Corporate Vice President, Design Program Manager

 

Location Designation: Hybrid - 3 days per week 

 

 

 

Role Overview:

We are looking for an experienced and strategic Design Program Manager to join our growing digital product team. In this role, you will support the Field Experience value and drive end-to-end program execution for high-impact initiatives that help New York Life’s agents and advisors better serve clients, grow their businesses, and deliver exceptional financial guidance.

 

You will own complex, cross-functional programs from intake to delivery. You’ll serve as the connective tissue between design, product, engineering, research, and our business partners, ensuring work is coordinated, unblocked, and delivered with clarity and quality.

 

You will bring structure and operational excellence to an evolving, high-visibility space that is core to New York Life’s strategy: empowering our field force with modern, intuitive, agent-centric digital experiences.

 

 

What You’ll Do:

Program Leadership & Delivery

• Serve as the primary DPM for the Field Experience value stream, owning program planning, execution, alignment, and reporting for multiple complex products and initiatives.
• Define and manage design timelines, deliverables, dependencies, and processes in partnership with design leads and cross-functional stakeholders.
• Maintain tight alignment with product, engineering, research, and partners to ensure work is scoped correctly and delivered predictably.

 

Cross-Functional Coordination

• Facilitate program rituals such as planning sessions, design reviews, standups, and risk assessments.
• Translate ambiguity into clear requirements, milestones, and operational workflows.
• Keep teams focused and unblocked by proactively managing dependencies and surfacing risks early.

 

Operational Excellence

• Implement systems, tools, and frameworks that improve communication, workflow efficiency, and visibility across Field Experience.
• Refine and scale processes that support intake, prioritization, and resourcing.
• Maintain clear documentation, tracking, and reporting that gives leaders confidence and transparency into the work.

 

Stakeholder Engagement

• Act as a central point of coordination for Field Experience work, ensuring all partners have what they need to make informed decisions.
• Build trust through consistent communication, clarity, and follow-through.
• Drive alignment around goals, scope, and timelines, and reset expectations when priorities shift.

 

Design Team Enablement

• Create space for designers to do their best work by reducing operational overhead and managing cross-team complexity.
• Identify opportunities to improve ways of working within the Field Experience value stream and across the team broadly.

 

 

What You’ll Bring:

• Education: Bachelor's degree in a relevant field such as Marketing, Business, Design, Psychology, Computer Science, or other related discipline or equivalent work experience.
• 7+ years of experience in program or project management, with at least 3 years in a design, UX, or creative environment.
• Deep understanding of the design process and how it fits within product development cycles (Agile/Scrum experience required)
• A user-first mindset - passionate about understanding our users’ needs, delivering a digital experience they love, and creating value for them.
• Strong written and verbal communication, facilitation, and organizational skills.
• Experience in creating operational frameworks and presentations via PowerPoint, keynote, or Figma.
• Experience creating and establishing operating systems with design and project management tools such as Figma, Jira, Asana, Workfront, or similar.
• Proven ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously in a fast-paced environment.
• A passion for design and user experience, even if not a designer by trade.
• Background in change management or scaling operational systems