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New York, New York, United States
Hybrid
Individually, we are people, but together we are Aviva. Individually, these are just words, but together they are our Values – Care, Commitment, Community, and Confidence.
At Aviva, we help customers build resilience and move forward with confidence. We foster an inclusive workplace where diverse perspectives are valued, innovation is encouraged, and employees are empowered to grow their careers while making a meaningful impact. As we continue to expand our U.S. Specialty platform, we are building a high-performing technology organization focused on delivering a modern, event-driven platform through disciplined program execution.
The Opportunity
Aviva Specialty is a new US commercial specialty and E&S carrier backed by Aviva plc, and we are building it from a blank sheet of paper. Rather than a monolithic core system, we are assembling a modern, event-driven platform from best-of-breed components — policy administration, rating, claims, finance, and a cloud data platform at the center — all integrated through APIs and a common event backbone. The architecture is set. What the company needs now is the leader who makes it real, on time, and to specification. The Senior Technical Program Manager owns the delivery of the entire implementation program. This is not a coordination role: this leader owns the integrated program plan, drives every vendor implementation to its milestones, and is personally accountable for the platform being ready when the business needs to bind its first policy. Where a traditional carrier would spread this across a program office of twenty, this leader delivers it through skill, judgment, and command of a matrixed organization.
The role works hand-in-glove with the Aviva UK PMO, directing group project resources as an extension of the US program while owning the US delivery outcome end to end. It is a founding position with direct executive exposure, and it will grow — including one to two direct reports — as the program scales.
What you'll do:
Program Ownership and Delivery
• Own the integrated program plan across every system implementation and integration workstream, from vendor kickoff through production cutover and stabilization.
• Drive each vendor implementation to its committed milestones, owning the master schedule, the critical path, and the dependencies between workstreams that no single vendor sees.
• Lead delivery through a matrixed organization — vendor implementation teams, Aviva UK PMO resources, and internal stakeholders — holding every party accountable to the plan this leader owns.
• Own program-level decisions on sequencing, scope trade-offs, and cutover readiness, escalating to the Head of Technology with a recommendation, never just a problem.
Requirements and Delivery Quality
• Own the traceability of business and product requirements through design, configuration, testing, and go-live — ensuring what the business asked for is what the platform delivers — and own the sign-off process that determines when a system is ready.
• Lead integration and end-to-end testing across systems, owning defect triage, prioritization, and the quality bar for every release.
• Ensure integration contracts — APIs, event schemas, and data flows between systems — are delivered to specification and conform to the architecture standards set by technology leadership.
Timeline, Risk, and Governance
• Own the program risk register: identify risks early, drive mitigation with named owners and dates, and escalate with candor before risks become issues.
• Own program status as the single, trusted, decision-ready source of truth for the executive team, the UK PMO, and group stakeholders.
• Define and run the program governance rhythm: steering cadence, vendor delivery reviews, and stage-gate decisions, aligned to Aviva group program standards.
• Drive vendor delivery performance, owning milestone acceptance and holding implementation partners commercially accountable to their statements of work in partnership with technology leadership.
UK PMO and Stakeholder Leadership
• Own the working relationship with the Aviva UK PMO: direct group project resources allocated to the program, align US delivery to group reporting and assurance requirements, and represent the US program in group forums.
• Lead stakeholders across underwriting, claims, finance, and operations through the change the platform brings, owning readiness for the people and processes on the other side of go-live.
• Build and lead a small delivery team as the program scales, setting the standards and delivery culture of the US program management function from its first hire.
Cross-Functional Leadership
• Collaborate with executive leaders across the organization.
• Drive alignment between program delivery and business readiness, ensuring underwriting, claims, finance, and operations are prepared for every go-live.
• Support enterprise initiatives and organizational priorities.
• Promote collaboration across underwriting, claims, finance, operations, and product functions.
• Contribute to enterprise decision-making and strategic planning processes.
What you'll bring:
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, Business, or a related discipline.
• 10+ years of progressive experience delivering complex technology programs, including multi-vendor core system implementations and integrations.
• Experience leading integration and end-to-end testing across multiple systems, including defect triage and release quality ownership.
• Demonstrated success leading large-scale, multi-workstream delivery programs and strategic initiatives.
• Strong understanding of US Excess and Surplus specialty insurance products and underwriting dynamics.
• Executive-level communication, presentation, and leadership skills.
• Proven ability to influence senior stakeholders and drive business outcomes.
Preferred Qualifications
• Substantial experience delivering complex technology implementation programs, including multi-vendor core system implementations and system integration workstreams, with personal accountability for the outcome.
• Insurance or broader financial services delivery experience strongly preferred; familiarity with policy administration, claims, rating, or finance system implementations is a significant differentiator.
• Working technical fluency: APIs and integration patterns, event-driven architectures, data migration and conversion, testing strategy, and cloud-based SaaS delivery models.
• Proven command of program disciplines — planning, dependency and critical path management, risk and issue governance, and executive reporting — in both agile and hybrid delivery models.
• Experience directing matrixed or group resources to enterprise programme standards.
• Formal certification (PMP, MSP, SAFe) is welcome; outcomes matter more
Knowledge, Skills & Competencies
• Expert in program delivery disciplines with broad technical fluency across integration and SaaS.
• Strong knowledge of insurance operations and the core systems that support them.
• Leads a matrixed organization of vendor, group, and internal resources; builds a small team as the program scales.
• Resolves complex multi-workstream delivery problems; recommends the decision.
Leadership & commercial skills
• Entrepreneurial “builder” mindset with a bias for action
• Strong commercial acumen, balancing delivery ambition with cost and quality discipline
• Excellent relationship-building and negotiation skills
• Ability to influence at senior levels and lead through collaboration
• Decisive, outcome-focused, and highly accountable
What you'll gain:
• Executive visibility and leadership development opportunities.
• Ownership of high-impact strategic initiatives.
• Opportunities to shape the future direction of Aviva U.S. Specialty.
• Competitive compensation and executive incentive opportunities.
• Long-term incentive eligibility.
• Flexible work arrangements.
• Comprehensive health, wellness, retirement, and financial wellbeing programs.
• An inclusive, innovative, and high-performing culture focused on growth and excellence.
Work Arrangement: Hybrid
Travel Requirements: Up to 25% travel for executive leadership meetings, strategic planning sessions, broker and client engagements, industry conferences, and cross-functional business initiatives.
Physical Requirements: This position is primarily performed in an office or remote work environment and requires prolonged periods of computer use, analysis of complex business and program data, communication with internal and external stakeholders, and participation in virtual and in-person meetings.
Salary Range: $125,000- $225,000 plus annual incentive and long-term incentive eligibility