Technology Program Manager, Protective Services

Nationwide Mutual Insurance•Columbus, OH

12h•Hybrid

About The Position

Nationwide's Technology team is seeking a highly organized, self-driven Technology Program Manager to lead strategic initiatives supporting their Protective Services organization. This role involves owning the end-to-end delivery of technology programs, guiding projects from initial planning and scope definition through implementation, execution, and successful transition to ongoing operations. The position requires partnering with stakeholders across business and technology teams to drive meaningful outcomes, ensure alignment, and deliver innovative solutions that support evolving business needs. The role is based in Columbus, Ohio, and follows a hybrid work model, with an expectation of working in the office 3-5 days per week. This role does not qualify for employer-sponsored work authorization and Nationwide does not participate in the STEM OPT Extension program.

Requirements

Proven experience leading technology projects and programs with multiple stakeholders and competing priorities.
Exceptional project management, organization, and prioritization skills.
A proactive, self-starter mindset with the ability to work independently and drive results.
Strong communication and relationship-building skills, including experience presenting to senior leadership.
Demonstrated ability to manage budgets, timelines, risks, and dependencies effectively.
Undergraduate studies (bachelor’s degree preferred) in management information systems, engineering, math, computer science, data analytics or comparable experience and education strongly preferred.
Six or more years of experience in technology or related field.
Three years demonstrated proficiency in delivering outcomes/projects.
Awareness of emerging 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 within Corporate Real Estate (CRE) or Protective Services environments is a plus, but not required.
Insurance/financial services industry knowledge a plus.
Technology certifications or PMI, SAFE, Agile or Lean designations are encouraged.
Other criteria, including leadership skills, competencies and experiences may take precedence.

Responsibilities

Lead complex technology programs from concept through deployment and operational handoff.
Partner with internal and external stakeholders to align priorities, manage dependencies, and achieve business objectives.
Establish and maintain strong program governance, ensuring transparency, accountability, and effective decision-making.
Deliver executive-ready status reporting, dashboards, financial tracking, milestone updates, and risk management communications.
Proactively identify, manage, and escalate issues that could impact scope, schedule, budget, risk, or business outcomes.
Leverage project management, collaboration, financial tracking, and reporting tools to provide accurate delivery insights and support data-driven decisions.
Foster strong communication and collaboration across cross-functional teams in a fast-paced environment.
Drives the End to End 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 issues, visibility, change management guidance to deliver business outcomes.
Key contributor in the facilitation of contract negotiations, statement of work development and vendor oversight toward expected goals.
Drives the prioritization of deliverables, handles moderate to complex issues/risks, governs dependencies.
Is responsible for the delivery of status/health reports to drive value delivery tracking (ex: KPIs), optimizes the flow of value and ensures demand/capacity is handled.
Works with medium to large project/product financials.
Serves as a professional to others around delivering business outcomes, benefit realization, agile delivery, and Lean.
May perform other responsibilities as assigned.

Benefits

medical/dental/vision
life insurance
short and long term disability coverage
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