Sr Program Manager & Strategic Business Architect at Chubb in Chicago, Illinois

Job Description:

The Senior Program Manager and Strategic Business Architect will have deep knowledge and understanding of group and individual supplemental Accident and Health (A&H) insurance, complex change management expertise, proven experience in leading design through delivery of a complex operating environment.  This role will be responsible for overseeing the continued development and delivery of Chubb and Combined Insurance Company of America’s (CICA) Worksite policy administration platform and associated operational changes needed to realize the expected benefit of the program.  This includes; product, sales and underwriting efficiencies through policy, billing and claims efficiencies, financial benefits, analytics, and revenue growth opportunities. Concurrent with delivery goals, this leader will design and implement a structure to ensure that the platform remains viable and flexible for continuous delivery of products and capabilities aligned with customer values, evolving market dynamics and the company’s margin expectations.

The incumbent is expected to drive the development and delivery of a strategic technological platform in support of the Worksite business across US markets.  This individual will be the accountable party across all resources; Business transformation team, training, IT, vendors & contractors, underwriting SME’s, operations and other stakeholders, to bring the program to fruition per plan and ensure its viability and relevance in a dynamic market. This leader will work with the A&H Business and Operations to architect end to end solutions in support of business strategy. The leader will chair governance for this program.  This includes; building and presenting business cases in support of the program and Worksite, including the requisite quantitative and qualitative justifications. This leader must drive and demonstrate decision making based on expected return for the business, leveraging Combined’s and Chubb’s resources in an efficient manner. 

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES

• Ensure the program and the related projects within, have clear business justification, a solid and quantified business case, and continued business buy-in


• Ensure projects have defined objectives and goals which are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely


• Ensure projects deliver the benefits on time, to budget and with the appropriate level of quality


• Ensure that the program and major change initiatives have demonstrated Cost Benefit Analysis, a set of Critical Success Factors, a set of clearly defined deliverables, a delivery schedule with dependencies, a quality assurance plan, a benefits realization plan, a risk/issues/change log, a training plan, an implementation plan, a hand-over plan, a roll-back plan and a governance structure


• Ensure that delivery plans include a high degree of engagement with end users, change and behavioural management, changes in roles and responsibilities and oversight for any prerequisite change in materials and/or process


• Ensure that the program delivery plan remains aligned with evolving business need and strategy and that there are appropriate vehicles to maintain alignment with dependent applications


• Ensure that there is an appropriate structure in place for the continuous delivery of core platform capabilities, enterprise wide business mandates and controls, and that there is a corresponding structure within business and functional units to manage functional capabilities across the insurance value chains.  Identify, justify and modify roles and responsibilities as necessary to stand up and maintain this structure


• Ensure that Cost Benefit Analysis is monitored and updated throughout the life of the project to assure the continuing viability of a program, ensuring financials and benefit tracking/forecasting is communicated


• Secure the internal and external resources required to fulfil the plan, develop and ensure the program has relationships with dependent and corresponding system teams.  Foster a diverse and collaborative team spirit


• Guide and evaluate the performance of all resources on the program and in support of the platform, liaising closely with resource/line, and third-party managers


• Build strong relationships with business, operations and I/T to ensure the program is being directed based on current views, needs, and in line with road mapped strategies. Assure that the platform is meeting the financial, efficiency and quality objectives as established by executive leadership in these areas


• Champion and communicate the goals, accomplishments, issues and actions associated with the program to relevant individuals/parties


• Ensure that a working governance structure is established and that participants are aware of their roles and responsibilities and engaged in performing them


• Identify and manage changes to the project’s scope, ensuring that impact assessments are undertaken, that appropriate authorisation is secured and that adjustments to plans are made and communicated to all stakeholders


• Manage trade-offs between scope, quality, time and cost in accordance with the business and technological (cost) Critical Success Factors as the program progresses


• Implement clear escalation procedures, identify and manage project issues and risks, and ensure that contingency plans are prepared and actioned in a timely fashion


• Understand resource profiles and market rates to ensure the work is structured in such a way to maximise the benefits of a blended on-offshore model


• Ensure the means to identify, plan and manage cross project dependencies, particularly where there is resource contention and apply release management in conjunction and cooperation with the other managers


• Promote mentoring across team members to ensure an adequate pipeline of talent and cross training where viable to increase the flexibility of resource utilization to improve program/platform delivery


• Drive continuous process improvement in delivery, quality, and platform management.

KNOWLEDGE

• Ability to manage a complex program with multiple project components in a dynamic development and production environment


• Exemplary knowledge of program delivery methodologies and ability to align the organization to that methodology


• Relevant professional experience in A&H Lines of Insurance


• Ability to manage strong stakeholders and assertive personalities; ability to persuade, influence and direct the business community and keep key users onside and bought-in


• Highly organised, extremely goal oriented mindset; logical, thorough and detail oriented.


• Appreciation and high-level understanding of the various facets of an I/T operations and protocols


• Expertise in understanding and communicating technical concepts to a non-technical audience


• Understanding the role of data and technology in delivering business benefit. 


• Strong knowledge of MS Project, Excel, PowerPoint and Word required


• Good knowledge of enterprise portfolio management tool Clarity is preferred

EXPERIENCE

• Significant experience of leading and successfully delivering large complex cross functional projects with budgets > $20M USD in accordance with at least one formalised project methodology


• Experience of managing large scale projects as demonstrated by the material impact on the financials of the organization


• Extensive experience in the financial services sector, preferably general insurance


• Experience of working with outsource providers with an on/offshore model


• Experience in a similar role for a blue-chip organization where team size exceeded 40 personnel


• Management of sizeable operational business change gained within a global operation