Head of Enterprise Portfolio & Delivery

axiscapital; New York (NY); On-site; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

AXIS Capital is seeking a Head of Enterprise Portfolio & Delivery to ensure technology and AI investments align with high-value enterprise priorities and deliver measurable business outcomes. You will lead enterprise portfolio planning, governance and delivery oversight across North America and multiple divisions, reporting to the Head of Technology & AI Strategy.

The role emphasizes accelerating delivery, strengthening accountability, and maturing AXIS' Agile delivery model.

Job description

This is your opportunity to join AXIS Capital - a trusted global provider of specialty lines insurance and reinsurance. We stand apart for our outstanding client service, intelligent risk taking and superior risk adjusted returns for our shareholders. We also proudly maintain an entrepreneurial, disciplined and ethical corporate culture. As a member of AXIS, you join a team that is among the best in the industry.

At AXIS, we believe that we are only as strong as our people. We strive to create an inclusive and welcoming culture where employees of all backgrounds and from all walks of life feel comfortable and empowered to be themselves. This means that we bring our whole selves to work.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to any protected characteristic, including age, color, disability, ethnicity, gender identity, marital status, national origin, pregnancy, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, veteran status, or any basis prohibited by the laws that govern its operations.

Job Description: Head of Enterprise Portfolio & Delivery

Role purpose

The Head of Enterprise Portfolio & Delivery is accountable for ensuring AXIS deploys its technology and AI investments against the highest-value enterprise priorities and delivers those investments predictably with measurable business outcomes. The role leads enterprise portfolio planning, prioritization, investment governance and delivery-performance oversight, providing leadership with clear insight and recommendations on value, capacity, risk and execution. The role will also continue to mature AXIS' Agile business-technology delivery model, strengthening accountabilities, decision rights, ways of working and delivery discipline.

The role leads the divisional Portfolio Leads across North America, Reinsurance & CUO, Global Markets, Claims and Corporate, and reports to the Head of Technology & AI Strategy.

The role goes well beyond portfolio reporting. Building on the foundations AXIS put in place over the past year, the focus now is pace and value: running the portfolio engine behind our enterprise planning and governance cadence, proactively finding and fixing root causes in troubled programs, and coaching Portfolio Leads and delivery teams to build that same capability across the organization.

Job Responsibilities

Strategic Portfolio Governance & Planning

• Planning & Prioritization: Bring a strategic, enterprise lens to the planning cycle, working with Transformation Leads and Value Stream Leads to set the right level of ambition for each division, so that demand is prioritized by business value, capacity is committed to each division's value stream, and every investment is tied to OKRs and business case benefits.
• Executive Decision Framing: Shape the agenda and recommendations for enterprise portfolio and investment forums. Rather than collating submissions, pressure-test the evidence on value, financials, capacity and dependencies with teams, refine proposals until they are decision-ready, frame the trade-offs leadership needs to make, and follow decisions through to closure.
• Stage Gating & Readiness: Own project readiness and stage gating, proportionate to size and risk, as a real challenge rather than a compliance check. Probe whether the problem, scope, plan, business case and delivery approach are credible, send back proposals that are not ready, and confirm key partners (e.g., vendor management, security, data compliance, finance, architecture, AI governance) have reviewed and signed off before work starts.
• Governance Framework: Set lean, proportionate portfolio governance with clear mandates and decision rights, focused on outcomes over process, and e

Funding, Value & Performance

• Capacity-Based Funding: With FP&A, shape annual capacity allocation across divisions and value streams, and drive quarterly start/scale/pause/stop decisions and in-year moves based on value and delivery evidence.
• Investment Evaluation: Challenge business cases before funding, testing assumptions, alternatives and fully loaded costs and benefits, and hold divisions to one consistent benefit-tracking approach so committed benefits are tracked through to realization.
• AI Investment Portfolio: Manage the portfolio of AI use cases from idea to scaled value, working with AI governance, so that AI investments are prioritized, scaled or stopped based on evidence; and use AI within portfolio management to predict delivery risk and automate portfolio insight.
• OKRs & Reporting: Run the enterprise approach for cascading and tracking OKRs and KPIs, and provide leadership with one view of value and delivery predictability (e.g., features delivered in-quarter, idea-to-release cycle time), automated from ADO and supported by AI where possible.

Problem Projects & Root-Cause Resolution

• Proactive Intervention: Use portfolio data and early-warning signals (e.g., slipping milestones, benefits at risk, ri