initiatives, including the expansion of private markets access via managed accounts

Innovation & Thought Leadership

• Pioneer a new category of portfolio construction that blends public, private, and insurance-based assets to deliver outcomes like downside protection and guaranteed income
• Represent Apollo and Athene in advisor forums, platform discussions, and internal committees as the expert on income innovation and annuity integration

Qualifications and Experience:

What You Bring:

• 8+ years of experience in investment strategy, product development, or platform integration within: - RIA or independent wealth channels - Advisory-friendly annuity or structured insurance solutions - Wealthtech, SMA/UMA platforms, or private asset access in advisor channels
• Hands-on experience with model portfolios, asset allocation frameworks, and outcome-based investment design
• Strong grasp of how annuities can serve as a fixed income alternative, risk buffer, or income engine within portfolios
• Proven ability to translate investment innovation into real-world advisor adoption—across planning, compliance, and tech platforms
• Strategy toolkit: sharp analytical skills, structured problem-solving, and ability to synthesize across stakeholders
• Strategic consulting background (e.g., McKinsey, Bain, BCG) or equivalent industry leadership experience preferred

Why This Role Matters:

This is a rare opportunity to help build the next generation of portfolio construction—one where retirement solutions combine market exposure, private assets, and guarantees in ways aligned with fiduciary advisors and their clients. You’ll be shaping a new architecture for retirement outcomes—powered by Apollo and Athene’s capabilities and delivered through the advisor platforms where retirement is being redefined.

$215,040.00 - $322,560.00 USD Annual

Annual Salary for this role is market competitive.  Actual salary for all roles will be based upon geographic location, work experience, education, licensure requirements and/or skill level and will be finalized at the time of offer.  Depending on the role, a discretionary bonus plan or variable sales incentive may be included.

Drive. Discipline. Confidence. Focus. Commitment.  Learn more about working at Athene.

Athene is a Military Friendly Employer!  Learn more about how we support our Veterans.

Athene is committed to inclusion and is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer.  We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, veteran status or any other status protected by federal, state or local law.