Director, Commercial Asset Management

The Director, Enterprise Program Management Office(EPMO) is an operational leader with experience designing, building, and scaling a centralized corporate program and project management office. They will be responsible for driving the successful execution and delivery of portfolios of programs and projects across Definity
Reporting to the VP Enterprise Portfolio Delivery & Corporate Technology, this director will enable Definity’s hybrid and agile program and project management practices and processes – focusing on lightweight process design and implementation, communication and training, and organizational acceleration.
The individual will lead a team of program and project managers serving functions across Definity with a focus on the Claims business but also supporting personal, commercial, product areas, corporate technology, and other enterprise enablement functions.
Transform a team of program and project managers leveraging shared best practices to plan, manage, and successfully deliver initiatives on time and on budget
Drive the successful execution and delivery of programs and projects across a variety of functions
Partner closely with business owners across Definity to establish lean and agile practices and processes to get work done that is scalable and ultimately deliver business outcomes
Proactively manage risks, issues, and change to support teams and ensure successful program and project delivery
Leverage industry best practices to design efficient, effective, lean, and agile program and project management practices, processes, and templates leveraged by PMO; Implement and operationalize portfolio management techniques to provide a cohesive management of programs and projects
Implement tools and dashboards that enable early insights and data-driven decision-making on programs and projects
Communicate broadly across teams, senior leadership, and C-level staff – championing transparency
Build and lead a best-in-class program management office supporting responsibilities
People Leadership and Performance
Manage a team of program and project managers to champion and create a high performing culture
Connect your team’s day to day accountabilities to Definity’s mission by setting clear objectives and performance expectations with your team members
Conduct mid-year and annual performance reviews of team members while supporting career growth & development plans
Collaborate through cross-functional teams to accomplish established corporate and team goals and effectively manage relationships with other Definity teams
Responsible for supporting vision, planning, and defining team objectives, and leading execution of objectives
Work with peers and leaders to drive productivity, efficiency, and hold team accountable for high quality outcomes
Better, Smarter, Faster : An agile learner, with a growth mindset, attention to detail and organizational skills. A change agent, with proven delegation, motivation, and team building skills.
Strategy & Planning
Responsible for the development of intake and prioritization processes for initiatives, working with the EPMO leadership team to ensure that approved projects and programs provide value to the business
Establishes the appropriate standards, foundational processes, gating / controls to guide EPMO activities in a way that is aligned to the organizational strategy
Participate and support the annual capital planning process and initiate ways to improve process
Develops prioritization models, weighting and risk criteria to evaluate initiatives / programs at an enterprise level in collaboration with corporate strategy office, business partners and IT leaders
Monitors and manages the team’s performance against defined standards, procedures and processes, adjusting priorities as required, and regularly communicates performance to the EPMO leadership
Delivers standardized templates and dashboards to collect initiative / program data across the enterprise
Collaborates with all lines of business and internal departments to execute various activities and prepare effective strategies to monitor their implementation
Sets standards for how projects are run; ensures project management standards are followed
Introduces common set of practices, principles and templates for managing projects
Conducts regular reviews of projects, maturity assessments and retrospectives
Provides project data to support management reviews
Monitors all projects and maintains record of task details
Ensures compliance to project schedules
Evaluates status of project plans to identify and resolveissues and manage all integrated applications for organization
raises resource allocation risks and mitigates where possible
Establishes SLAs within EPMO on what and how projects are being delivered through the Delivery Gating Framework
Coaches the team on how to provide articulate and concise project status updates for steercos and other program meetings
Articulate technical terms and specifications into business terminology and relay technical solutions to business partners
Weekly leadership reporting on program status and overall team management
Portfolio and Release Planning, Execution & Reporting
Responsible for defining Portfolio and Release Planning strategies at an enterprise level along with other EPMO leaders. The incumbent drives the execution of these strategies and ensures that programs and projects are taken in and released in a way that maximizes returns to Definity.
Oversees maintenance, revision and reprioritization of the enterprise project portfolio based on input from Steercos & governance bodies
Liaises with EPMO leadership team to provide status updates to the executive team on the project portfolio
Accountable for the preliminary portfolio impact analysis of opportunities
Communicates results from the initial business prioritization of projects
Aggregates and reports on benefit realization at the enterprise project portfolio level
Monitors and manages the team's progress in the planning of releases, adjusting priorities as required, and regularly communicating progress to the EPMO leadership
Relationship Management
Uses influence and negotiation skills to help achieve EPMO priorities and goals to support Definity’s overall strategic plan
Helps promote/develop IT awareness and technical understanding of business partners and stakeholders
Review monthly program/project financials to ensure forecasts align to actuals; Ability to hold project team members and stakeholders accountable to scope, schedule, budget and quality
University Degree or college diploma in computer science, business, IT or a related discipline
~12+ years of experience in Project Management and / or Portfolio Management and/or delivery in a fast paced, high-growth technology market, technology experience preferred
~7+ years of a successful track record of management / leadership and people management experience in delivering complex, corporate-wide programs and projects on time, within budget, with high quality and aligned to business outcomes
~ Must be able to demonstrate the ability to relay complex technical concepts and solutions to business partners and stakeholders
~ Must have experience in program and project management financials
~ Experience in P&C insurance industry is considered an asset
~ Experience with Guidewire cloud platform (Policy Center, Billing Center & Claims Center) is considered an asset
~ Relevant industry-related certifications are considered an asset including PMP, Agile, Six Sigma, Certified Scrum Master, Kanban, Prince2 (SAFe, Prosci)
~ Strong management skills with the ability to build and maintain effective relationships with business partners, vendors and IT teams to achieve results
~ Strong planning, organizational, prioritization and presentation skills
~ Demonstrated ability to independently translate strategy, solution complex issues, and drive for results through personal and team accountability, while building strong organizational bridges
~ Proven experience defining, implementing, and iterating portfolio, program, and project management practices and processes within a fast-growing technology company
~ Comfortable at working across Waterfall, Agile, Hybrid and other methodologies
~ Thorough knowledge of Microsoft Power Point and Excel
~ Passionate about building a data-driven organizations and leveraging insights to drive decisions
~ Proficient in common project and work management tools (i.e. Microsoft Project, Jira, Confluence, Kanban)
~ Experience with change management, process mapping, lean six sigma is an asset
~ Demonstrated success in building and leading high-performing teams