Program Management Director

EMC Insurance; United States; Remote; USD 121,000 - 192,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Work from home

Benefits package

Job summary

EMC Insurance, a national insurer with a strong Des Moines preference, seeks a Program Management Director to translate strategic priorities into structured plans and governance. You will partner with executive sponsors and cross-functional teams to align priorities, manage risks, and enable informed decisions.

You will drive adoption, readiness, and value realization through standards, coaching, budget management, and effective leadership.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent relevant work experience.
• Ten years of experience leading complex, enterprise‑level programs, projects, strategic initiatives, or transformation work.
• Experience working in Agile, hybrid, and traditional delivery environments.
• PMI certifications such as PMP, PgMP, PMI‑ACP, or related credentials preferred.

Responsibilities

• Provides consultative leadership and directs enterprise program strategy and execution for executive sponsors and stakeholders.
• Translates priorities into integrated roadmaps with milestones, dependencies, governance, and outcome measures.
• Coordinates delivery across diverse teams to drive adoption, readiness, and benefits realization.
• Drives governance, executive narratives, dashboards, and decision materials for program performance.

Skills

Program leadership

Enterprise programs

Agile delivery

Change management

Executive communication

Governance

Risk management

Stakeholder alignment

Mentoring

Education

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent

PMI certifications preferred

Job description

At EMC, we’re all about working together to make an impact. As part of our team, you’ll have the opportunity to grow, contribute, and gain experience that matters. We strive to be caring leaders, close partners, and responsive experts- always supporting each other to do our best work. Join us, and let’s improve lives together. **This position is eligible to work from home anywhere in the US with a strong preference to be located in the Des Moines, IA metro area**

The Program Management Director provides senior-level leadership for complex enterprise programs by translating strategic priorities into integrated plans, governance routines, and measurable outcomes. They also partner consultatively with executive sponsors, senior leaders, and cross-functional teams to align priorities, navigate ambiguity, manage risks and dependencies, and support effective decision-making. The position drives adoption, business readiness, value realization, and enterprise program management capability through standards, tools, coaching, continuous improvement, budget management, and people leadership.

Essential Functions:

Provides consultative leadership and directs enterprise program strategy and execution: Serves as a senior consultative partner to executive sponsors and stakeholders, assessing ambiguous business problems and aligning leaders on program structure, governance, priorities, trade-offs, decision rights, success measures, and practical paths forward.

Translates strategic priorities, market demand, business needs, and operational constraints into integrated roadmaps and directs complex enterprise programs, including milestones, dependencies, governance, communications, risk approaches, and outcome measures.

Partners across Program Management, Digital Product Management, Agile Delivery, Business Process Management, and Change Management to coordinate delivery, process transformation, operational readiness, adoption, and benefits realization, adapting execution as changes occur.

Navigates strategic enterprise complexity and influences stakeholder alignment and decision‑making: Proactively manages strategic risks, issues, dependencies, resource constraints, vendor dynamics, delivery conflicts, organizational impacts, and enterprise trade‑offs involving scope, timing, capacity, funding, sequencing, and business readiness; maintains transparency, removes barriers, and escalates critical decisions as needed.

Establishes governance and communication mechanisms and delivers executive‑ready narratives, dashboards, status updates, decision materials, and recommendations that communicate program performance, risks, dependencies, organizational impacts, business readiness, trade‑offs, and benefits realization progress.

Drives change adoption, outcome measurement, and value realization: Integrates change management, stakeholder engagement, communications, training, business readiness, adoption measures, success indicators, and sustainment plans into program plans and governance.

Leads or supports post‑implementation value realization and adoption reviews to evaluate outcomes, adoption progress, operational effectiveness, sustained value, and opportunities for continued improvement.

Leads and advances enterprise program and project management capability: Leads development, adoption, and continuous improvement of enterprise program and project management methodologies, standards, governance, tools, templates, reporting, delivery frameworks, and success measures.

Serves as a trusted advisor, driving consistent application of program and project management, governance, strategic execution, and outcome measurement practices.

Develops organizational capability through mentoring, coaching, training, communities of practice, and knowledge sharing that strengthen program and project management effectiveness across EMC.

Manages budgeted resources by anticipating expenditures, accurately forecasting resource needs/costs and properly accounting for expenses to meet requirements and achieve fiscal responsibility.

Oversees and monitors the workload and performance of the team, and performs all duties expected of a people leader at EMC.

Education & Experience:

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent relevant work experience

Ten years of experience leading complex, enterprise‑level programs, projects, strategic initiatives, or transformation work

Experience working in Agile, hybrid, and traditional delivery environments.

Program or project management certifications such as PMP, PgMP, PMI‑ACP, or related credentials preferred

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities:

Expert knowledge of consultative program management, strategic execution, governance, and business acumen.

Excellent ability to support significant change management, operational readiness, adoption, and benefits or value realization activities.

Strong ability to lead large transformational initiatives through ambiguity, competing priorities, capacity constraints, and evolving business needs.

Strong ability to identify and manage strategic risks, dependencies, trade‑offs, organizational impacts, and delivery considerations.

Excellent ability to advise executive leaders and develop executive‑ready materials that support alignment, transparency, accountability, and informed decision‑making.

Excellent executive communication, documentation, influencing, and presentation skills.

Ability to identify, adopt, and implement innovative solutions.

Strong ability to translate strategic priorities into execution plans, governance routines and outcome measures.

Excellent leadership, mentorship and relationships building skills.

The hiring salary range for this position will vary based on geographic location, falling within either of the following: $121,263 - $174,253 or $134,038 - $191,687 A hiring range represents a subset of the full salary range. The actual salary will depend on several factors, including relevant education, skills, and experience of an applicant, geographic location, and business needs.

For information relating to the benefits EMC Team Members receive as part of a comprehensive rewards package, please visit www.emcins.com/careers.

Our employment practices are in accordance with the laws that prohibit discrimination due to race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, religion, age, national origin or ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, veteran status, active military status, citizenship status, marital status or any other consideration made unlawful by federal, state, or local laws.

All of our locations are tobacco free including in company vehicles.

Why should you choose to apply for a position at EMC?

We can give you plenty of reasons why EMC is a great place to work: More than 105 years of financial strength and stability Named a five-star insurance carrier by Insurance Business America Two-time recipient of the Best Practices Award of Excellence from the Independent Agents & Brokers of America Multiple locations recognized as Top Workplaces based solely on team member feedback Corporate culture that engages and empowers team members to achieve their best Outstanding benefits with life, medical, dental, vision and prescription drug coverage Competitive paid time off plan and a full day of volunteer time off annually Financial incentives, including a 401(k) plan match, pension plan, OneEMC bonus plan and recognition and anniversary awards Professional development and growth opportunities, including tuition reimbursement Wellness initiatives to improve team member well-being and reduce health insurance costs Flexibility to dress for your day and opportunities for alternative work arrangements EMC complies with labor law requirements. View the federal and e-verify labor law posters. Notice at Collection Privacy Policy (EMCC) - California Consumer Privacy Notice (EMCNL) - California Consumer Privacy Notice