Principal Associate, Health & Wellness (H&W) Benefits

Principal Associate, Health & Wellness (H&W) Benefits Are you passionate about shaping a world-class employee experience? We are looking for a Principal Associate, H&W Benefits to drive the delivery, administration, and continuous evolution of our comprehensive Health & Wellness programs. In this high-impact role, you will serve as the operational anchor for an exciting portfolio of vendors—spanning on-site clinics and pharmacies, dental, vision, FSA/HSA, life insurance, LTD, AD&PL, mental health, MSK, and executive physicals. You’ll tackle complex challenges, champion initiatives, and lead RFP processes, all while enjoying the autonomy to drive meaningful work forward in close collaboration with talented internal and external partners. Join us and help make a tangible, positive difference in our organization! The ideal candidate has a passion for benefits and helping associates have an exceptional experience with Capital One’s benefits. They are strategic, compliance-minded, and excel at translating complex legal, regulatory, and policy requirements into well-managed operational processes in a matrixed enterprise to uphold an exceptional standard of audit readiness and risk mitigation. Key Responsibilities 1. Vendor Management & Governance Own Plan Program Management for on-site clinics and pharmacies, dental, vision, FSA/HSA, life insurance, LTD, AD&PL, mental health, MSK, and executive physicals. Develop a network and build trust-based relationships with vendors and cross-functional partners to get work done. Performance Monitoring: Meeting with vendors and actively monitoring vendor adherence to Service Level Agreements (SLAs) to ensure vendors deliver on contracts. Partner with Enterprise Supplier Management (ESM) to execute required vendor management tasks to ensure compliance and mitigate risk (e.g., business reviews, risk assessments, data share requests). Responsible for preparation and timely submission of state and federal filings related to H&W plans, H&W nondiscrimination testing, SOC-1 reviews, legally required communications, SPDs, and maintaining a compliance calendar to ensure compliance work is timely. Serve as designated lead for HIPAA compliance, internal H&W audits, and liaison between Benefits and HR Risk teams on issue management and controls. Serve as the subject matter expert for laws, rules and regulations that impact US H&W benefits including, but not limited to: ERISA, CAA, HIPAA, MHPAEA, state individual mandate reporting and San Francisco HCSO. Partner with Legal and HR Risk to monitor emerging legislation and assess impacts to US H&W plans, propose compliance and execute decisions to maintain compliance. Continuous Improvement: Create analytics to leverage data to generate insights on vendor capabilities and recommend plan or program improvements based on benchmarking data, areas of employee abrasion, compliance updates, or emerging market trends. Consider broader and longer term impact to create value. Stay up to date on new programs or offerings from vendors and support the Policy & Design team with input on investment decisions. 2. Operations & Program Administration Issue & Escalation Resolution: Maintain comprehensive, up-to-date issue logs for each vendor to drive timely resolution and document outcomes. Partner with Benefits Operations to manage annual program implementation changes with vendors. Ensure changes are properly implemented and tested. Core Administration: Handle administrative tasks related to the assigned plans with a sense of urgency, while balancing quality, to ensure smooth day-to-day operations. Navigate any ambiguity to determine the proper course of action. Internal Communications: Own and maintain internal intranet pages for your plans to ensure benefit program information, FAQs, and resources are accurate and accessible. Partner with HR Communications to make needed changes. 3. Associate Experience Cross-Functional Collaboration: Own tier-3 employee escalations for your plans. Work with members to understand the situation, investigate root causes, interface with vendors for resolutions, and implement processes or solutions to prevent future errors. Understand associate experience (how claims flow, customer service support, etc) to recommend and execute improvements. Oversee the monthly benefits and wellbeing newsletter to increase plan utilization and drive awareness of benefits. Develop a project plan with monthly themes, partner with stakeholders to provide relevant content, socialize as needed to support key HR initiatives, and work with HR Communications on production. Leverage data to support key messages and partner with HR Communications to design and execute on a communications plan to drive understanding of benefit and how to access/ use. Review communications recommended by vendors and partner with HR Comms on a view point for which should be sent, and timing. 4. Strategic Initiatives & Growth RFP & RFI Support: Support team members responsible for plan design with Request for Proposals (RFPs) and Request for Information (RFIs) for benefit program contracts, including evaluating vendor bids and participating in stakeholder reviews. Implementation Support: Handle program implementation changes with vendors; ensure changes are properly implemented and tested. Proactively seeks out benefits knowledge to stay current on benefits products, industry innovations, and regulatory changes by attending webinars, reading industry publications, and participating in conferences. 5. Documentation Process Documentation: Author and maintain standard operating procedures (SOPs) for vendor management and escalation workflows to ensure team business continuity. This role is designated as a hybrid position. You are expected to adhere to Capital One's hybrid policy regarding required on-site presence at your designated office location. Basic Qualifications Bachelor’s Degree or military experience At least 3 years of experience working with Health & Wellness employee benefit plan vendor management Preferred Qualifications MBA or Master’s Degree Certified Employee Benefit Specialist (CEBS) or Certified Benefits Professional (CBP) designation 4+ years of experience in Health & Wellness employee benefits for organizations with 10,000+ employees 5+ years of experience with benefits vendor management Experience with benefits governance practices Solid business acumen, strategic thinker, and problem solver Strong analytical skills and knowledge of statistical analysis At this time, Capital One will not sponsor a new applicant for employment authorization, or offer any immigration related support for this position (e.g. H1B, F-1 OPT, F-1 STEM OPT, F-1 CPT, J-1, TN, E-3, and O-1, or any other forms of work authorization that require immigration support from an employer). The minimum and maximum full-time annual salaries for this role are listed below, by location. Please note that this salary information is solely for candidates hired to perform work within one of these locations, and refers to the amount Capital One is willing to pay at the time of this posting. Salaries for part-time roles will be prorated based upon the agreed upon number of hours to be regularly worked. McLean, VA: $120,800 - $137,900 for Prin Assoc, Benefits Richmond, VA: $109,900 - $125,400 for Prin Assoc, Benefits Candidates hired to work in other locations will be subject to the pay range associated with that location, and the actual annualized salary amount offered to any candidate at the time of hire will be reflected solely in the candidate’s offer letter. This role is also eligible to earn performance based incentive compensation, which may include cash bonus(es) and/or long term incentives (LTI). Incentives could be discretionary or non discretionary depending on the plan. Capital One offers a comprehensive, competitive, and inclusive set of health, financial and other benefits that support your total well-being. Learn more at the Capital One Careers website . Eligibility varies based on full or part-time status, exempt or non-exempt status, and management level. This role is expected to accept applications for a minimum of 5 business days. No agencies please. Capital One is an equal opportunity employer (EOE, including disability/vet) committed to non-discrimination in compliance with applicable federal, state, and local laws. Capital One promotes a drug-free workplace. Capital One will consider for employment qualified applicants with a criminal history in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable laws regarding criminal background inquiries, including, to the extent applicable, Article 23-A of the New York Correction Law; San Francisco, California Police Code Article 49, Sections 4901-4920; New York City’s Fair Chance Act; Philadelphia’s Fair Criminal Records Screening Act; and other applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations regarding criminal background inquiries. If you have visited our website in search of information on employment opportunities or to apply for a position, and you require an accommodation, please contact Capital One Recruiting at 1-800-304-9102 or via email at RecruitingAccommodation@capitalone.com . All information you provide will be kept confidential and will be used only to the extent required to provide needed reasonable accommodations. For technical support or questions about Capital One's recruiting process, please send an email to Careers@capitalone.com Capital One does not provide, endorse nor guarantee and is not liable for third-party products, services, educational tools or other information available through this site. Capital One Financial is made up of several different entities. Please note that any position posted in Canada is for Capital One Canada, any position posted in the United Kingdom is for Capital One Europe and any position posted in the Philippines is for Capital One Philippines Service Corp. (COPSSC).