Vice President, Business Integrations
At Novacore, we're entering an exciting new chapter. Novacore is the newly formed specialty insurance entity created from the April 2025 sale of NSM Insurance Group's U.S. commercial division. We're building something bold and meaningful, and every team member plays a vital role in that mission.
With more than $1.5 billion in premium across 20+ specialty insurance programs, we're transforming the commercial insurance experience - delivering exceptional value to our agent partners and customers through smarter, faster and more collaborative ways of doing business. We specialize in tailored Property & Casualty and Accident & Health insurance solutions for niche industries, powered by advanced analytics, modern technology and a commitment to innovation at every level.
The Vice President, Business Integrations leads Novacore's program management office and owns the delivery of our portfolio of new programs, carrier and platform transitions, acquisition integrations, and operational improvement initiatives, from intake through steady-state operations. You will oversee the governance and success of every program, build the PMO into a repeatable and scalable delivery function, personally lead priority initiatives while the team grows, and serve as a trusted strategic advisor to senior leadership. You will work cross-functionally with executives, external partners and vendors, and internal teams including Operations, Finance, Compliance, Actuarial, Claims, Technology and Marketing to bring programs live and writing profitable business.
This role owns outcomes end to end. You escalate early, close loops where they were opened, commit to dates and renegotiate them in advance when needed, and work transparently so that status and decisions are visible to the people who depend on them. Novacore is a fast-moving organization where every leader combines hands-on work with strategic responsibility, and ambiguity is something to be resolved rather than waited out.
**Position to sit in Conshohocken, PA Home office or Plano, TX Office on a hybrid schedule**Responsibilities:Lead all aspects of portfolio and program lifecycle management including intake, planning, execution, governance, vendor management, stakeholder communication, and reporting:
Overseeing the portfolio- Own the governance and success of all programs and implementations across the portfolio, including new program launches, carrier and platform transitions, acquisition integrations, and operational improvement initiatives.
- Run the governance cadence across internal teams, external partners and executive stakeholders so leadership always has an accurate, current and risk-rated view of the portfolio.
- Ensure every program has a named project lead, a current status, an active risk and issue log, and a clear plan to steady state.
- Lead executive-level portfolio reviews.
Building the PMO and operating model- Define and own the integration operating model: phases, decision gates, roles and responsibilities, and escalation paths from intake through steady-state operations.
- Develop standardized playbooks, templates, SOPs and governance artifacts so that kickoff, discovery, operational readiness and delivery are consistent and repeatable across program types.
- Establish tooling and documentation standards for the project management team.
- Clarify how the PMO works with Operations, Product and Technology so that ownership of testing, readiness, stabilization and ongoing support is explicit.
- Recruit, develop and lead a growing team of project managers, and shape the team's structure as the portfolio scales.
Leading program delivery- Personally project-manage priority programs while the team is being built, setting the standard the team adopts.
- Lead planning sessions, set structured timelines, and prepare teams for key decisions and handoffs.
- Guide workstream leaders, clarify priorities, and manage interdependencies so activities are sequenced correctly across functions.
- Keep teams focused on delivering business value, not just checking boxes.
Managing vendors and delivery partners- Own change control for vendor-delivered programs, including impact assessment, internal decision-making, and communication back to partners.
- Direct external delivery partner resources engaged on Novacore programs and manage their scope and cost.
- Build internal delivery capability over time and reduce reliance on external partners where it makes sense to do so.
Tracking progress and reporting- Use project management tools and metrics to monitor milestones, identify delays, and adjust plans as needed.
- Monitor and report on program delivery performance, ensuring accurate and timely updates to executive stakeholders.
- Escalate issues requiring senior-level input early, before they become schedule impacts.
Ensuring readiness, exit criteria and handoffs- Partner with Operations on testing and operational readiness, ensuring all necessary stakeholders are engaged at the right time.
- Define and enforce exit criteria for each phase and document handoffs to segment and operations leaders.
- Support the transition of programs into steady-state support and continuous improvement.
Advising senior leadership- Act as a senior strategic voice across departments, advising the executive team on operations, delivery and organizational design.
- Lead or sponsor operational improvement initiatives across the business as they are identified.
- Capture lessons learned and drive continuous improvement in delivery practices and integration playbooks.
Qualifications:- Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Project Management, or a related discipline; PMP, PgMP or equivalent certification preferred.
- 10+ years of program or project leadership, including experience leading a PMO or a multi-program portfolio.
- Experience building or maturing a PMO or delivery function, including operating model, playbooks, governance and team.
- Prior experience in the insurance sector strongly preferred, specifically within an MGA or MGU, including program launches, carrier transitions and policy administration system implementations.
- Proven experience leading business integration for new programs and/or M&A transactions, including the end-to-end stand-up lifecycle.
- Experience managing external consulting, systems integrator or vendor delivery resources.
- Experience managing complex, cross-functional programs involving multiple business units and external third parties.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills; able to convey complex delivery status clearly to executive audiences.
- Highly skilled in organizing and leading steering committees and executive project reviews.
- Comfortable being hands-on and personally managing projects alongside leading a team.
- Proficient in project management and collaboration tools (e.g., Monday.com, Jira, Notion, MS Office) and comfortable adopting AI-assisted ways of working.
- Strong documentation and analytical skills; able to translate strategy into actionable plans.
- Direct, candid communicator who gives and receives feedback well and builds alignment before escalating.
- Ability to lead distributed teams and manage programs across multiple states and locations.
- Ability to travel up to 25% of the time.
What Success Looks Like-First 90 days- You have established relationships with key business leaders across all functional areas and with external partners, and are recognized as Novacore's point of contact for programs.
- You have developed a clear understanding of the current portfolio, active workstreams, vendor relationships and prioritization framework.
- You have assumed day-to-day ownership of active programs and deliverables, ensuring continuity and no loss of momentum.
- You have published an initial operating model and governance cadence that the portfolio is running on.
- You have identified gaps, risks and opportunities in the current delivery model and presented an initial point of view to leadership.
- Beyond the delivery model, you have identified process gaps and opportunities across the enterprise, worked collaboratively with stakeholders to close them, and documented the resulting SOPs.
- You consistently demonstrate the attributes expected of a senior leader: urgency, sound problem-solving, the ability to turn ambiguity into clarity, and the discipline to keep teams focused on the goal.
180 - 270 days- Standardized playbooks and templates are in use for new program intake and delivery.
- You have delivered measurable progress against active program milestones, demonstrating independent ownership of the portfolio.
- You have a defined plan for building internal delivery capability and managing external partner engagement, and it is in execution.
- You are operating as a trusted cross-functional partner, recognized by senior leadership, program heads and functional owners as the go-to delivery leader.
- You have identified and begun executing at least one initiative that extends or improves the delivery framework.
