POSITION SUMMARY:

Who We Are – At MassMutual, we help millions of people find financial freedom, offer financial protection, and plan for the future. We’re passionate about helping millions of people find financial freedom and this passion has driven our approach to developing meaningful experiences for our customers. We do this by building trust with our customers by being knowledgeable problem solvers and prioritize their needs above all else. We Live Mutual. MassMutual was named a Top Place to Work in 2019 according to The Boston Globe and No. 84 on the Fortune 500 list of largest companies.

The Team – We are a new team that has been created as part of the broader Enterprise Data, Strategy and Architecture organization at MassMutual to better serve the Data & Analytics needs of Investment Management, Corporate Finance and Enterprise Risk Management. The team consists of professionals with diverse backgrounds and deep expertise in data governance and data engineering. We are a highly motivated and collaborative team with a successful track record of creating innovative solutions to solve business problems by leveraging modern cloud and big data technologies.

The Work We Do – Our work is focused on 3 broad areas:

Data Governance – defining and implementing an operating model (people, process and technology) to ensure the data in our platform is suitable for consumption and meets the needs of critical financial and regulatory reporting and analytics

Data Engineering – building and maintaining our innovative cloud data platform, the associated data models, data pipelines, and workflows. Ingestion of data to support new business use cases

Program Management – consolidating the portfolio of data and analytics initiatives across Corporate Finance, Investment Management and Enterprise Risk Management by creating an integrated roadmap to bring visibility to status, spend, and issues

The Role – This role will be focused on the Program Management component of our work. This is a highly visible role that provides an opportunity to work with senior stakeholders and drive critical programs and roadmaps. We are looking for a technology program manager with strong communication skills to help bring visibility and to clearly articulate and share program plans and updates to a wide variety of stakeholders

This individual should excel at working in a fast-paced environment, driving accountability and creating structure by demonstrating exceptional program planning, delivery management, communications, and change management

The ideal candidate should be familiar with typical software and data solution development lifecycle and should be able to manage all facets of agile project delivery including but not limited to, stakeholder relationships, work prioritization, sprint planning, scrum execution, team organization, project risk assessment, implementation and reporting.

Our goal is to create a team of innovative, high-performing, collaborative, and resourceful people who like to think big, test ideas, and are dedicated to their ideas to see programs through from conception to delivery. 

This role will lead cross-functional teams collaborating with leadership, business subject matter experts, technology and governance teams.

KEY ROLE RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Accountable for managing and driving program/ project execution on time and on budget
• Identify, understand, and work to mitigate issues and risks proactively with the project team, business partners, and leadership
• Maintain inventory of all Data & Analytics initiatives across Corporate Finance, Investment Management and Enterprise Risk Management and maintain an integrated roadmap
• Facilitate and support quarterly prioritization sessions with leadership team to establish goals
• Estimate work-effort required, create resource plans and calibrate program plans based on dependencies and capacity constraints
• Plan delivery sprints, create project plan, work with senior leaders to identify resources necessary for accelerated delivery
• Establish program reporting structure and cadence with key metrics and templates
• Engage with all levels across the firm to manage relationships and expectations
• Work collaboratively with other business and technical teams to establish processes to efficiently collect and share project status information
• Review business cases for proposed projects and track and report value realized
• Develop change management and communication plans for key initiatives
• Complete change management and communication actions per plan
• Manage budget, timeline, and scope throughout the course of all assigned projects

QUALIFICATIONS:

• 10+ years of total experience with 5+ years of experience managing a portfolio of highly visible, complex, and wide-scope data platforms and analytics initiatives with successful conclusions
• Ability to smoothly deliver complex projects using effective planning, pragmatic approaches, and collaboration, despite obstacles and ambiguity
• Deep knowledge and experience applying agile development techniques to solving business problems, particularly in a product management role or mindset
• Exceptional communication and presentation skills with ability to seamlessly communicate with large number of stakeholders and deliver key messages with attention to detail
• Familiarity with project management tools and techniques including Jira, Confluence, Scrum, Kanban and related technologies
• Familiarity with data management processes and cloud data and analytics technologies
• Solid grasp of software technologies and stacks
• Strong sense of urgency with a continuous improvement mindset
• Ability to assess a project's scope and the team's ability to execute
• Outcome oriented with the ability to drill down from the big picture to process details
• Ability to communicate objectives, plans, status, and results clearly
• Strong leadership skills and influencer
• Change agent with successful track record of driving adoption of new data / analytics / technology solutions
• Authorized to work in the United States without requiring sponsorship now or in the future
• Bachelor’s Degree, preferably in Business/Finance or an analytical field such as Economics, Mathematics, Engineering, Computer Science

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Master’s Degree, preferably in Business/Finance or an analytical field such as Economics, Mathematics, Engineering, Computer Science
• Financial Services industry experience

COMPETENCIES

Business Acumen: Demonstrates knowledge of the interdependencies of key business processes, functions and risks. Identifies and uses the key financial indicators necessary to measure program performance. Knows the competition; is aware of how strategies and tactics work in the marketplace. Identifies and anticipates customer requirements, expectations, and needs.

Critical Thinking: Critically and logically evaluates the costs, risks, and benefits of alternatives before coming to a solution. Probes and looks past symptoms to determine the underlying causes of problems and issues. Approaches problems holistically; defines connections, linkages, interdependencies and develops solutions. Takes ownership of problems and stays on top of them until resolved.

Execution/Results: Makes quick decisions in high stakes situations, crises, or conditions of uncertainty. Critically and logically evaluates the consequences and implications of alternatives, actions, or decisions. Encourages others to set challenging goals and high standards of performance. Fosters a sense of energy, ownership, and personal commitment to the work. Creates an environment in which performance excellence is rewarded.

Change Leadership: Advocates for needed change across the organization that add to our success. Ensures the implementation of change with appropriate communications, goals, resources, metrics and reviews. Takes ownership and personal responsibility for implementing change despite opposition or barriers.

Communications: Ability to engage in and mode courageous and constructive dialogue; confidence to offer a new and potentially challenging idea to foster conversation and critical thinking; ability to successfully deliver difficult and/or complex messages and help others understand multiple points of view.