IT Project Management Director

Job Description 

Nova IT Project Management Director will own intake, prioritization, sequencing, dependency management, delivery flow, and release execution across the Nova Platform team. The Director establishes the delivery system that connects product priorities, architecture decisions, engineering capacity, quality requirements, and release commitments, creating transparency and predictability across the Left Arm. 

This leader will manage a team of delivery and project-management professionals and partner closely with Product and Platform Engineering, Product Management, Architecture, Build Quality, DevSecOps, the Orchestration Hub, and Right Arm teams. The role is accountable for delivery governance, integrated planning, risk and issue management, executive reporting, and continuous improvement in throughput, cycle time, and release reliability. 

Core Responsibilities Include 

Delivery Strategy & Operating Model 

• Define and operate the delivery model, including intake, prioritization, planning cadence, governance, and escalation pathways. 

• Turn product and platform priorities into clear plans, milestones, release commitments, capacity needs, and accountable ownership. 

• Establish consistent delivery practices across engineering teams while allowing fit-for-purpose execution at the workstream level. 

• Align delivery plans with architecture, quality, security, infrastructure, data, and operational-readiness requirements. 

• Ensure Left Arm plans connect to the integrated Nova roadmap and cross-arm milestones. 

Flow, Dependency & Release Management 

• Own sequencing, dependency management, milestone tracking, and release coordination across the software factory. 

• Identify bottlenecks, conflicting priorities, capacity constraints, and cross-team risks before they affect committed outcomes. 

• Coordinate release scope, readiness activities, decision points, and communications across engineering and partner teams. 

• Partner with the Orchestration Hub and Right Arm planning leaders on dates and dependencies that cross organizational boundaries. 

• Create escalation and recovery plans when delivery performance moves outside agreed tolerances. 

Performance, Governance & Reporting 

• Establish metrics and scorecards for predictability, throughput, cycle time, work in progress, dependency health, quality, risk, and release reliability. 

• Provide concise, decision-ready reporting to Nova leadership, highlighting outcomes, tradeoffs, risks, and actions required. 

• Maintain disciplined risk, issue, assumption, dependency, and decision management across the portfolio. 

• Use delivery data to identify systemic constraints and drive continuous improvement across teams and processes. 

• Ensure commitments, changes, decisions, and readiness evidence are documented and transparent. 

People & Stakeholder Leadership 

• Lead and develop a team of project, program, release, and delivery-management professionals. 

• Build strong partnerships across Product, Engineering, Architecture, Quality, Security, Infrastructure, Data, Finance, and business teams. 

• Facilitate resolution of cross-functional conflicts and maintain focus on enterprise outcomes. 

• Manage delivery resources, vendor support, budgets, and capacity within the function. 

• Promote an accountable, fact-based, and collaborative culture that enables rapid escalation and resolution. 

Critical Leadership Competencies 

• Drives Vision and Purpose: Connects the role’s work to Nova’s broader transformation objectives and communicates a clear path forward. 

• Delivers Results: Creates accountability, removes barriers, and drives measurable outcomes under demanding timelines. 

• Manages Complexity: Synthesizes complex and sometimes conflicting information to establish practical solutions. 

• Decision Quality: Makes sound, timely decisions using technical, delivery, risk, and business considerations. 

• Collaborates: Builds effective partnerships across engineering, architecture, product, delivery, and business teams. 

• Communicates Effectively: Provides clear, concise, and audience-appropriate communications, recommendations, and escalations. 

• Manages Ambiguity: Establishes direction and momentum where requirements, solutions, or precedents are still emerging. 

• Instills Trust: Builds credibility through transparency, expertise, follow-through, and sound judgment. 

• Balances Stakeholders: Anticipates and reconciles competing priorities across product, engineering, architecture, quality, and business partners. 

• Directs Work: Sets clear priorities and accountability for delivery professionals and cross-functional execution teams. 

Critical Technology Competencies 

• Demonstrated expertise in technology program, portfolio, delivery, release, and dependency management. 

• Experience operating Agile, Waterfall, and hybrid delivery models across complex engineering environments. 

• Strong knowledge of software-development lifecycles, architecture governance, quality gates, DevSecOps, and production-readiness practices. 

• Experience establishing delivery metrics, executive scorecards, dashboards, and data-driven improvement routines. 

• Strong financial, capacity, vendor, resource, risk, and portfolio-management capabilities. 

• Ability to translate technical complexity into clear plans, decisions, and executive communications. 

Qualifications 

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent related experience required; advanced degree and relevant program-management certification preferred. 

• 10+ years of progressive technology program, portfolio, project, or delivery-management experience, including significant people-management experience. 

• Demonstrated experience leading complex enterprise technology portfolios or transformation programs. 

• Proven success establishing scalable governance, integrated plans, performance measures, and executive reporting. 

• Experience managing teams, budgets, vendors, capacity, delivery risks, and cross-organizational dependencies. 

• Exceptional facilitation, negotiation, problem-solving, written communication, and presentation skills. 

• Experience in healthcare, pharmacy benefit management, regulated technology, or similarly complex environments preferred. 

This role is also anticipated to be eligible to participate in an annual bonus and long term incentive plan.

At The Cigna Group, you’ll enjoy a comprehensive range of benefits, with a focus on supporting your whole health. Starting on day one of your employment, you’ll be offered several health-related benefits including medical, vision, dental, and well-being and behavioral health programs. We also offer 401(k), company paid life insurance, tuition reimbursement, a minimum of 18 days of paid time off per year, paid holidays, and leaves of absence. For more details on our employee benefits programs, click here.

About The Cigna Group

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.