Director, Technology Project Management (Annuity Modernization Program)

Nationwide Mutual Insurance•Columbus, OH

2d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Director, Technology Project Management role for the Annuity Modernization Program is responsible for leading the execution and delivery of one of Nationwide Financials’ most strategic technology transformation initiatives. This leader will oversee a complex portfolio of work focused on modernizing annuity platforms, business capabilities, and supporting technology ecosystems to enable future growth, operational efficiency, and enhanced customer and associate experiences. The role requires strong leadership across technology, business, and vendor organizations to drive delivery excellence, manage transformational change, and ensure successful realization of program objectives. The Delivery Leader will serve as a key partner to senior executives, business stakeholders, and technology leaders while maintaining accountability for program outcomes, financial performance, risk management, and organizational alignment. As a Delivery Leader you’ll be responsible for delivering value and outcomes. Delivery leaders are expected to have an end-to-end vantage point on delivery, manage dependencies, remove blockers, engage partners, manage financials, maximize vendor relationships, and enable an iterative delivery of value. You will need to keep pace with software delivery and organizational change methods and tools. Delivery leaders should also understand relevant Financial and Agile/Lean/DevOps tools and techniques.

Requirements

Proven success leading enterprise-scale modernization initiatives involving technology platform transformation and business process change.
Experience overseeing multi-million-dollar programs with significant organizational impact.
Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional teams across technology, business, operations, and vendor organizations.
Strong background in Agile, SAFe, and hybrid delivery methodologies.
Strategic thinking and enterprise mindset.
Executive presence with exceptional communication and influence skills.
Ability to navigate ambiguity and drive alignment across competing priorities.
Strong decision-making, negotiation, and stakeholder management capabilities.
Proven success leading organizational change and transformation initiatives.
Portfolio and program management
Transformation leadership
Financial and budget management
Vendor and partner management
Risk and dependency management
Executive communications and reporting
Organizational change management
Cross-functional leadership and team development
Ten or more years of experience in technology or related field.
Five years demonstrated proficiency in delivering outcomes/projects.
Three to five years of management experience is preferred.
Awareness of new technologies and/or industry trends.
Ability to make decisions and recommendations.
Aptitude to influence, establish relationships and set priorities.
Excellent verbal and written communication skills to interact with all levels of associates, senior management and/or vendors.

Nice To Haves

Experience leading policy administration platform modernization programs.
Experience delivering large-scale cloud, data, digital, or customer experience transformation initiatives.
Certifications such as SAFe Program Consultant (SPC), PMP, or related leadership and delivery certifications.
Insurance/financial services industry knowledge a plus.

Responsibilities

Lead end-to-end delivery of the Annuity Modernization Program, ensuring alignment to enterprise strategy and business objectives.
Drive execution of complex, multi-year transformational initiatives spanning policy administration, digital capabilities, data, integration, and operational platforms.
Establish and maintain integrated delivery plans, key milestones, dependencies, and critical path management across multiple workstreams.
Ensure successful delivery of business capabilities while balancing scope, schedule, quality, risk, and financial commitments.
Provide leadership and governance across a portfolio of modernization initiatives and associated technology investments.
Drive effective program management disciplines, including risk management, issue resolution, dependency management, and executive reporting.
Lead governance forums and decision-making processes to accelerate delivery and improve organizational alignment.
Monitor and communicate program health, delivery performance, and value realization to executive stakeholders.
Partner closely with business executives and product leaders to translate strategic priorities into executable delivery roadmaps.
Facilitate alignment across technology, operations, product, and business teams to ensure successful program outcomes.
Influence prioritization decisions and investment strategies to maximize business value and customer impact.
Ensure modernization efforts support long-term operational scalability, flexibility, and innovation objectives.
Manage large-scale program budgets, resource plans, and investment portfolios.
Drive financial accountability and transparency across modernization initiatives.
Lead strategic vendor relationships and oversee delivery performance across partner organizations.
Identify opportunities to optimize costs, improve delivery efficiency, and maximize return on investment.
Build, develop, and lead high-performing delivery organizations focused on accountability, collaboration, and execution excellence.
Coach and mentor leaders across the program to strengthen delivery capabilities and organizational effectiveness.
Foster a culture of continuous improvement, innovation, transparency, and servant leadership.
Champion adoption of new delivery practices, AI-enabled ways of working, and modernization strategies.
Provide clear, concise, executive-level communications regarding program status, risks, financial performance, and strategic decisions.
Prepare and present updates to senior executives, governance committees, and business leadership teams.
Develop KPIs and performance metrics that measure delivery effectiveness, operational outcomes, and value realization.
Responsible for the End to End management of associates including but not limited to performance management, salary planning, training, development, workforce planning, hiring, and disciplinary actions; and attracts, hires, engages and develops the team through impactful recruitment, coaching and feedback.
Accountable for the delivery of expected business outcomes, realization of benefits as outlined in the business case, drives incremental value, drives incremental planning, and drives dependency scope definition.
Responsible for applying secure software and systems engineering practices throughout the delivery lifecycle to ensure our data and technology solutions are protected from threats and vulnerabilities.
Responsible for the communication, critical issue, visibility, change management guidance to deliver business outcomes.
Managers the facilitation of contract negotiations, statement of work development and ensures our vendors are making expected progress.
Drives the prioritization of work, handles complex issues/risks, governs dependencies.
Leads all aspects of the delivery of status/health reports to drive value delivery tracking (ex: KPIs), optimizes the flow of value and ensures demand/capacity is managed.
Manages and consults on complex and/or project/product financials.
Serves as the top professional/coach to others around delivering business outcomes, benefit realization, agile delivery, and Lean.
Active profession participant through communities of practice, industry involvement and/or standards organizations.
May perform other responsibilities as assigned.

Benefits

medical/dental/vision
life insurance
short and long term disability coverage
paid time off with newly hired associates receiving a minimum of 18 days paid time off each full calendar year pro-rated quarterly based on hire date
nine paid holidays
8 hours of Lifetime paid time off
8 hours of Unity Day paid time off
401(k) with company match
company-paid pension plan
business casual attire