Solution Manager

Job Description:

We are looking for a Solution Manager to join our team! In this role, you will enable the successful execution of Penn Mutual's complex business and technology initiatives that span multiple teams and functions. You will bring together business, product, technology, operations, architecture, and shared services to translate approved priorities into achievable, coordinated deliverables.

The Solution Manager facilitates initiative readiness, capacity-aware planning, cross-team coordination, dependency management, and execution visibility, enabling teams and leaders to identify impacts and make more informed decisions earlier in the process. By fostering alignment, transparency, and delivery discipline, this role helps Penn Mutual navigate change and achieve business outcomes with greater predictability and success.

1. Initiative Readiness & Solution Shaping 

The Solution Manager ensures approved initiatives are sufficiently prepared before entering planning and delivery activities. 

• Facilitate initiative readiness activities to ensure work is sufficiently understood before planning and execution. 

• Partner with business, product, architecture, operations, and technology stakeholders to clarify scope, assumptions, dependencies, risks, and expected outcomes. 

• Coordinate discovery and solutioning activities required to support implementation planning. 

• Identify readiness gaps and coordinate actions required before initiatives enter delivery. 

• Ensure implementation approaches, milestones, dependency impacts, and delivery considerations are understood across participating teams. 

• Support transition of approved initiatives into quarterly planning and execution activities. 

• Promote consistency in readiness standards, planning artifacts, and delivery preparation practices. 

2. Quarterly Planning & Cross-Team Coordination 

The Solution Manager facilitates planning and alignment activities across teams participating in a shared solution or initiative. 

• Lead quarterly planning preparation activities. 

• Facilitate planning events involving multiple teams and stakeholders. 

• Coordinate sequencing and alignment of work across participating teams. 

• Support capacity-aware planning by identifying dependencies, constraints, risks, and execution impacts. 

• Maintain visibility into planning commitments, milestones, objectives, and delivery targets. 

• Drive alignment when priorities, timing, resourcing assumptions, or delivery commitments require adjustment. 

• Facilitate ongoing synchronization activities that support execution throughout the planning cycle. 

• Ensure key delivery decisions, assumptions, and commitments remain visible and understood by stakeholders. 

3. Dependency, Risk & Delivery Management 

The Solution Manager helps teams successfully navigate the complexity of delivering large cross-functional initiatives. 

• Maintain visibility into cross-team dependencies, assumptions, constraints, and delivery risks. 

• Facilitate proactive identification and resolution of delivery issues. 

• Coordinate remediation activities for execution risks and delivery challenges. 

• Escalate impediments requiring leadership awareness or decision-making. 

• Monitor initiative health and delivery progress against agreed commitments. 

• Support issue resolution across business, product, technology, operations, compliance, architecture, and shared service teams. 

• Facilitate tradeoff discussions when constraints or dependencies impact delivery commitments. 

• Help teams maintain focus on achieving agreed delivery outcomes. 

4. Delivery Visibility & Continuous Improvement 

The Solution Manager provides transparency into execution health and supports continual improvement across delivery practices. 

• Develop and maintain solution-level dashboards, reporting, and delivery insights. 

• Provide transparency into delivery progress, readiness, dependencies, risks, impediments, and overall execution health. 

• Facilitate retrospectives and improvement activities across planning and delivery processes. 

• Identify recurring organizational impediments and recommend opportunities for improvement. 

• Promote adoption of Penn Mutual delivery standards, planning practices, and governance expectations. 

• Support leadership discussions with clear, actionable execution insights. 

• Partner with Product Owners, and team leaders to improve planning, coordination, and delivery effectiveness. 

• Encourage continuous learning and operational excellence across participating teams. 

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent combination of education and relevant experience. 

• 7+ years of experience leading complex business, technology, product, program, or transformation initiatives. 

• Experience coordinating work across business and technology organizations. 

• Demonstrated success leading cross-functional initiatives involving multiple teams, stakeholders, and dependencies. 

• Strong facilitation, planning, communication, organizational, and problem-solving skills. 

• Ability to influence and align stakeholders in a matrixed environment without direct authority. 

• Experience with Agile delivery practices and iterative planning approaches. 

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting large-scale business or technology initiatives across multiple teams. 

• Experience with quarterly planning, portfolio execution, dependency management, or enterprise delivery coordination. 

• Experience within the financial services or insurance industry. 

• Experience with Jira and enterprise planning or reporting tools. 

• Relevant Agile, Product, Program, or Change Leadership certifications. 

Success Measures 

A successful Solution Manager: 

• Improves initiative readiness before execution begins. 

• Increases visibility into dependencies, risks, constraints, and delivery commitments. 

• Enables more predictable and realistic delivery plans. 

• Reduces delivery friction caused by unresolved cross-team dependencies. 

• Improves coordination across business, product, technology, and operational teams. 

• Facilitates informed decision-making through timely and transparent execution reporting. 

• Strengthens planning discipline and delivery effectiveness across participating teams. 

• Supports successful delivery of approved business initiatives. 

Capabilities for Success 

• Enterprise mindset and systems thinking. 

• Strong facilitation and stakeholder engagement skills. 

• Ability to work effectively across business and technology organizations. 

• Comfort navigating ambiguity and organizational complexity. 

• Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities. 

• Ability to communicate effectively with both executive leaders and delivery teams. 

• Commitment to collaboration, transparency, accountability, and continuous improvement. 

• Ability to lead through influence and build alignment across diverse stakeholder groups. 

Role Differentiation 

The Solution Manager operates at the initiative and solution level rather than serving as the manager of an individual project, team, or product. 

The role does not own: 

• Strategic planning 

• Portfolio prioritization 

• Business case development 

• Funding decisions 

• Investment governance 

• Resource allocation authority 

• Executive portfolio reporting 

• Value realization governance 

Instead, the Solution Manager focuses on: 

• Initiative readiness 

• Solution-level planning 

• Cross-team coordination 

• Dependency management 

• Delivery facilitation 

• Execution visibility 

• Risk management 

• Continuous improvement 

Base Salary Range: $120,000 - $130,000

For over 175 years, Penn Mutual has empowered individuals, families and businesses on the journey to achieve their financial goals. Through our partnership with Financial Professionals across the U.S., we help instill the confidence and reliability that comes from a stronger financial future. Penn Mutual and its affiliates offer a comprehensive suite of competitive products and services to meet the unique needs of Financial Professionals and their clients, including life insurance, annuities, wealth management and institutional asset management. To learn more, including current financial strength ratings, visit www.pennmutual.com.

Penn Mutual is committed to Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO). We provide employment and advancement opportunities to all qualified applicants and associates, according to applicable laws. This is reflected in our practices for hiring, placement, promotion, transfer, demotion, layoff, termination, recruitment, compensation, selection or training, and all other terms and conditions of employment. All employment-related decisions and practices are free from unlawful discrimination. This includes: race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry, citizenship age, gender (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, domestic partnership or civil union status, marital status, genetic information, disability, religious observance or practice, liability, veteran status or any other classification protected under applicable law.