Responsibilities

The Practice Lead serves as the leader and steward of the Project Management profession, developing Project Managers who can operate with increasing autonomy, business acumen, systems thinking, and executive influence. The role partners closely with Portfolio Management, Business Analysis, Technology Delivery, Business Architecture, and enterprise leadership to identify systemic delivery friction, strengthen cross-functional ways of working, and continuously improve the organization's ability to translate investment decisions into successful
This position currently offers an onsite work schedule, with the expectation that you are in the office four days per week during onsite core days. Our current onsite core days are Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. The work schedule type and core days are subject to change with advance notification and manager discretion.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Project Management Capability & Practice Leadership
Define and continuously evolve the enterprise Project Management operating model, professional standards, delivery principles, methodologies, tools, and practices.
Establish clear expectations for how Project Managers own integrated project plans, orchestrate cross-functional delivery, manage dependencies and risks, enable decisions, and maintain focus on intended business outcomes.
Ensure Project Management practices are appropriately scalable based on initiative complexity, risk, regulatory requirements, and organizational impact.
Maintain consistency in core delivery disciplines while allowing Project Managers to adapt their approach to the needs and conditions of individual initiatives.
Establish clear role boundaries and effective ways of working between Project Management, Portfolio Management, Business Analysis, Technology Delivery, Architecture, Quality Engineering, business stakeholders, suppliers, and operational teams.
Talent & Career Development
Own and continuously evolve the Project Management career architecture, competency framework, role expectations, and promotion criteria, ensuring clear standards for progression across all PM levels.
Assess PM capability and establish development plans that strengthen delivery planning, orchestration, decision facilitation, business acumen, systems thinking, stakeholder leadership, and executive influence.

Qualification

Proven ability to buildStrong businessDefinition of SuccessIntegrated project planning

Required

Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience.
12+ years of progressive experience leading complex business and technology initiatives including significant experience developing Project Management talent or leading Project Management capabilities.
Life & Annuity industry experience with strong understanding of insurance business operations, technology delivery, and the organizational dynamics of large-scale change.
Demonstrated expertise developing and managing integrated project plans across complex initiatives involving business, technology, suppliers and operational teams.
Proven ability to build, mature, or transform Project Management practices, standards, methodologies, competency models, governance approaches, or professional development programs.
Demonstrated ability to coach experienced Project Managers through complex delivery situations while strengthening their judgment, autonomy, and leadership capability.
Advanced understanding of delivery orchestration, integrated planning, dependency management, risk management, decision facilitation, implementation readiness, and delivery governance.
Strong systems-thinking capability with the ability to identify patterns across individual initiatives and translate them into improvements to enterprise delivery practices and organizational effectiveness.
Demonstrated ability to establish risk-based governance that balances execution discipline, regulatory requirements, transparency, and speed.
Proven ability to influence senior business and technology leaders, resolve ambiguity, facilitate complex tradeoffs, and create alignment without formal authority.
Strong business, financial, operational, and technology acumen with the ability to understand delivery decisions in the context of business value, organizational priorities, capacity, enterprise risk, and technology constraints.
Demonstrated ability to lead organizational change and evolve professional practices as delivery models, workforce expectations, and technology capabilities change.

Preferred

Experience designing career architectures, competency frameworks, talent assessment approaches, and professional development programs.
Experience implementing modern delivery approaches, AI-enabled Project Management capabilities, automation, or continuous planning practices.
Definition of Success
Project Managers at every career level clearly understand what is expected of them, how their role creates value, and what capabilities they must demonstrate to progress.
Integrated project planning, risk and dependency management, decision enablement, stakeholder leadership, implementation readiness, and governance are consistently strong across the Project Management practice.
Project Managers operate with increasing autonomy and judgment, escalating decisions rather than simply escalating problems and providing leaders with clear options, impacts, tradeoffs, and recommendations.
Business and technology leaders experience Project Managers as delivery leaders who improve execution and business outcomes rather than administrators of project process.
Delivery problems are identified earlier, decisions occur faster, dependencies are managed more effectively, and avoidable surprises and escalation friction decline.

Sr. Director, Project Management at Nationallifeinsurancecompany · LumiJobs

Sr. Director, Project Management

Responsibilities

Qualification

Required

Preferred

Benefits

Company

Nationallifeinsurancecompany

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