AVP Strategic Program Management

AVP Strategic Program Management
Symetra has an exciting opportunity to join our Retirement Sales team as an Assistant Vice President of Strategic Program Management!
About the role
The AVP, Strategic Program Management is a senior divisional leadership role responsible for driving the Retirement Division’s highest-priority and highest-visibility strategic initiatives from planning through execution and benefits realization. This role partners closely with Retirement executive leadership to translate divisional strategy into coordinated, measurable business outcomes.
The AVP leads a portfolio of complex, cross-functional initiatives that are highly visible to divisional leadership and may have significant business, financial, operational, partner, or reputational impact. Key areas of focus include business growth, Go-to-Market execution, distribution effectiveness, partner and advisor experience, AI enablement, operational excellence, and business transformation. Although the role is accountable for Retirement Division initiatives, successful execution requires close collaboration with senior leaders across Symetra, including Distribution, Product, Marketing, Technology, Operations, Finance, Legal, Compliance, Risk, and other shared functions.
Serving as a trusted advisor to divisional leadership, the AVP establishes program governance, drives organizational alignment, facilitates executive decision-making, and provides clear visibility into the progress, risks, financial impact, and business outcomes of critical initiatives. The role is expected to anticipate challenges, elevate issues requiring executive attention, and ensure high-profile programs maintain momentum and deliver measurable business value.
What you will do
Divisional Strategy and Executive Enablement
- Partner with senior leadership to translate divisional priorities into executable programs, roadmaps, and measurable outcomes.
- Support the identification, prioritization, and sequencing of strategic initiatives based on business value, organizational capacity, risk, and interdependencies.
- Facilitate divisional strategic planning, initiative roadmapping, executive working sessions, and governance forums.
- Provide recommendations to divisional leaders regarding priorities, investment decisions, resource constraints, risks, and execution alternatives.
- Develop executive presentations, business cases, strategic communications, and decision materials that support informed leadership action.
- Monitor progress against divisional objectives and recommend adjustments in response to changing business needs or performance.
- Establish and monitor ROI measures for the Division’s highest-priority programs, providing executive leadership with visibility into expected value, realized benefits, financial performance, and opportunities to improve program outcomes.
Strategic Portfolio and Program Leadership
- Lead a portfolio of the Division’s highest-priority strategic initiatives, ensuring alignment with divisional objectives and broader company priorities.
- Establish program scope, objectives, governance, milestones, dependencies, resource requirements, success measures, and accountability.
- Direct multiple complex, cross-functional initiatives simultaneously from initial planning through implementation and benefits realization.
- Maintain an integrated view of initiative health, organizational capacity, dependencies, and competing priorities across the divisional portfolio.
- Recommend re-scoping, reprioritization, postponement, or cancellation when necessary to protect business value, financial performance, or organizational readiness.
- Serve as the primary escalation point for complex program issues requiring divisional leadership attention or decisions.
- Ensure programs are delivered within approved scope, schedule, budget, quality, and risk parameters.
Go-to-Market, Distribution, and Partner Experience
- Serve as a strategic program leader for Division Go-to-Market initiatives, coordinating planning and execution across Distribution, Product, Marketing, Operations, Technology, Compliance, Legal, and other supporting functions.
- Lead initiatives that strengthen distribution effectiveness, partner experience, advisor experience, and organizational readiness.
- Establish integrated plans for product launches, distribution programs, marketing initiatives, partner onboarding, education, technology implementation, and related business changes.
- Monitor partner feedback, account-level trends, launch performance, adoption, execution risks, and progress against divisional distribution strategies.
- Identify and advance opportunities to simplify processes, improve speed to market, strengthen partner engagement, and increase business effectiveness.
- Provide divisional leaders with timely visibility into Go-to-Market readiness, risks, decisions, and expected business outcomes.
AI, Innovation, and Business Transformation
- Lead the divisional coordination and execution of AI, automation, digital, and innovation initiatives aligned with business priorities.
- Partner with divisional leaders, corporate functions, technology teams, vendors, and consultants to define use cases, requirements, implementation plans, and adoption strategies.
- Establish appropriate governance, accountability, executive reporting, and performance measures for divisional AI and innovation initiatives.
- Evaluate initiative feasibility, expected business value, implementation risk, organizational readiness, and resource requirements.
Cross-Functional Leadership and Executive Influence
- Build trusted partnerships with leaders across Distribution, Product, Marketing, Technology, Operations, Finance, Legal, Compliance, Risk, and shared services.
- Serve as a central coordination point between leadership and the cross-functional teams supporting divisional initiatives.
- Influence decisions, priorities, and resource commitments across organizational boundaries without relying on direct authority.
- Facilitate alignment among stakeholders with differing objectives, operating models, timelines, and constraints.
- Clarify decision rights, roles, accountability, dependencies, and escalation paths across complex initiatives.
- Provide substantial feedback, recommendations, and decision support to divisional and cross-functional leaders.
- Represent Division priorities in cross-functional planning and execution discussions while maintaining alignment with broader organizational requirements.
Financial and Portfolio Management
- Provide ownership and accountability for initiative and portfolio financials, including budgets, forecasts, actuals, investment requests, and reconciliation.
- Monitor spending, resource utilization, financial risks, and performance against approved plans.
- Evaluate initiative priorities based on strategic alignment, expected value, cost, risk, timing, and organizational capacity.
- Provide transparent reporting on portfolio investments, financial performance, resource needs, and expected returns.
- Escalate financial or resource issues that may materially affect divisional objectives, delivery commitments, or expected business value.
Executive Reporting and Business Performance
- Establish executive-level dashboards and reporting that provide actionable visibility into portfolio performance, initiative health, financial status, risks, dependencies, decisions, and outcomes.
- Define and monitor key performance indicators, strategic milestones, operational measures, adoption metrics, and business outcomes.
- Measure the realization of expected financial benefits, operational improvements, growth outcomes, and partner or advisor experience enhancements.
- Translate complex program information into concise, decision-oriented communications for senior and executive leaders.
- Provide regular trend analysis and recommendations related to divisional strategy execution, product launches, distribution initiatives