Position Summary

The Business Project Senior Manager, PMO & Portfolio serves as the senior leader responsible for portfolio governance, strategic initiative delivery, Agile business execution, and project management practices across the Individual Dental organization. This role oversees the portfolio intake process, prioritization framework, strategic roadmap governance, and delivery execution for initiatives supporting business growth, operational excellence, customer experience, regulatory compliance, and organizational transformation.

The leader provides direction and oversight to Portfolio Management, Agile Product Management, Product Ownership, Project Management, and Epic Ownership functions, ensuring strategic initiatives are aligned to business objectives, appropriately prioritized, effectively governed, and successfully delivered. This role serves as a key partner to Operations, Technology, Product, Finance, and Executive Leadership teams to translate strategy into actionable plans and measurable business outcomes.

Core Accountabilities and Responsibilities

Portfolio Strategy & Governance

• Lead the overall portfolio management function for Individual Dental, ensuring initiatives are aligned with strategic objectives, operational priorities, and enterprise goals.
• Establish and maintain portfolio governance processes that support intake, evaluation, prioritization, approval, sequencing, and execution of business initiatives.
• Facilitate executive portfolio reviews and governance forums to provide transparency into investment decisions, delivery progress, risks, and business value realization.
• Drive portfolio prioritization decisions by balancing strategic alignment, business value, operational readiness, resource capacity, and organizational impact.
• Ensure portfolio roadmaps remain aligned with business strategies and evolving organizational priorities.

PMO Leadership & Strategic Execution

• Lead the PMO function responsible for planning, coordinating, monitoring, and delivering strategic business initiatives.
• Establish project management standards, governance frameworks, methodologies, and reporting practices that improve execution consistency and delivery outcomes.
• Oversee project execution activities including planning, risk management, dependency management, issue resolution, business readiness, and stakeholder engagement.
• Ensure projects and programs are executed within established timelines, scope, quality expectations, and business objectives.
• Provide executive-level visibility into project performance, risks, interdependencies, and milestone achievement.

Agile Product Management Leadership

• Provide leadership and direction for Agile Product Managers responsible for defining product vision, roadmaps, prioritization strategies, and business value delivery.
• Ensure business priorities are effectively translated into Agile execution plans, product backlogs, and delivery roadmaps.
• Partner with Technology, Product, and Operations leaders to optimize prioritization decisions and maximize business value.
• Establish governance and performance expectations supporting successful Agile delivery across teams and value streams.
• Promote Agile best practices and continuous improvement across the portfolio.

Product Ownership & Delivery Management

• Provide oversight and leadership to Product Owners responsible for translating strategic priorities into actionable requirements, user stories, and delivery plans.
• Ensure effective backlog management, prioritization, sprint planning support, and stakeholder alignment activities.
• Drive collaboration between business stakeholders, delivery teams, and technology partners to achieve successful implementation outcomes.
• Support operational readiness, adoption planning, change management, and realization of business benefits.
• Ensure customer, operational, and business requirements are effectively represented throughout the delivery lifecycle.

Epic Ownership & Business Readiness

• Provide leadership and direction for Epic Owners responsible for managing strategic initiatives from concept through implementation.
• Ensure Epics are appropriately defined, decomposed, prioritized, and governed throughout the delivery lifecycle.
• Establish processes supporting business case development, value realization tracking, dependency management, and executive reporting.
• Oversee strategic initiative execution, ensuring alignment between business objectives, delivery activities, and expected outcomes.
• Ensure operational readiness activities are incorporated into initiative planning and execution to support successful implementation and adoption.

Performance Management & Continuous Improvement

• Develop portfolio, project, and delivery performance metrics that provide visibility into initiative outcomes and organizational performance.
• Monitor portfolio health, delivery effectiveness, resource utilization, and business value realization.
• Identify opportunities to improve governance, decision-making, prioritization, delivery execution, and business engagement.
• Promote a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, innovation, and execution excellence.
• Drive maturity improvements across PMO, Agile, portfolio management, and governance disciplines.

People Leadership & Talent Development

• Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing team of portfolio managers, project managers, Agile Product Managers, Product Owners, Epic Owners, and other business delivery professionals.
• Establish clear performance expectations, development plans, and succession strategies that support organizational sustainability.
• Foster collaboration, accountability, innovation, and strong business partnership across teams.
• Promote employee engagement and professional growth while building organizational capabilities needed to support future business objectives.
• Create an inclusive, customer-focused culture centered on operational excellence and business results.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree required; Master's Degree preferred.
• 10+ years of progressive leadership experience in portfolio management, program management, project management, Agile delivery, operations, or related disciplines.
• Demonstrated success leading large-scale portfolios, strategic initiatives, and organizational transformation efforts.
• Experience leading portfolio governance, intake management, prioritization processes, and strategic planning activities.
• Strong knowledge of Agile methodologies, product management, product ownership, and enterprise delivery frameworks.
• Experience leading cross-functional teams in complex, matrixed organizations.
• Demonstrated ability to influence executive leaders and drive alignment across diverse stakeholder groups.
• Strong business acumen with experience balancing strategic objectives, operational requirements, customer needs, and delivery constraints.
• Exceptional communication, stakeholder management, and leadership skills.
• Experience within healthcare, insurance, highly regulated industries, or equivalent complex business environments preferred.

If you will be working at home occasionally or permanently, the internet connection must be obtained through a cable broadband or fiber optic internet service provider with speeds of at least 10Mbps download/5Mbps upload.

About Cigna Healthcare

Cigna Healthcare, a division of The Cigna Group, is an advocate for better health through every stage of life. We guide our customers through the health care system, empowering them with the information and insight they need to make the best choices for improving their health and vitality. Join us in driving growth and improving lives.

Qualified applicants will be considered without regard to race, color, age, disability, sex, childbirth (including pregnancy) or related medical conditions including but not limited to lactation, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran or military status, religion, national origin, ancestry, marital or familial status, genetic information, status with regard to public assistance, citizenship status or any other characteristic protected by applicable equal employment opportunity laws.

If you need a reasonable accommodation to complete the online application process, please email seeyourself@thecignagroup.com for assistance.  Please note that this email inbox is dedicated to accommodation requests only and cannot provide application updates or accept resumes.

The Cigna Group has a tobacco-free policy and reserves the right not to hire tobacco/nicotine users in states where that is legally permissible. Candidates in such states who use tobacco/nicotine will not be considered for employment unless they enter a qualifying smoking cessation program prior to the start of their employment. These states include: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Washington State.

Qualified applicants with criminal histories will be considered for employment in a manner consistent with all federal, state and local ordinances.