Program Manager Nat Cat (Hybrid; 80-100%)

Do you have several years of project management experience? And are you passionate about steering an organisation and bringing your strategic mindset to support critical decision making?  

Then we are looking forward to your application!  

About the role 

Following  growth of the Cat Perils organization, we are managing an increasingly complex landscape of products, projects, and global resources. This role is critical to bringing transparency, discipline, and strategic alignment into how we allocate resources, prioritize work, and execute initiatives to build Swiss Re's catastrophe risk views and linked tools/capabilitites of the future in a structured and resilient way. 

In this role, you are responsible for designing and implementing the frameworks, processes, and tools required to bring transparency, structure, and consistency into how we prioritize, plan, and track our work across Cat Perils. You ensure that our leaders have the right information, governance, and support to make informed decisions. 

This position will report directly to the Head of Cat Perils and will closely work with the Cat Perils leadership team for effective execution of the role's responsibilities. 

About the Team 

The Catastrophe Perils team ("Cat Perils") is responsible for Swiss Re’s global natural catastrophe risk assessment. With our proprietary modelling technology for natural catastrophe perils, we bring latest science to underwriting decision-making, working closely with peers in re/insurance underwriting and further support our business in all matters related to natural catastrophe risk. We create value for Swiss Re by driving confident Nat Cat decisions. 

Your key responsibilities include: 

• Organization of the annual planning process: 

• Design and implement a comprehensive project portfolio management; including enabling of project priorization, scoping and staffing 

• Decision support: Structure and facilitate the annual and quarterly planning processes, enabling transparent prioritization and trade-off decisions 

• Prepare decision materials, analyses, and scenarios to support the Cat Perils Leadership Team in portfolio steering decisions 

• Coordination of quarterly exchanges with the team's focus group that consists of key business stakeholders for priority setting 

• Ensure minimum project standards including objectives, key results, expected benefits, key risk with mitigants, and milestone plans  

• Tracking of project progress to ensure projects deliver according to plan, within budget and according to stakeholder expectations 

• Develop and maintain a resource transparency framework across ~70 global resources, providing visibility on capacity and allocation 

• Ensure projects meet the team's "Best practices" including also checks on project documentation, systematic storage of relevant project reference information 

• Support leadership, product leads, and project leads in making informed resource and prioritization decisions (without owning decisions directly)  

• Establish and manage portfolio tracking and reporting via tools such as Azure DevOps  

• Promote consistent agile ways of working and ensure alignment between sprint execution and portfolio-level transparency+ 

• Act as an enabler and facilitator across teams, increasing transparency and alignment without adding unnecessary overhead 

About you 

You are a strong strategic communicator with a change-oriented mindset and proven experience leading complex initiatives across teams and geographies. You bring a structured, project-driven approach to shaping operating models and ways of working, influencing stakeholders and driving alignment even without formal authority. Comfortable navigating ambiguity, you balance strategic oversight with disciplined execution, ensuring initiatives deliver tangible business value. You are able tocan maintain strategic oversight while also digging into details were required to identify, and highlight issues and to establish paths to remediation. You are motivated by projects that combine scientific insights with real-world business impact. 

Must haves: 

• Several years of experience in project and portfolio management, PMO, or product operations  

• Experience setting up portfolio governance, prioritization, and resource transparency frameworks 

• Strong stakeholder management experience across several regions/countries on a global scale 

• Analytical and financial acumen: comfortable with business cases, benefits tracking, and translating recommendations into measurable outcomes  

• Hands-on experience with Azure DevOps (ADO) or similar portfolio/project tracking tools Experience working in agile (Scrum / SAFe) environments at scale 

• Project, change or process management certifications: PROSCI, PMP/PRINCE2, Lean Six Sigma, Agile/Scrum/SAFe, or similar  

• Full proficiency in English, other languages a plus 

Nice to have: 

• (Re)insurance expertise and/or value chain understanding in Underwriting, Claims or Operation (preferred) or alternatively substantial experience in supporting other financial services  

For Switzerland , the base salary range for this position is between CHF 124 000 and CHF 186 000 for a full-time role. 

Actual salary will depend on: 

• the requirements, scope, complexity and responsibilities of the role 

• the applicant's own profile including education/qualifications, expertise, specialisation, skills and experience 

In the situation where you do not meet all the requirements or you significantly exceed these, the offered salary may be below or above the advertised range. In addition to your base salary, you may be eligible for additional rewards and benefits including an attractive performance-based annual bonus.