Director Enterprise Product & Operating Model

Wellmark•Des Moines, IA

14h

About The Position

Wellmark is a mutual insurance company serving policyholders in Iowa and South Dakota. The Director, Enterprise Product (Transformation) & Operating Model will help mature, govern, and sustain Wellmark’s established product and agile operating model. The role takes an enterprise-wide view of how strategy, product, portfolio, technology, and delivery work together, partnering with senior leaders to strengthen product management, improve agile effectiveness, clarify governance and decision rights, and address systemic barriers to the flow of work from strategy through execution. The Director translates health checks and performance insights into practical improvement roadmaps, coaches leaders, evolves standards and organizational capabilities, improves planning and value measurement, and helps the organization apply product and agile principles in ways suited to its business. The position serves as a trusted advisor to senior business and technology leaders, builds alignment across functions, and leads the ongoing improvement and adoption of the operating model. It also provides leadership, coaching, and development for assigned team members and partners.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in business administration, management, technology, organizational leadership, or a related field, or equivalent work experience.
At least 7 years of progressive experience in product management, enterprise agility, operating-model design, organizational transformation, business transformation, or related disciplines.
At least 4 years of demonstrated leadership in a complex enterprise.
Demonstrated experience designing, implementing, evolving, or sustaining product-based and Agile operating models at enterprise scale.
Strong knowledge of product management, agile principles, value streams, governance, and outcome-based measurement.
Demonstrated ability to influence and advise senior leaders across business and technology functions without relying on direct authority.
Strong strategic thinking, facilitation, problem-solving, executive communication, consultation, and stakeholder-management skills.
Demonstrated ability to use data, performance measures, and qualitative insights to identify patterns, measure maturity, and guide leadership decisions.
Experience leading change and developing scalable capabilities across complex, cross-functional environments.

Nice To Haves

Master's degree in business administration, organizational leadership, technology, or a related field.
Experience leading product or operating-model transformation within a complex or highly regulated organization.
Experience establishing enterprise product management standards, capability frameworks, maturity models, or continuous-improvement programs.
Relevant product management, agile, change management, organizational design, or coaching credentials.

Responsibilities

Lead the evolution, sustainability, documentation, and continuous improvement of the enterprise product and agile operating model.
Establish clarity and consistency in operating-model principles, roles, accountabilities, decision rights, governance, planning practices, and ways of working.
Partner with the Vice President to advance enterprise product management maturity, including product strategy, prioritization, roadmaps, customer and member orientation, discovery, outcome measurement, and product leadership capabilities.
Establish practical product management standards and leading practices that connect strategy, product investments, delivery priorities, and measurable outcomes.
Advance the effective application of agile principles to support business agility and enterprise outcomes.
Analyze enterprise delivery patterns to identify systemic constraints, dependencies, bottlenecks, and opportunities to improve value flow.
Establish and maintain an enterprise approach for assessing product and agile operating-model maturity and effectiveness.
Identify capability gaps, prioritize improvements based on enterprise impact, establish feedback loops, and maintain a maturity-improvement roadmap.
Partner with strategy, portfolio, product, technology, and business leaders to improve the connection among strategic outcomes, prioritization, planning, execution, learning, and value realization.
Establish measures of operating-model health and effectiveness, including maturity, flow, capability, adoption, and outcomes.
Translate quantitative and qualitative insights into recommendations for senior leaders and surface patterns or risks requiring enterprise action.
Build organizational capability through standards, learning, coaching, communities of practice, and role-based development for product, agile, and enterprise leaders.
Serve as a trusted advisor to senior business and technology leaders and build cross-functional alignment on behaviors, capabilities, roles, and practices that maximize enterprise value.
Facilitate enterprise-level conversations about operating-model challenges, tradeoffs, and opportunities.
Partner with Organizational Change Management and enterprise leaders to support adoption and sustainment of operating-model changes, reinforce expected behaviors, and integrate improvements into normal business operations.
Provide leadership, coaching, and development for assigned team members and partners; set clear expectations and foster an inclusive, high-performing environment focused on enterprise outcomes and continuous learning.
Perform other duties as assigned.