Service Development Program Consultant

At Northwestern Mutual, our vision is to deliver financial security to help our clients live their best lives by choice. A key pillar of our vision and success is a strong, vibrant sales force. This role sits within the Distribution Services (DSV) area of the Career Distribution (CD) function. DSV enables the field to grow distribution and build enduring practices by delivering the highest quality, valuable services.

WHAT'S THE ROLE?

The Service Development Program Consultant is a key member of the Shared Business Services team. The incumbent applies understanding of the business and data driven decision making to define needs and opportunities to be addressed by new or enhanced service offerings. The Service Development Program Consultant facilitates and provides direction to agile teams to develop new, or enhance current, shared business services. This includes maintaining team focus on achieving objectives and defined success criteria for features.

PRIMARY DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Ensure cohesive future state user visions for shared business services, in partnership with Service Development Consultants, Service Development Leads, and Business Owner
• Develop and maintain deep understanding of business, including needs and opportunities addressed by the service
• Cultivate data-driven decision-making by researching, acquiring and leveraging data on user needs, behaviors and experiences
• Author and refine user stories. Translate requirements to build and validate use cases and user stories around a service or service feature and communicate them effectively to a broad audience
• Develop and maintain multiple prioritized backlogs of user stories for implementation according to business value or return on investment for assorted services and/or service features concurrently
• Provide direction to agile teams to keep focus on achieving objectives and defined success criteria for features
• Drive service development cadence including daily scrums, sprint planning meetings, sprint reviews, retrospectives, and quarterly planning session for multiple services and/or service features concurrently

BRING YOUR BEST! WHAT THE ROLE REQUIRES:

• Bachelor's degree and seven or more years of experience solving problems in business operations, complex processes, sales/distribution organizations, new products or other related industry
• Working knowledge of project management / agile frameworks with demonstrated ability to be adaptable with use of methodologies in varied team settings
• Demonstrated flexibility to adjust to changing business needs by effectively running and prioritizing large or complex concurrent assignments
• Ability to rise above outmoded practices and solve problems in newer, better ways in a team environment
• Proven track record and ability to cultivate relationships with multiple, concurrent key stakeholders and influence without authority across all levels in the organization
• Ability to think analytically, creatively and at deep levels of abstraction
• Knowledgeable in current policies, practices, and ability to anticipate future trends affecting the business unit from people, process, and technology perspectives
• Knowledge of Continuous Learning Improvement or Lean Concepts and tools preferred
• Excellent written and oral communication skills including facilitation; ability to deliver information, well-organized documentation, and presentations
• Knowledge of Northwestern Mutual's financial planning process, products or field operations preferred

BENEFITS:

• Competitive base pay!
• 401K
• Pension plan
• Educational assistance
• Performance based incentive pay
• Medical, dental and vision insurance
• Parental leave
• Caregiver time off
• ….and more

We are an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, age or status as a protected veteran, or any other characteristic protected by law.

#LI-POST

#IN-POST

W e are an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, age or status as a protected veteran, or any other characteristic protected by law.

If you work or would be working in Colorado or outside of a Corporate location, please click here for information pertaining to compensation and benefits.

FIND YOUR FUTURE

We’re excited about the potential people bring to Northwestern Mutual. You can grow your career here while enjoying first-class perks, benefits, and commitment to diversity and inclusion.