Program Manager Lead- Strategic Programs

USAA•San Antonio, TX

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

USAA is hiring a Program Manager Lead to connect strategy, culture, and employees across Underwriting & Product Development. The role orchestrates organizational routines—including town halls, strategy sessions, and leadership connections—and advances recognition, volunteerism, culture, engagement, and military acumen. The position calls for program management, strategic thinking, communication, creativity, stakeholder influence, and disciplined execution. The Program Manager Lead implements strategic programs aligned with organizational business goals, develops multi-year business plans, and works with sponsors and cross-functional teams to plan scope, road maps, resources, budgets, dependencies, and timelines. The role monitors progress and risks, coordinates teams, develops performance measures and dashboards, recommends work products, identifies program opportunities, and manages program strategies, tradeoffs, and change adoption. It also supports governance and risk controls and mentors Program Managers. This position is based in USAA’s San Antonio office and requires working in the office four days per week. The salary range is $127,310–$229,160, with actual pay varying based on experience and location. Employees may be eligible for performance-based incentives. USAA does not provide visa sponsorship for this role.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree, or four additional years of related experience in lieu of a degree.
Eight years of project and/or program management experience, including defining a new program and/or managing large-scale projects.
Demonstrated experience using Waterfall or Agile methodologies to execute program strategies and deliver complex work efforts.
Advanced understanding and demonstrated application of risk management policies and procedures.
Comprehensive knowledge of program management methodology and techniques, program performance evaluation, and change management principles and methodologies.
Proficient experience with USAA’s change management methodology or a similar industry methodology.
Extensive experience developing, maintaining, and reporting on large-cost work effort or program budgets.
Stakeholder management and influencing skills.
Expert-level experience in principles of project, program, or portfolio management.
Demonstrated expert experience applying knowledge of the business, its products, and processes to assess program risks and rewards across multiple technologies and business goals.

Nice To Haves

Three or more years of experience planning and executing high-visibility organizational routines and experiences, such as town halls, strategy sessions, employee forums, or large-scale events.
Ability to anticipate needs, identify opportunities, and develop forward-looking solutions with limited direction.
Experience managing concurrent initiatives and stakeholder groups, prioritizing work, coordinating dependencies, and delivering on commitments.
Strong executive communication and presentation skills, including the ability to translate strategy and complex topics into clear, compelling messaging and experiences.
Ability to use data, employee feedback, participation trends, and other measures to evaluate effectiveness, identify opportunities, and continuously improve programs.

Responsibilities

Lead implementation of strategic tasks that align programs with organizational business strategy and goals.
Develop multi-year business plans to deliver business capabilities, define execution approaches, reduce risk, and deliver early business value where possible.
Work with program sponsors and cross-functional teams to evaluate and plan program scope, milestone road maps, required resources, work plans, budgets, dependencies, and timing.
Prepare stakeholder and management status reports, including identification of risks and issues.
Ensure team members understand how to work together and coordinate interdependencies and efforts to complete program goals.
Help develop performance metrics, dashboards, and management tools that communicate the status of key activities and support timely execution.
Direct analyses and root-cause identification, and develop and recommend key work products.
Identify potential program opportunities that provide integrated solutions for multiple business partners.
Define and maintain program strategies based on business demand and return-on-investment expectations.
Negotiate agreements, resolve disputes equitably, and defuse high-tension situations.
Negotiate program tradeoffs with IT and business partners to align demand with capacity.
Mentor Program Managers in identifying benefits and alternatives across departmental and USAA programs.
Follow EPMO processes, procedures, controls, standards, tools, templates, and governance requirements.
Drive adoption and sustainment of organizational changes in accordance with USAA’s Change Management methodology.
Ensure business risks are identified, measured, monitored, and controlled in accordance with risk and compliance policies and procedures.