Summary

Leads business operations, finance, and project management efforts for the Northwestern Mutual Foundation from initiation through completion and manages the financial and operational needs of the Government and Community Relations Department.

Primary Duties & Responsibilities

• Ensures the operational health and functioning of the Government & Community Relations department by collaborating with Northwestern Mutual finance, investment, law and technology teams.

• Manages the resources and vendors supporting the entire department by verifying progress and removing obstacles.

• Provides expert-level program management consulting, negotiation, and influencing at all levels.

• Work with Community Relations and Finance staff to manage the financial processes of the Foundation, including check paying and wires, budgeting, forecasting, and analysis. Prepares and presents financial reports to the Northwestern Mutual Foundation board.

• Work with Government Relations and Finance staff to manage the operations of the political giving programs, including technology needs, budgeting, disbursements, and compliance.

• Prepares and presents progress reports to the Political Action Committee board.

• Manages highly sensitive internal scenarios involving expenditures of Foundation and political giving funds.

• Partners with Law to identify, document, and communicate the complex compliance needs of the Foundation and Government Relations.

• Coordinates and manages the interrelated efforts of product business owners, product management team, technology vendors, and technology contractors – to address the multiple technology needs of both Community Relations and Government Relations, to ensure successful integration of technology, ultimately resulting in overall effectiveness and efficiency.

• Independently leads departmental project/support assignments, managing scope, risk, business value, schedule, and budget.

• Support department budget planning in collaboration with department leaders and Finance to ensure budget/Finance needs are addressed for both Community Relations and Government Relations including forecasting and reporting.

• Accountable for the oversight and management of daily budget operations, and proactively identifying and escalating issues to senior leadership when necessary.

• Responsible for gathering and delivering budget metrics required by the department. Uses data to make successes and challenges visible, and to drive insights and action plans to continually adjust and pursue project goals.

• Performs people leader responsibilities for direct report(s) including coaching and staff development, communication, performance management, and staffing.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree with an emphasis in Business, Project Management, or a related field preferred OR a significant amount of directly related work experience beyond the minimum required for the position. CPA or graduate level work desirable.

• Minimum 10 years of related operational management experience and demonstrated agility to work across organizational boundaries, influence, negotiate, and collaborate at all levels and across the enterprise.

• Proven project, people, and operational management skills, including working with diverse teams with the ability to build rapport to establish and maintain strong relationships with key partners.

• Experience managing complex and confidential internal data and decisions and demonstrated strategic/critical thinking skills.

• Highly organized and detail-oriented, with a demonstrated ability to prioritize and manage multiple tasks.

• High degree of self-motivation and initiative in sharing information, contributing towards group goals, and accepting responsibility for results

• Comfortable with technology, particularly payment/financial systems.

* We are open to hiring a highly qualified candidate at the Sr. Director level for this position if their experience and skills meet our expectations.

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