Director - Program & Project Management

Role Description Programme Director / Program Delivery Executive

Reports To: VP Delivery Success

Matrix Reports: Project Managers

Purpose of the Role

The Program Delivery Executive (PDE) owns the execution and delivery integrity of Sapiens customer programs. This role sits within the Delivery Success team and is the primary accountable leader for program governance, milestone management, and value delivery inside a customer engagement.

The PDE is a senior delivery leader who brings deep insurance industry fluency, commercial discipline, and the judgement to manage complex multi-workstream programs with clarity and speed.

The role is accountable for ensuring that every milestone is delivered to agreed exit criteria, that every risk is visible before it becomes a crisis, and that the delivery model operates at the pace that shortens time-to-value for the customer.

The PDE operates an AI-native delivery model in which the execution layer is progressively automated, enabling the role to focus on discernment, governance, and the customer relationship.

The role works in close partnership with the Customer Success team for the long-term success and value realization of the customer. Commercial outcomes, NRR, ARR, account margin, and customer referenceability are shared responsibilities.

Key Responsibilities 01. Program Delivery & Commercial Outcomes

End-to-End Delivery Ownership

• Leads the full program lifecycle from initiation through planning, execution, and closure.

• Accountable for delivery on time, within scope, and within budget across all workstreams, including:

• Platform implementation

• Integration

• Data migration

• Business change

Time to Value

• Owns the pace at which the customer realizes measurable business outcomes from the Sapiens engagement.
• Defines the time-to-value baseline at programme initiation.
• Tracks progress against it at every milestone.
• Uses delivery decisions to actively shorten time-to-value.
• Where Sapiens commits to a standard implementation timeline, the PDE is accountable for meeting it and, where the team beats it, translates that into a commercial conversation with the customer.

AI-Led SaaS Implementation Velocity

• Moves programs toward faster implementation cycles consistent with Sapiens’ AI-led SaaS delivery model.
• Understands the configuration-over-customization discipline and applies it to keep programs on the standard implementation trajectory that maximizes customer time-to-value.

Commercial Outcomes

• In partnership with Customer Success, owns NRR contribution of the customer portfolio.
• Knows the expansion levers, drives them, and reports against them.

Growth

• Identifies upsell and cross-sell potential during delivery.
• Converts insight into pipeline opportunities.

AI-Native Execution Model

• Operates a delivery model in which AI handles the execution layer:

• Status tracking

• Risk summarization

• Documentation

• Meeting outputs

• Reporting cadences

• Directs AI tools, evaluates their output, and uses them to accelerate program pace and free team capacity for judgement-intensive work.

2. Milestone Management & Exit Criteria

Milestone Ownership

• Defines, manages, and tracks program milestones with precision.

• Each milestone has:

• A clear definition of done

• Agreed exit criteria

• Formal customer acceptance before the program advances

• This is the primary mechanism for preventing red projects.

Exit Criteria Discipline

• Works with the customer to agree exit criteria at the start of each phase, not at the end.
• Any customer request that falls outside accepted exit criteria is a natural change order, not a negotiation.
• Holds this boundary with clarity and without conflict.

Milestone-Based Billing Alignment

• Ensures that delivery milestones align with commercial billing triggers.
• Milestone acceptance by the customer is both a delivery gate and a commercial event.
• Manages both dimensions in coordination with the Customer Success team.

Risk & Dependency Management

• Maintains a live program risk register.
• Identifies, assesses, and mitigates risks before they become issues.
• Manages interdependencies across workstreams, vendors, and internal Sapiens teams.
• Surfaces conflicts and trade-offs early and drives resolution with pace.

3. Insurance Industry Fluency & Customer Understanding

Insurance Domain Depth

• Develops and maintains a deep understanding of:

• The customer’s business

• Profit & Loss drivers

• Operating model

• Competitive pressures

• Regulatory environment

• Speaks insurance fluently, including:

• Economics

• Operations

• Industry dynamics

Insurance Ontology & Autonomous Insurer Thesis

• Carries the Sapiens intellectual point of view into every customer engagement.

• Understands and can articulate:

• The Insurance Ontology argument, and

• Why a shared data model across the insurance value chain creates structural advantage.

• Understands the Autonomous Insurer thesis and the value of an AI-native insurance enterprise.

Mandatory Skills

• Quality Management
• Resource Management
• Risk/Crisis Management
• Schedule Management
• Scope & Change Management

Experience Profile (Based on JD)

• Senior Program Director / Delivery Executive background.
• Extensive experience leading large-scale enterprise transformation programs.
• Strong governance and milestone-driven delivery expertise.
• Experience managing complex SaaS implementation programs.
• Deep stakeholder and customer management skills.
• Commercial ownership exposure including NRR, ARR, account growth, and margin management.
• Insurance domain expertise preferred/expected.
• Experience working with AI-enabled delivery models and transformation programs.