Head of Product Engineering

Pacific Life•Newport Beach, NC

9d•Onsite

About The Position

Pacific Life is seeking an accomplished product engineering executive with deep engineering expertise and a proven record leading at scale in complex technology ecosystems. This leader is accountable for building and evolving the technology landscape that powers growth and exceptional experiences for the Workforce Benefits Division (WBD). WBD is a growth engine for the enterprise. As the business scales, this role serves as the senior product engineering leader accountable for end-to-end engineering delivery across WBD value streams and product domains. The role owns the design, build, and evolution of capabilities spanning quote-to-claim, customer digital experiences, integrations, and partner-facing solutions—ensuring speed, predictability, quality, scalability, and regulatory compliance. Operating at the intersection of product strategy, engineering execution, and talent leadership, this leader drives outcomes through a matrixed operating model and clear engineering governance. Key partnerships include Product Management, Business Capability Leads, Enterprise Architecture, Data, Engineering Excellence, and Platform Operations. Reporting to the WBD CIO, this role ensures product technology is a durable competitive advantage—not simply a delivery function.

Requirements

12+ years of progressive experience in software engineering and product‑centric delivery leadership.
Proven success leading teams at scale in a highly regulated industry and complex matrixed organization.
Strong executive presence with the ability to influence senior business and technology leaders.
Deep expertise in modern application development, integrations, and digital platforms.
Experience in insurance, financial services, or similarly regulated industries strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

Translates business and product strategy into outcome-driven engineering roadmaps, delivery plans, and measurable success metrics.
Owns end-to-end product engineering delivery and production outcomes across WBD value streams, ensuring reliable, secure, compliant, customer-ready solutions.
Establishes and governs technical direction, architectural integrity, and engineering standards across product domains while maintaining delivery velocity.
Drives delivery predictability, unit and system quality, and continuous improvement of the SDLC (automation, testing, observability), in partnership with Engineering Excellence.
Builds and scales engineering, QA, systems analysis, and integration capabilities; develops future leaders and succession bench strength.
Provides executive-level visibility through operating cadence (health metrics, risk/issues, dependency management) and leads escalations to ensure commitments are met.
Owns engineering delivery for core product domains including Quote‑to‑Claim, Digital Customer Experiences, Partner Integrations, Contact Center & Servicing, and supporting platforms.
Owns governance of technical decisions across product teams, including architecture, technical approach, risk acceptance, and prioritization.
Acts as the final escalation point for cross-domain engineering decisions (architecture exceptions, risk acceptance, and delivery tradeoffs) and ensures governance decisions are communicated and executed consistently across teams.
Ensures teams deliver with high quality, predictable throughput, and strong alignment to product outcomes and customer value.
Owns capacity planning and portfolio sequencing across value streams; ensures appropriate decomposition from epics to delivery increments to enable forecasting, prioritization, and predictable delivery.
Balances near‑term delivery demands with long‑term platform sustainability and technical health.
Sets engineering direction and builds discipline leadership across engineering, QA, systems analysis, and integration; coaches leaders and holds teams accountable to standards and outcomes.
Leads product/engineering function and governance to frame and resolve technical tradeoffs, sequencing, and investment decisions—balancing business outcomes, regulatory obligations, and engineering health.
Partners with Enterprise Architecture and Engineering Excellence to apply standards pragmatically while maintaining delivery velocity.
Drive measurable SDLC improvement (automation, test strategy, release health, and observability) using delivery and quality metrics to improve throughput, stability, and customer outcomes.
Serves as the executive owner for technology engagement with the Product Management function across WBD—acting as the primary interface for roadmap alignment, delivery commitments, and cross-functional decisioning.
Chairs WBD product/engineering governance with delegated authority to make delivery commitments and approve prioritization/scope tradeoffs, ensuring timely decisions across Product, Architecture, Data, Security/Risk, and Operations.
Ensures roadmap integrity through a defined operating cadence (prioritization, dependency management, and delivery health), proactively resolving escalations and minimizing day-to-day CIO intervention.
Leads effectively in a matrix with Enterprise Architecture, Data, Engineering Excellence, and shared services.
Resolves cross-enterprise dependencies and tradeoffs through influence and governance, aligning stakeholders on sequencing, risk, and capacity constraints.
Represents WBD product engineering interests in enterprise forums and communities of practice.
Builds and leads high‑performing product engineering leaders and teams.
Own workforce strategy and operating capacity (hiring plan, internal development pipeline, and partner/vendor capacity) to meet delivery commitments and build sustainable capability.
Establishes clear role expectations, career paths, and skills development plans.
Fosters a culture of accountability, craftsmanship, healthy conflict, and continuous learning.

Benefits

Medical
Dental
Vision
Wellbeing Reimbursement Account
Paid Time Off
Holiday Schedules
Financial Planning Time Off
Paid Parental Leave
Adoption Assistance Program
Competitive 401k savings plan with company match and an additional contribution regardless of participation