Pacific Life Re
AVP, Portfolio Management Office
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Job Title
AVP, Portfolio Management Office
Job Description
We’re a global life reinsurer operating in Europe, Asia, Australia and North America, and are part of Pacific Life, a mutual insurance group. Fuelled by our pursuit of excellence and a quest to innovate, we’re proud to do things differently. Our people aren’t afraid to disrupt and challenge industry thinking and provide the best protection, savings and retirement reinsurance products and services possible.
Role Overview
The AVP, Portfolio Management Office is responsible for leading Pacific Life Re's (PL Re) Project Management Office, providing PL Re-wide portfolio governance, investment oversight, delivery assurance, and PMO capability leadership across the Business Change function.
The role reports to the VP, Business Change, and works in close partnership with Portfolio Leads to ensure change investment across PL Re is aligned to strategic priorities, resources are deployed effectively, delivery performance is transparent, and expected business outcomes are realised.
The AVP, Portfolio Management Office owns the frameworks, governance, reporting, controls, tools and standards that enable successful portfolio delivery, while continuously improving organisational delivery maturity and PMO effectiveness.
Role Responsibilities
Portfolio Leadership & Investment Governance
- Lead the central Business Change PMO function, establishing a consistent portfolio management framework that aligns change investment to PL Re's strategic priorities.
- Own portfolio governance, investment controls, prioritisation processes and decision-making frameworks across the change portfolio.
- Facilitate quarterly, annual, and ongoing portfolio planning cycles, balancing strategic demand, capacity, funding and delivery capability.
- Partner with Portfolio Leads to provide a consolidated PL Re view of portfolio performance, dependencies, risks, resource utilisation and investment outcomes.
- Provide independent challenge and recommendations to senior leadership on portfolio prioritisation, sequencing and investment decisions.
- Ensure governance forums receive accurate, timely and decision-focused reporting to support effective executive oversight.
Portfolio Performance, Value & Benefits Realisation
- Establish portfolio performance measures and reporting standards to provide transparency across all programmes and projects.
- Own portfolio-level tracking of investment performance, business outcomes, benefits realisation and value delivery.
- Ensure business cases include robust assumptions, measurable outcomes, benefits profiles, delivery approaches and risk assessments.
- Monitor portfolio health and delivery confidence, identifying emerging risks, issues and delivery constraints requiring management intervention.
- Drive a culture of accountability for benefits ownership and outcome delivery across business sponsors and delivery teams.
- Develop executive dashboards that provide clear visibility of progress, value delivered, investment consumption and strategic alignment.
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PMO Leadership & Delivery Assurance
- Review and establish, maintain and continuously simplify and improve PMO frameworks, methodologies, standards, tools and controls aligned to industry best practice.
- Define and embed minimum delivery standards, governance requirements and quality assurance processes across all change initiatives.
- Lead portfolio assurance activities, health reviews and stage-gate assessments to improve delivery quality and predictability.
- Measure and monitor compliance with project, programme and portfolio governance standards and implement corrective actions where required.
- Partner with Risk, Compliance, Internal Audit, Legal and Finance to ensure appropriate controls are embedded throughout the change lifecycle.
- Provide independent oversight of delivery performance and escalation of material risks and issues to senior leadership.
Resource Management & Portfolio Capability
- Own portfolio demand management, resource capacity planning and portfolio workforce forecasting processes.
- Ensure optimal deployment of change resources across competing strategic priorities.
- Develop portfolio management capabilities, practices and tools that improve organisational delivery maturity and effectiveness.
- Lead continuous improvement initiatives using lessons learned, delivery insights and industry best practice.
- Establish PMO service offerings, operating procedures, metrics and performance standards.
- Drive adoption of portfolio management tools and reporting solutions that improve decision-making and portfolio transparency.
Leadership & Stakeholder Management
- Lead, coach and develop PMO team members, creating a high-performing and continuously improving PMO function.
- Partners closely with Business Change, Technology, Architecture, Finance, Risk and business stakeholders to ensure effective delivery oversight, governance compliance, business readiness and successful change adoption.
- Build strong relationships with senior business leaders, Portfolio Leads, sponsors and delivery teams to support successful change execution.
- Be a trusted advisor to executives on portfolio management, governance, delivery risk and investment decision-making.
- Prepare and present portfolio updates, investment recommendations and governance materials to Executive Committees, Portfolio Boards and other senior forums.
- Promote a culture of transparency, accountability, disciplined delivery and value-focused decision-making across the organisation.
Skills & Experience
- Minimum 10–12 years of progressive PMO, project and program management experience, with at least 5 years in a leadership or PMO management capacity.
- Demonstrated experience managing complex, cross-functional transformation programs in a regulated financial services environment.
- Proven track record of building a PMO function within a mid-to-large insurance organization.
- Deep knowledge of project and programme methodologies (e.g. PRINCE2, APM, MSP, MoP).
- Significant experience in people management and team leadership.
- Expertise in portfolio management tools (e.g., Planview, PPO, ServiceNow SPM, Microsoft Project, Jira, Azure DevOps).
- Proficiency in project financial management, business case development, and benefits realization.
- Excellent executive communication, presentation, and facilitation skills with the ability to influence at all levels of the organization.
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Working For Pacific Life Re
Every person in our global team is valued for the unique qualities they bring to our business and we seek to build their expertise and support their individual ambitions at every step. Of course, we take our work seriously and we know our team can operate under great pressure. We work hard and thrive on achievement, but we also know how to have fun and relax too. We regularly host a range of team building days to strengthen our team's connection with each other and reflect on their successes.
Providing employees with a healthy work-life balance is very important to our culture. We have a wide range of employee benefits and we host regular social activities and well being initiatives. We are also committed to supporting our employee's involvement in their communities, by actively fundraising, hosting charity events and overseeing volunteering opportunities.
Benefits (Only For Permanent And Fixed Term Employees)
Leave
- 25 days of annual leave with option to buy/sell more days
- Adoption and fertility leave
- Generous enhanced parental leave
Healthcare
- Comprehensive private insurance coverage for employee and dependents
- Group Life Insurance coverage of 9x basic annual salary and Group Income Protection up to 75% of basic annual salary
- Optical benefits
Savings & Retirement
- 15% combined employee/employer contributions
Wellness
- Subsidized gym membership
- Access to Employee Assistance Program
- Cycle to Work and Electric Car Salary Sacrifice Scheme
- Time off for volunteering
- Charitable matching of employee donations
You Can Be Who You Are
We are committed to a culture of diversity and inclusion that embraces the authenticity of all employees, partners and communities. We support all employees to thrive and achieve their fullest potential.
As part of our commitment to diversity and inclusion, we will provide reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process to ensure equal access to applicants with disabilities. Please contact us about your needs so that we can discuss these with you to make sure that suitable adjustments are made, where possible.
Pacific Life Re Values
Please click here to view our company values
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