Product Manager, Principal, Agile Lead

Your Role

Reporting to the Senior Manager, the Product Manager, Principal, Agile Lead is the neutral execution and agile leader for the Member Engagement Model (MEM) Pod. The Member Engagement Model (MEM) team enables personalized member experiences by connecting business priorities, product strategy, data, platforms, technology, experience design, content, and analytics.

The Product Manager, Principal, Agile

Lead will serve as a senior leader responsible for driving coordinated execution across MEM's Business, Product, Platform, IT, and functional teams. This role will establish consistent Agile ways of working, manage cross-functional dependencies and impediments, and provide transparency across the end-to-end use case lifecycle.

The Principal will also champion innovative ways of working, including AI-enabled tools and automation, to improve efficiency, collaboration, and delivery. The role facilitates agile planning and execution, coaches pod participants in effective ways of working, removes impediments, coordinates dependencies, and surfaces risks with clear options and recommendations.

Our leadership model is about developing great leaders at all levels and creating opportunities for our people to grow – personally, professionally, and financially. We are looking for leaders that are energized by creative and critical thinking, building and sustaining high-performing teams, getting results the right way, and fostering continuous learning.

Your Work

In this role, you will:

• Lead Agile execution across cross-functional MEM teams, coordinating work across business, Product, platform, IT, data, UX/content, analytics, marketing, legal/compliance, and other partners
• Serve as lead Scrum Master and agile operations practitioner for the MEM Super Pod and work-phase pods, applying servant leadership to help cross-functional teams plan, execute, inspect, adapt, and deliver member value
• Own and maintain the Agile Board, integrated backlog, status and task tracking, and RAID log, providing transparency into priorities, dependencies, risks, decisions, and delivery status
• Facilitate Agile planning and execution activities, including PI Planning readiness, backlog refinement, iteration planning, team syncs, reviews/demos, retrospectives, and continuous improvement activities
• Create an environment of transparency, psychological safety, constructive challenge, continuous learning, and accountability across a matrixed team whose members may not report directly to the role
• Support quarterly and increment planning by connecting MEM priorities, capacity, dependencies, risks, milestones, and outcome measures across product, business, technology, data, marketing, clinical, operations, and vendor teams
• Coach Product Managers, teams, business owners, pod leads, and contributors on agile principles, role clarity, working agreements, acceptance criteria, definition of ready, definition of done, and sustainable execution practices
• Partner with Product Managers, Business Program Owners, and delivery teams to translate priorities and requirements into actionable backlogs and coordinated delivery plans
• Proactively manage cross-functional dependencies, risks, impediments, capacity constraints, and sequencing conflicts, driving resolution and escalation as needed
• Identify and apply AI-enabled tools, automation, and innovative ways of working to streamline planning, tracking, reporting, documentation, risk management, and other execution activities
• Build durable internal capability for independent MEM pod execution by documenting repeatable playbooks, governance practices, templates, lessons learned, and a scalable operating model for future use cases
• Lead, develop, and mentor product and operations professionals supporting MEM activation, creating clear accountability, strong facilitation practices, and fluency across member experience, data, technology, and operational domains
• Communicate concise status, decisions, risks, tradeoffs, and recommendations to executive, product, clinical, marketing, operational, data, and technology audiences; influence resolution of competing priorities without relying on direct authority
• Manage partner performance and delivery accountability for orchestration support; contribute to statements of work, scope boundaries, deliverables, transition plans, and knowledge transfer.
• Communicate delivery health, significant risks, dependencies, impediments, and decisions to senior and executive leadership

Your Knowledge and Experience

• Requires a bachelor's degree or High School Diploma/GED and 4 years of additional relevant experience in lieu of a degree
• Requires 10 years of prior relevant experience in project management, Agile delivery, Scrum Master, or related roles
• Requires experience leading Agile execution across complex, cross-functional business and technology environments, including PI Planning, backlog refinement, iteration planning, reviews/demos, and retrospectives
• Requires experience managing Agile boards, backlogs, RAID logs, cross-team dependencies, risks, impediments, and delivery planning
• Requires experience coordinating and influencing Product, Business, Technology, and functional teams in matrixed environment
• Requires experience communicating delivery status, risks, dependencies, tradeoffs, and recommendations to senior and executive stakeholders
• Agile, Scrum, Product Owner/Product Manager, or advanced Scrum certifications (e.g., SAFe, POPM, PSM II, PSM III, CSP, CTC, CSM, or A-CSM) strongly preferred
• Experience leveraging AI-enabled tools, automation, or emerging technologies to improve planning, execution, reporting, collaboration, or decision-making strongly preferred
• Experience supporting enterprise-scale personalization or data-driven member/customer engagement initiatives strongly preferred
• Experience using Jira, AgilePlace, or similar Agile delivery tools preferred

Experience supporting scaled Agile delivery across healthcare, digital, member experience, personalization, omnichannel, and other complex enterprise initiatives preferred

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Hybrid

This role requires employees to be in-office based on our hybrid workplace model, balancing purposeful in-person collaboration with flexibility. For most teams, this means coming into the office two days each week.

Employees living more than 50 miles from an office location will work with their manager to determine in-office time based on business need.

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ABOUT THE TEAM

About Blue Shield of California

As of January 2025, Blue Shield of California became a subsidiary of Ascendiun. Ascendiun is a nonprofit corporate entity that is the parent to a family of organizations including Blue Shield of California and its subsidiary, Blue Shield of California Promise Health Plan; Altais, a clinical services company; and Stellarus, a company designed to scale healthcare solutions.

Together, these organizations are referred to as the Ascendiun Family of Companies.

At Blue Shield of California, our mission is to create a healthcare system worthy of our family and friends and sustainably affordable. We are transforming health care in a way that genuinely serves our nonprofit mission by lowering costs, improving quality, and enhancing the member and physician experience.

To achieve our mission, we foster an environment where all employees can thrive and contribute fully to address the needs of the various communities we serve. We are committed to creating and maintaining a supportive workplace that upholds our values and advances our goals.

Blue Shield is a U.S. News Best Company to work for, a Deloitte U.S. Best Managed Company and a Top 100 Inspiring Workplace.

We were recognized by Fair360 as a Top Regional Company, and one of the 50 most community-minded companies in the United States by Points of Light. Here at Blue Shield, we strive to make a positive change across our industry and communities – join us!

Our Values:

• Honest. We hold ourselves to the highest ethical and integrity standards. We build trust by doing what we say we're going to do and by acknowledging and correcting where we fall short.
• Human. We strive to listen and communicate effectively, showing empathy by understanding others' perspectives.
• Courageous. We stand up for what we believe in and are committed to the hard work necessary to achieve our ambitious goals.

Our Workplace Model

We believe in fostering a workplace environment that balances purposeful in-person collaboration with flexibility - providing clear expectations while respecting the diverse needs of our workforce. Our workplace model is designed around intentional in-person interaction, collaboration, connection, creativity and flexibility:

• For most teams, this means coming into the office two days per week.
• Employees living more than 50 miles from an office location, out of state employees, and employees in certain member-facing roles should work with their manager to determine in-office time based on business need.
• For employees with medical conditions that may impact their ability to work in-office, we are committed to engaging in an interactive process and providing reasonable accommodations to ensure their work environment is conducive to their success and well-being.

The Company reserves the right to require more presence in the office based on business needs, and requirements are subject to change with periodic reviews.

Physical Requirements

• Office Environment - roles involving part to full time schedule in Office Environment.
• Based in our physical offices and work from home office/deskwork - Activity level: Sedentary, frequency most of work day.

Equal Employment Opportunity

External hires must pass a background check/drug screen. Qualified applicants with arrest records and/or conviction records will be considered for employment in a manner consistent with Federal, State and local laws, including but not limited to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regards to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, protected veteran status or disability status and any other classification protected by Federal, State and local laws.