AVP Strategic Program Management

Symetra • ,

1d • $155,800 - $259,600 • Hybrid

About The Position

Symetra has an exciting opportunity to join our Retirement Sales team as an Assistant Vice President of Strategic Program Management!

About the role
The AVP, Strategic Program Management is a senior divisional leadership role responsible for driving the Retirement Division’s highest-priority and highest-visibility strategic initiatives from planning through execution and benefits realization. This role partners closely with Retirement executive leadership to translate divisional strategy into coordinated, measurable business outcomes.
The AVP leads a portfolio of complex, cross-functional initiatives that are highly visible to divisional leadership and may have significant business, financial, operational, partner, or reputational impact. Key areas of focus include business growth, Go-to-Market execution, distribution effectiveness, partner and advisor experience, AI enablement, operational excellence, and business transformation. Although the role is accountable for Retirement Division initiatives, successful execution requires close collaboration with senior leaders across Symetra, including Distribution, Product, Marketing, Technology, Operations, Finance, Legal, Compliance, Risk, and other shared functions.
Serving as a trusted advisor to divisional leadership, the AVP establishes program governance, drives organizational alignment, facilitates executive decision-making, and provides clear visibility into the progress, risks, financial impact, and business outcomes of critical initiatives. The role is expected to anticipate challenges, elevate issues requiring executive attention, and ensure high-profile programs maintain momentum and deliver measurable business value.

Requirements

• High school diploma required
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience required; advanced degree preferred.
• Twelve to fifteen or more years of progressive experience in strategic program management, business transformation, strategic operations, or a related discipline.
• Demonstrated success leading a portfolio of large, highly complex, cross-functional initiatives with significant divisional impact.
• Experience partnering directly with Vice Presidents, senior executives, and cross-functional leaders to translate strategy into execution.
• Proven ability to influence organizational decisions, priorities, and resource commitments without direct authority.
• Strong financial acumen, including experience with budgets, forecasts, business cases, investment analysis, and benefits realization.
• Demonstrated experience establishing governance, executive reporting, performance measures, and accountability for complex initiatives.
• Strong executive communication, presentation, facilitation, negotiation, and relationship-management skills.
• Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States at hire and must maintain authorization to work in the United States throughout their employment with our company.

Nice To Haves

• Professional certification or designation relevant to the role, such as PMP, PgMP, Prosci, Lean, or Agile certification, preferred.
• Experience leading initiatives involving Go-to-Market execution, distribution, partner experience, product launches, technology, AI, digital transformation, or operational excellence preferred.
• Financial services, insurance, retirement products, or distribution experience preferred.

Responsibilities

• Partner with senior leadership to translate divisional priorities into executable programs, roadmaps, and measurable outcomes.
• Support the identification, prioritization, and sequencing of strategic initiatives based on business value, organizational capacity, risk, and interdependencies.
• Facilitate divisional strategic planning, initiative roadmapping, executive working sessions, and governance forums.
• Provide recommendations to divisional leaders regarding priorities, investment decisions, resource constraints, risks, and execution alternatives.
• Develop executive presentations, business cases, strategic communications, and decision materials that support informed leadership action.
• Monitor progress against divisional objectives and recommend adjustments in response to changing business needs or performance.
• Establish and monitor ROI measures for the Division’s highest-priority programs, providing executive leadership with visibility into expected value, realized benefits, financial performance, and opportunities to improve program outcomes.
• Lead a portfolio of the Division’s highest-priority strategic initiatives, ensuring alignment with divisional objectives and broader company priorities.
• Establish program scope, objectives, governance, milestones, dependencies, resource requirements, success measures, and accountability.
• Direct multiple complex, cross-functional initiatives simultaneously from initial planning through implementation and benefits realization.
• Maintain an integrated view of initiative health, organizational capacity, dependencies, and competing priorities across the divisional portfolio.
• Recommend re-scoping, reprioritization, postponement, or cancellation when necessary to protect business value, financial performance, or organizational readiness.
• Serve as the primary escalation point for complex program issues requiring divisional leadership attention or decisions.
• Ensure programs are delivered within approved scope, schedule, budget, quality, and risk parameters.
• Serve as a strategic program leader for Division Go-to-Market initiatives, coordinating planning and execution across Distribution, Product, Marketing, Operations, Technology, Compliance, Legal, and other supporting functions.
• Lead initiatives that strengthen distribution effectiveness, partner experience, advisor experience, and organizational readiness.
• Establish integrated plans for product launches, distribution programs, marketing initiatives, partner onboarding, education, technology implementation, and related business changes.
• Monitor partner feedback, account-level trends, launch performance, adoption, execution risks, and progress against divisional distribution strategies.
• Identify and advance opportunities to simplify processes, improve speed to market, strengthen partner engagement, and increase business effectiveness.
• Provide divisional leaders with timely visibility into Go-to-Market readiness, risks, decisions, and expected business outcomes.
• Lead the divisional coordination and execution of AI, automation, digital, and innovation initiatives aligned with business priorities.
• Partner with divisional leaders, corporate functions, technology teams, vendors, and consultants to define use cases, requirements, implementation plans, and adoption strategies.
• Establish appropriate governance, accountability, executive reporting, and performance measures for divisional AI and innovation initiatives.
• Evaluate initiative feasibility, expected business value, implementation risk, organizational readiness, and resource requirements.
• Build trusted partnerships with leaders across Distribution, Product, Marketing, Technology, Operations, Finance, Legal, Compliance, Risk, and shared services.
• Serve as a central coordination point between leadership and the cross-functional teams supporting divisional initiatives.
• Influence decisions, priorities, and resource commitments across organizational boundaries without relying on direct authority.
• Facilitate alignment among stakeholders with differing objectives, operating models, timelines, and constraints.
• Clarify decision rights, roles, accountability, dependencies, and escalation paths across complex initiatives.
• Provide substantial feedback, recommendations, and decision support to divisional and cross-functional leaders.
• Represent Division priorities in cross-functional planning and execution discussions while maintaining alignment with broader organizational requirements.
• Provide ownership and accountability for initiative and portfolio financials, including budgets, forecasts, actuals, investment requests, and reconciliation.
• Monitor spending, resource utilization, financial risks, and performance against approved plans.
• Evaluate initiative priorities based on strategic alignment, expected value, cost, risk, timing, and organizational capacity.
• Provide transparent reporting on portfolio investments, financial performance, resource needs, and expected returns.
• Escalate financial or resource issues that may materially affect divisional objectives, delivery commitments, or expected business value.
• Establish executive-level dashboards and reporting that provide actionable visibility into portfolio performance, initiative health, financial status, risks, dependencies, decisions, and outcomes.
• Define and monitor key performance indicators, strategic milestones, operational measures, adoption metrics, and business outcomes.
• Measure the realization of expected financial benefits, operational improvements, growth outcomes, and partner or advisor experience enhancements.
• Translate complex program information into concise, decision-oriented communications for senior and executive leaders.
• Provide regular trend analysis and recommendations related to divisional strategy execution, product launches, distribution initiatives, partner feedback, and organizational performance.
• Ensure reporting is accurate, timely, consistent, and aligned with leadership needs.
• Develop and coordinate change strategies that prepare leaders, employees, partners, and supporting functions for new capabilities, processes, products, and operating models.
• Assess organizational readiness, adoption risks, stakeholder impacts, training needs, and communication requirements.
• Partner with functional leaders and change-management resources to develop implementation, communication, training, and adoption plans.
• Promote accountability for business adoption and sustained use of new capabilities.
• Monitor implementation effectiveness and recommend corrective actions when expected adoption or business outcomes are not achieved.
• Help leaders and teams navigate ambiguity, competing priorities, and significant organizational change.
• Identify strategic, operational, financial, technology, regulatory, reputational, and execution risks across the initiative portfolio.
• Establish mitigation plans, contingency strategies, escalation protocols, and clear ownership for significant risks and issues.
• Ensure appropriate involvement from Legal, Compliance, Risk, Information Security, Privacy, and other control functions.
• Analyze complex situations requiring evaluation of business tradeoffs, incomplete information, and organizational impacts.
• Champion disciplined program-management practices, continuous improvement, and consistent execution standards.
• Identify process, technology, and operating-model improvements that increase efficiency, scalability, quality, and business value.

Benefits

• Flexible full-time or hybrid telecommuting arrangements
• 401(k) plan and take advantage of immediate vesting and company matching up to 6%
• Paid time away including vacation and sick time, flex days and ten paid holidays
• Company matching for community contributions

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Executive