VP, Head of Enterprise Program Management Office

Pacific Life • Newport Beach, CA

2d • $245,000 - $315,000

About The Position

Pacific Life is seeking a VP, Head of Enterprise Program Management Office (ePMO) in Newport Beach, California. Reporting to the EVP, Chief Financial Officer, this leader will establish and lead a new enterprise center of excellence to strengthen how the company prioritizes, governs, and delivers strategic initiatives.

The role will create enterprise-wide portfolio and program management standards using a hub-and-spoke model. The ePMO will serve as the enterprise Hub, while division and functional PMOs retain alignment to their leaders and the expertise and agility needed to execute in their businesses, with a dotted-line relationship to the ePMO. The leader will build the ePMO team, operating model, governance forums, capabilities, and performance discipline to turn strategy into measurable outcomes across a complex, matrixed international organization.

The role combines strategic leadership, executive influence, practical transformation, portfolio governance, delivery excellence, and continuous improvement. It partners with executive and functional leaders to prioritize work, manage investment and capacity, surface risks and dependencies, and drive accountability for results. The leader will also advance portfolio insight and execution through modern portfolio management platforms, workflow automation, data, and responsible use of AI.

Requirements

• 15+ years of progressive leadership experience in enterprise portfolio management, transformation, strategy execution, program management, or a related discipline, including significant experience leading complex enterprise initiatives.
• Demonstrated success building, transforming, or resetting an enterprise PMO, portfolio management, or transformation function, including establishing its mandate, operating model, governance routines, standards, and adoption roadmap.
• Experience leading in financial services, insurance, or another highly regulated industry, with a strong understanding of governance, risk, controls, and regulatory considerations.
• Proven ability to operate across a highly matrixed, international organization and influence executive stakeholders, business leaders, and functional partners without relying on direct authority.
• Experience building and developing high-performing teams and leading a hub-and-spoke PMO model, with direct accountability for the enterprise Hub and dotted-line relationships with division and functional PMOs.
• Track record of building high-performing teams and communities of practice, and coaching, teaching, and enabling leaders and project teams to adopt practical portfolio, program, and project management practices.
• Expertise establishing governance frameworks with broad organizational adoption, including portfolio governance, investment prioritization, resource and capacity planning, financial management, risk and dependency management, executive reporting, and benefits realization.
• Strong business and financial acumen, including the ability to connect strategy, execution, financial outcomes, organizational capacity, investment choices, execution risk, and measurable enterprise value.
• Exceptional executive presence, relationship-building, communication, and influence skills, including simplifying complex information, facilitating difficult tradeoff decisions, and shaping executive investment and prioritization decisions.
• Bachelor’s degree required.

Nice To Haves

• An advanced degree such as an MBA.
• Relevant credentials such as PMP, PgMP, PfMP, or equivalent.
• Strategic perspective combined with execution excellence and the ability to create discipline, accountability, and operating rhythms that turn strategy into measurable results.
• Ability to build trust, listen well, and create alignment across leaders with different priorities, operating models, and regional needs.
• Ability to introduce standards and governance in ways that improve speed, clarity, and accountability without creating unnecessary process.
• Relentless focus on execution quality, including clear ownership, practical milestones, visible risks, and follow-through.
• Comfort building a function from the ground up, shaping its mandate and establishing its team, routines, and tools.
• Leadership grounded in courage, integrity, partnership, and enduring strength, and the ability to create an inclusive environment where diverse perspectives improve decisions.
• Curiosity about emerging technology and responsible use of data, automation, and AI to improve portfolio insight and delivery effectiveness.

Responsibilities

• Create the ePMO vision, mandate, operating model, roadmap, and service portfolio in alignment with enterprise strategy and business priorities.
• Build and lead a high-performing ePMO team with portfolio, program, change, analytics, and governance capabilities.
• Establish the ePMO as a practical center of excellence offering standards, tools, expertise, coaching, and decision support.
• Define roles, decision rights, engagement models, and escalation paths across the hub-and-spoke model; lead the enterprise Hub and coordinate with division and functional PMOs.
• Establish an enterprise portfolio governance framework linking strategic priorities, investments, capacity, risks, dependencies, and expected business value.
• Partner with executive leaders to evaluate, sequence, and prioritize initiatives using transparent criteria and enterprise-level tradeoffs.
• Design and facilitate executive governance forums to enable timely decisions, resolve cross-enterprise constraints, and maintain accountability for outcomes.
• Create consistent approaches to initiative intake, business cases, stage gates, health assessments, benefits realization, and closure.
• Develop scalable standards, playbooks, templates, and minimum controls for portfolio, program, and project management.
• Establish common definitions and reporting practices for scope, milestones, financials, resources, risks, issues, dependencies, and value realization.
• Apply agile, hybrid, and traditional delivery disciplines according to initiative complexity, risk, and business needs.
• Lead independent health reviews and recovery planning for strategically important initiatives when additional enterprise support or intervention is needed.
• Connect division and functional PMOs as spokes through a consistent dotted-line model and build shared ownership of enterprise standards, transparency, and outcomes.
• Balance enterprise consistency with regional, regulatory, business, and functional requirements across a global financial services environment.
• Partner with Strategy, Finance, Risk, Technology, Data, Operations, People Experience, and business leaders to connect strategic intent to execution.
• Partner with People Experience to encourage ways of working and leadership practices that enable Execution Excellence across the enterprise.
• Develop executive dashboards and portfolio narratives that surface progress, decisions, interdependencies, risk, capacity, and value.
• Use portfolio data and scenario analysis to improve investment decisions, resource allocation, and sequencing of enterprise work.
• Advance modern project portfolio management platforms, workflow automation, data, and AI-enabled tools to improve visibility and execution.
• Build enterprise program management capability through assessment, learning, communities of practice, coaching, and talent development.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision benefits.
• Wellbeing Reimbursement Account for the employee or eligible dependents.
• Paid Time Off, holiday schedules, and Financial Planning Time Off.
• Paid parental leave.
• Adoption assistance program.
• 401(k) savings plan with company match and an additional contribution regardless of participation.
• Most employees are eligible for additional incentive pay.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Executive