Program Manager, Customer Experience Technology

Principal Financial Group•Des Moines, IA

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

We’re looking for a Program Manager II to join our Customer Experience Technology (CXT) team. In this role, you’ll help shape how individual customers experience Principal across digital channels while driving alignment and execution across some of our most visible enterprise initiatives. As a Program Manager, you'll operate at the intersection of technology, business, and customer experience, helping teams translate strategy into action while ensuring priorities, dependencies, and decisions remain aligned across the enterprise. You'll partner closely with leaders, product management, engineering, marketing, UX/CX, and other key partners. Operating at the intersection of financial services and technology, Principal builds financial tools that help our customers live better lives. We take pride in being a purpose-led firm, motivated by our mission to make financial security accessible to all. Our mission, integrity, and customer focus have made us a trusted leader for more than 140 years!

Requirements

10+ years project, program, initiative management experience or equivalent demonstrated through one or combination of the following: work experience, military experience, or education
Demonstrated success delivering cross-functional initiatives involving technology, product, and business partners
Strong program management experience with the ability to balance strategic planning and execution
Ability to influence, collaborate, and drive outcomes without formal authority
Experience leading organizational change and driving adoption of new capabilities, processes, or operating models
Exceptional communication, stakeholder management, facilitation, and decision-making skills
Ability to manage ambiguity, navigate competing priorities, and build alignment across large organizations

Nice To Haves

Experience leading customer-facing or digital customer experience initiatives
Experience partnering across customer experience (CX), user experience (UX), product, and technology organizations
Strong AI understanding and adoption
Strong technical acumen and the ability to effectively collaborate with engineering leaders and technology teams
Agile, Scrum, or similar program management certifications
Financial services or other regulated industry experience

Responsibilities

Lead complex, high-visibility individual customer experience initiatives that span multiple business, product, and technology teams, ensuring alignment to enterprise strategy, customer outcomes, and business priorities
Facilitate strategic alignment across business units by connecting priorities, dependencies, risks, and decisions that impact the individual customer experience and enterprise customer experience strategy
Partner with product, engineering, delivery, and business leaders to drive collaboration, influence decision-making, and create transparency around tradeoffs, resource constraints, and competing priorities
Drive stakeholder engagement and executive communication, ensuring strategic direction, priorities, and decisions are effectively communicated and understood across the organization
Define and monitor success measures tied to customer outcomes, adoption, business value, efficiency, and strategic objectives while helping teams accelerate value delivery, reduce organizational friction, and improve realization of customer and business outcomes
Lead change efforts associated with new technologies, evolving operating models, AI-enabled capabilities, and enterprise transformation initiatives, building stakeholder alignment and driving successful adoption across teams
Support strategic Customer Experience Technology initiatives focused on digital experiences, mobile capabilities, AI-enabled customer engagement, and enterprise modernization efforts, balancing strategic thinking with practical execution to move initiatives forward