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Senior Project Manager - Life & Annuities

Addison, TX; Montpelier, VT

Come join one of America’s fastest-growing insurance companies. Since 1848, National Life Group has aimed to keep our promises, providing families with stability in good times and in bad. Throughout that history, we have provided peace of mind to those families as they plan their futures.

Our mission extends beyond the insurance and annuities policies that we offer. We strive to make the world a better place through our grants from our charitable foundation, paid volunteer time for our employees, environmentally sustainable and healthy workplaces, and events that promote the work of nonprofits in our own backyard.

We foster a collaborative environment with opportunities for growth and encourage our associates to live our values: Do good. Be good. Make good.

Please note that we do not offer visa sponsorship for this position.

Role Summary

The Senior Project Manager plays a pivotal role in driving enterprise-wide initiatives that shape business strategy and enable organizational transformation. This role provides strategic leadership and oversight of complex, high-impact projects and programs, ensuring alignment with enterprise objectives and long-term value creation. The Senior Project Manager is accountable for orchestrating resources, scope, schedules, and financials across multiple initiatives while championing quality, governance, and cross-functional collaboration.

This position currently offers an onsite work schedule, with the expectation that you are in the office four (4) 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

  • Manage all aspects of strategic, large-scale transformation projects/programs to ensure timely and effective project execution, including:
    • Create Project/Program scope statements in collaboration with IT and business stakeholders.
    • Establish scope, schedule, and cost baselines.
    • Ensure a clear understanding of the scope and expectations of business owners, including success and acceptance criteria.
    • Ensure confirmation of requirements, scope prioritization where appropriate, and establish requirements traceability through project/program delivery.
    • Work with Business Analysts/others to translate business input into actionable value-creating ideas and project/program requirements.  Help to identify and evaluate solution options and develop recommendations based on business requirements.
    • Facilitate the delivery and implementation of project/program scope.
    • Collaborate with project/program team to identify and manage all dependencies between functional areas involved in the project/program.
    • Work with the team to establish and track project/program progress.
    • Monitor progress against baselines; recommend schedule, cost, or resource adjustments as appropriate; and effectively manage project change per established PMO Process.
    • Establish and provide timely updates to the management team for each project/program following established status reporting guidelines, escalating issues, and managing risks/issues.
    • Ensure that the business and IT project/program resources are following established processes.
    • Lead process improvements and find new ways of operating, with a focus on simplification across the PMO.
  • Develop a plan for identifying, engaging, and communicating with stakeholders to set consistent expectations.
  • Escalate risks/issues to appropriate stakeholders and drive resolution.
  • Assemble, mobilize, and motivate project/program teams to set direction, identify skill gaps, and resolve conflict.
  • Help to balance workload across large projects and programs to synchronize team efforts.
  • Manage resources against approved hours and scope.
  • Develop, champion, and comply with project/program management, repository, and quality assurance/control processes.
  • Expertise in multiple development methodologies such as waterfall, iterative, and agile (scrum, kanban) to support project/program teams.  Deep awareness of agile techniques such as backlog management, user stories, test-driven development, automated testing, etc.
  • Consistently establishes strong working relationships with executive sponsors, business owners, and stakeholders across the organization to manage expectations and project/program delivery.
  • Strong ability to turn around large and complex troubled projects.
  • Act as a coach to project managers, executives, and others who need assistance and advice regarding project management practices.
  • Consistently capture and integrate the voice of the customer (VOC) and voice of the team (VOT) feedback.
  • Lead efforts on continuous improvement in project/program management principles to improve project delivery.
  • Lead efforts to embrace NLG’s learning organization culture to mature teams into highly productive, self-sufficient project teams capable of delivering work that crosses various systems and business processes.
  • Leads capability-building efforts through direct mentoring, coaching, and support of emerging project leaders.
  • Strong ability to teach PM skills—both hard and soft—that are required for the successful planning, execution, delivery, and support of projects/programs and their products or services.

Business Acumen

  • Understand the Life & Annuities business
  • Understand the business needs of a project and its interaction with other projects/programs to make decisions that are in the best interest of the organization.
  • Partners with senior leadership to align program expectations and outcomes with business strategy. 
  • Support Organizational Change Management.
    • Work with project stakeholders and team members to identify project/program rollout/transition plans and organizational impacts.
    • Participate in organizational change management planning and execution as appropriate.

Minimum Qualifications

  • Must have an executive presence with high EQ & SQ
  • Must demonstrate business savviness & service-oriented customer centric mindset with a strong ability to communicate and influence C-Level executives and senior leadership
  • Consulting experience a plus
  • 10 to 15 years project/program management experience in life insurance and annuity with the ability to navigate the dynamics of a diverse culture
  • LOMA ALMI or FLMI certification a plus
  • Must be a self-starter and be able to work independently with little to no direction as well as being a team player.
  • Ability to understand, interpret, and communicate complex subject matter
  • Ability to work in a fast-paced environment; extremely strong organizational skills is a must
  • Results-oriented, excellent verbal and written communication skills
  • Well versed in life and annuity technologies (e.g. PAS, Underwriting, New Business Processing)
  • Must demonstrate technical curiosity and technology savviness
  • Project Management Professional (PMP) or similar certification or working towards required
  • Must be able to coach and mentor Project Managers
  • Expertise in multiple project management methodologies (e.g., agile/scrum, waterfall) desired
  • Proven track record in large projects/programs for executing core project/program management responsibilities, including establishing appropriate project plan, controlling scope/schedule, executing the change management process, and providing timely and accurate project status reporting and project effort forecasting.
  • Bachelor’s degree
  • Must have expertise in Microsoft Office Suite (Project, Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, SharePoint) and tools such as Jira/Confluence

Benefits

Base Pay Range.  The base pay range for this position is the range National Life reasonably and in good faith expects to pay for the position taking into account the wide variety of factors, including: prior experience and job-related knowledge; education, training and certificates; current business needs; and market factors.  The final salary or hourly wages offered may be outside of this range based on other reasons and individual circumstances.

Additional Compensation and Benefits. The total compensation package for this position may also include a full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits (including 401(k) eligibility and various paid time off benefits, such as vacation, sick time, and parental leave), dependent on the position offered. The successful candidate may also be eligible to participate in National Life’s discretionary annual incentive programs, subject to the rules governing such programs. If hired, the employee will be in an "at-will position" and National Life reserves the right to modify base salary (as well as any other discretionary payment or compensation or benefit program) at any time, including for reasons related to individual performance, company or individual department/team performance, and market factors.

National Life is accepting applications for this role on an ongoing basis and the role remains open until filled.

Salary Pay Range

$101,250 - $148,500 USD

National Life Group® is a trade name of National Life Insurance Company, Montpelier, VT – founded in 1848, Life Insurance Company of the Southwest, Addison, TX – chartered in 1955, and their affiliates. Each company of National Life Group is solely responsible for its own financial condition and contractual obligations. Life Insurance Company of the Southwest is not an authorized insurer in New York and does not conduct insurance business in New York. Equity Services, Inc., Member FINRA/SIPC, is a Broker/Dealer and Registered Investment Adviser affiliate of National Life Insurance Company. All other entities are independent of the companies of National Life Group.

Fortune 1000 status is based on the consolidated financial results of all National Life Group companies.

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National Life Group

1 National Life Dr

Montpelier, VT 05604

 

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