Lead Technology Portfolio Project Manager

American Family Insurance; Madison (WI); On-site; USD 113,000 - 194,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k) contribution

Pension plan

Annual incentive

9 paid holidays

23 days paid time off

Student loan repayment

Paid-family leave

Job summary

American Family Insurance in Madison, WI seeks a senior Portfolio Management professional to lead process improvements, governance, and cross-functional planning for technology initiatives. This role emphasizes SAFe/Agile practices, roadmap execution, and clear executive communication.

You will partner with directors and VPs, own demand planning, manage backlogs, and drive quarterly planning with milestones, risks, and dependencies. Relocation support is offered for eligible candidates.

Qualifications

• Strong understanding of portfolio intake, demand management, prioritization, and governance.
• Solid understanding of SDLC practices and Agile/SAFe concepts.
• Ability to build and execute roadmaps and coordinate multiple critical efforts.
• Comfort working with directors and vice presidents; frame issues and communicate decisions clearly.
• Proactive, curious, and pragmatic approach to identifying pain points and improving workflows.

Responsibilities

• Lead portfolio process enhancements and adoption.
• Drive incremental process improvements toward the Technology Portfolio Management vision.
• Coordinate planning cadences, governance, and leadership decision logs.
• Serve as portfolio liaison and planning partner for executives.
• Translate strategic priorities into integrated initiative plans with milestones and risks.

Skills

Portfolio management

Demand planning

Governance

Executive reporting

Stakeholder alignment

Project leadership

Communication

Agile / SAFe

Risk management

Tools

Jira

Confluence

Apptio

Targetprocess

Dashboards

Job description

Position Compensation Range

$113,000.00 - $194,000.00

Pay Rate Type

Salary

Compensation may vary based on the job level and your geographic work location. Relocation support is offered for eligible candidates.

Primary Accountabilities

• Lead portfolio process enhancements and adoption
• Lead incremental process improvements that build toward the broader Technology Portfolio Management vision while recognizing different levels of portfolio maturity.
• Drive change adoption through clear communications, leader forums, training, feedback loops, and transparent measures of progress.
• Serve as portfolio liaison and planning partner
• Translate strategic priorities into integrated initiative plans, planning milestones, dependencies, governance needs, and leadership decisions.
• Lead technology demand planning
• Own and continuously improve the team’s technology demand-planning approach for discretionary work, including the annual planning cycle and the emerging quarterly demand refresh.
• Strengthen initiative and backlog planning
• Support initiative definition and planning by clarifying outcomes, scope, assumptions, milestones, risks, dependencies, and decision points.
• Guide teams on backlog planning, planning hygiene, dependency visibility, and readiness for downstream execution.
• Advance stage-gate governance and SDLC alignment
• Apply a strong working knowledge of the software development lifecycle to ensure portfolio processes reinforce readiness, risk management, traceability, and predictable execution.
• Provide governance, insight, and executive communication
• Run planning cadences, governance conversations, decision logs, action tracking, and escalation paths.
• Influence and negotiate across competing priorities, funding or capacity constraints, and differing stakeholder perspectives.

Specialized Knowledge & Skills Requirements

• Strong understanding of portfolio intake, demand management, prioritization, investment traceability, portfolio health, governance, risk, dependency management, and executive reporting.
• Solid understanding of software development lifecycle practices, stage gates, Agile / SAFe concepts, PI planning, backlog structures, readiness, and delivery health.
• Ability to build and execute roadmaps, coordinate multiple critical efforts, manage RAID items, and create structure in ambiguous environments.
• Comfort working directly with directors and vice presidents; able to frame issues, present recommendations, and communicate decision needs with clarity.
• Demonstrated ability to lead groups to consensus, negotiate trade-offs, resolve ambiguity, and maintain progress across stakeholders without relying on positional authority.
• Proactive, curious, and pragmatic approach to identifying pain points, improving workflows, and supporting adoption through incremental change.
• Excellent written, verbal, visual, and presentation skills, with the ability to tailor detail for executives, practitioners, and cross-functional partners.
• Working proficiency with Jira, Confluence, enterprise planning tools such as Apptio Targetprocess, dashboards, and structured data used for planning and reporting.
• Strong organization, attention to detail, adaptability, resilience, collaboration, independent judgment, and commitment to continuous learning.

Licenses

• Not Applicable.

Travel Requirements

• Up to 10%.

Physical Requirements

• Work that primarily involves sitting/standing.

Working Conditions

• Not Applicable.

Additional Information

• To ensure a strong start, all employees participate in our New Employee Orientation during their first week. This experience is held in person at our Madison, WI Headquarters or one of our AmFam core locations to help you connect with our mission, meet key team members and build relationships that support your growth. At times, sessions may be delivered virtually based on scheduling and availability.
• Offer to selected candidate will be made contingent on the results of applicable background checks
• Offer to selected candidate is contingent on signing a non-disclosure agreement for proprietary information, trade secrets, and inventions
• Sponsorship will not be considered for this position unless specified in the posting
• Eight or more years of experience leading technology projects, programs, portfolio processes, and enterprise process improvements.
• Experience working across large, matrixed technology organizations and engaging senior leaders.
• Experience leading annual or quarterly planning, technology demand estimation, portfolio governance, or related investment-planning processes.
• Experience applying SDLC, Agile, or SAFe practices in a way that improves planning quality and delivery outcomes.
• Experience building practical operating cadences, decision forums, roadmaps, dashboards, or centers of practice is beneficial.

We provide benefits that support your physical, emotional, and financial wellbeing. You will have access to comprehensive medical, dental, vision and wellbeing benefits that enable you to take care of your health. We also offer a competitive 401(k) contribution, a pension plan, an annual incentive, 9 paid holidays and a paid time off program (23 days accrued annually for full-time employees). In addition, our student loan repayment program and paid-family leave are available to support our employees and their families. Interns and contingent workers are not eligible for American Family Insurance Group benefits.

We are an equal opportunity employer. It is our policy to comply with all applicable federal, state and local laws pertaining to non-discrimination, non-harassment and equal opportunity. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law.

American Family Insurance is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals. If a reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and/or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please email [e-mail] to request a reasonable accommodation.