Program Manager (Digital Transformation)

WHO WE ARE:

Zinnia is the leading technology platform for accelerating life and annuities growth. With innovative enterprise solutions and data insights, Zinnia simplifies the experience of buying, selling, and administering insurance products. All of which enables more people to protect their financial futures. Our success is driven by a commitment to three core values: be bold, team up, deliver value – and that we do. Zinnia has over $180 billion in assets under administration, serves 100+ carrier clients, 2500 distributors and partners, and over 2 million policyholders.

WHO YOU ARE:
The Program Manager, is accountable for execution on the client implementation work prioritized to meet key targets and outcomes. You will have a keen understanding of the SDLC to delivering projects in both waterfall and agile methodologies, and an ability to quickly assess impact and risk mitigation approaches across client programs. Working with peers, Account Executives, Operations and Technology teams in the organization, you will help achieve our transformation target outcomes within the overall Zinnia portfolio of programs. You will drive adherence to key standards and practices to increase predictability in our delivery outcomes on our strategic initiatives.

WHAT YOU’LL DO:

• Support client discussions and planning activities to outline high level full year portfolio roadmap, driven by product & operations priorities
• Work with client account manager to prepare and facilitate strategic client planning sessions at least quarterly to prioritize work needed for client to achieve key business outcomes for the upcoming year
• Collaborate with Operations, Product, Client Account execs, and internal Technical Lead resources to forecast resource demands and manage prioritization on a recurring and as needed basis by working with internal stakeholders
• Monitor and manage Client portfolio status, including delivery progress, project spend, cross projects dependencies, P&L, risks and issues
• Work with Program and Project Manager client teams to drive consistent use of defined reporting and dashboards for project tracking and proactive identification of risks to timelines, scope, budget and quality
• Act as the first point of escalation for transformation initiatives, working to identify remediation steps with internal stakeholders including impact of remediation to overall Zinnia portfolio, and reporting back to client with mitigation plan
• Support biweekly Client discussions, including key Zinnia constituents (Product, Operations, Transformation and others as needed) to assess key wins, areas of opportunity with resulting plan of action and readout in subsequent monthly
• Drive Client conversations on best practices & scope management with proactive data to reflect trends and options to meet targets based on priority of time, cost, scope
• Improve team performance by leading, mentoring, training, motivating, and building team cohesiveness, Work with the teams to continually improve project/program controls, methods and tools
• Participate in monthly finance discussions to review P&L by providing proactive information on potential project risks and mitigation steps actioned

WHAT YOU’LL NEED:

• Bachelor’s degree in business or a closely related field, or equivalent work experience.
• 10 plus years of Project Management Experience – CAPM, PMP or similar designation preferred
• 15 plus total technology experience
• Demonstrated ability to manage a project using a variety of methodologies (Waterfall, Agile, Scrum, Kanban, etc). 4-6 years in an Agile environment preferred
• Demonstrated understanding and experience within full software development project lifecycle in complex technical environments.
• Knowledge of project management tools and software such as Microsoft PowerPoint, Excel, Visio, SharePoint, Jira, etc.
• Experience with third-party system support with preference given to insurance / financial services platforms.
• Knowledge of IT systems, governance and compliance.
• Proven problem solving, decision making, analytical and organizational skills are required.
• Ability to tailor communications and influence critical decisions with a variety of stakeholders.
• Capability to work within broadly defined parameters.
• Strong results orientation, organization and management skills.
• Lead and focus the efforts of others to established goal.
• Effectively drive results with cross-functional teams in a matrixed organization.
• Experience with conversions and implementations.
• Mentor Technical Project Managers as required.
• Develop relationships, with a strong focus on communication and change management