Product Owner

Job Title: Head of North America Transformations – Product Owner

Employment Type: Full-Time

Start: 3/19/2025

Industry: Insurance and Re-Insurance

Workplace Type: On-Site

Location: Red Bank, New Jersey, United States

Job Description: We are seeking a Head of North America (NA) Transformation (Product Owner) to drive strategic and operational transformation initiatives in coordination with business leadership. This role involves leading the development and implementation of innovative solutions that streamline new product introduction, simplify underwriting processes, automate decision making, and support the company’s aspirations to be leading specialty insurer. They are responsible for creating and maintaining a comprehensive transformation strategy that aligns with the North America business objectives and transformation roadmap. The successful candidate will be a key team member of the North America team and the Transformation Team.

Key Responsibilities:

• Managing and prioritizing the strategic operating model development and improvement of processes, workflows, system enhancements, specific projects to improve the underwriting operating environment, with an initial focus on areas identified as opportunities for optimization, modernization, efficiency, and process improvement.
• End-to-End Project Oversight: Overseeing and managing the entire lifecycle of the NA division roadmaps, projects, steering committees, portfolio budgets, risks, and issues and in general, in coordination with the project management governance resources.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Working with various stakeholders to understand needs and translate them into product requirements while being highly effective in building and maintaining relationships with Business Executives and accountable to align transformation initiatives to meet business priorities and goals. Partnering with BTS and the delivery organization to drive the integration of new technologies and systems, ensuring they are scalable, and aligned with business objectives while developing and implementing change management strategies to support the successful adoption of new technologies and processes across the organization.
• Primary Point of Contact: Acting as the liaison for NA value-stream projects in agile/scrum meetings working with development teams and other stakeholders. (e.g., Operations, Finance, Data & Analytics, Claims & Actuarial, etc.)
• Business Case Development: Creating business cases for projects, driving and developing robust budgets and estimates for projects as well as supporting the tracking and reporting of project cost and expense over the life cycle of projects. Establish and maintain governance structures for the NA Portfolio, including decision-making and reporting protocols. Responsible for tracking benefits of the NA Transformation according to defined and agreed KPIs.
• Timeline and Stakeholder Management: Leading efforts to secure executive sponsorship and stakeholder buy-in for transformation initiatives while driving project timelines, managing stakeholders, and addressing blockers and bottlenecks.
• Solution Identification: Identify, track, and mitigate risks and issues impacting NA Portfolio by developing contingency plans to address potential obstacles and finding solutions to keep projects on track and managing stakeholder expectations.
• Status Reporting: Partnering with stakeholders to deliver updates and status reports.
  
  

Qualifications:

• 10 years of Product Owner transformation experience and a proven track record in leading and driving complex, large-scale strategic projects focused on North America with a P&C commercial, specialty insurer.
• Bachelor’s degree is required, advanced degree is strongly preferred, with an outstanding record of academic achievement.
  
  

Skills & Attributes:

• Strong strategic thinking and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills with the ability to deal effectively with people with conflicting expectations, differing opinions, and multiple viewpoints.
• Demonstrated organizational, management, and presentation skills focused on reporting to senior management.
• Ability to express complex ideas visually and clearly with concise and impactful reporting.
• Demonstrated ability to influence and collaborate at all organizational levels, both internally and externally as well as the ability to identify and resolve complex problems.
• Demonstrated effectiveness in leading and operating within a matrixed organization.
• Experience in establishing governance structures and performance metrics.
• Demonstrated ability to drive change and achieve results. Experience managing vendors working within an application development outsourcing model.
• Knowledge of the entire IT Project Lifecycle, especially regarding planning and initiation, delivery, testing, & problem resolution
• Experience with Agile Methodologies, familiarity with frameworks such as Scrum, Kanban, SAFe, or hybrid methodologies is essential.
• Experience with Lean Principles: Deep understanding of Lean methodologies and principles, including value stream mapping, continuous improvement, and waste reduction.
• Portfolio Management Skills: Proven ability to manage multiple projects or programs within a portfolio, ensuring alignment with strategic goals and efficient resource allocation.
• Financial Acumen: Strong financial management skills to oversee budgeting, forecasting, and financial analysis within the portfolio.
• Ability to adapt quickly to new environments, fast learner, ability to work under stress.
• Travel is associated with this role.
  
  

Please apply through our on-line portal with your resume and contact information. Applications will be reviewed and assessed against position requirements. Qualified candidates will be contacted by the lead recruiter within 48 hours of submittal. No phone calls please. Method360 is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer