Engagement Lead Manager – Digital Organization

Horace Mann is a purpose-driven company that is passionate about educators. The Engagement Lead Manager is a leadership role within the Digital organization responsible for aligning business demand with delivery execution. This individual serves as the central point of intake for digital initiatives, maintains visibility across the full department portfolio, and ensures priorities, resources, and outcomes are aligned with strategic objectives.

In addition to portfolio and engagement leadership, this role directly manages and develops Business Analysts (BA), Quality Assurance (QA), and User Experience & Design (UXD) professionals, driving talent growth and delivery excellence across the organization.

What You Will Do:

Portfolio & Strategic Alignment

• Build and maintain strong working relationships with IT and business partners to support strategic goals and objectives.
• Assist in the development and ongoing updates of the department’s Strategic Portfolio.
• Partner with IT and business leaders to maintain and refine digital roadmaps.
• Facilitate progression of initiatives from roadmap through intake and project initiation, including prioritization discussions with the IT leadership and Executive Sponsors, financial workbook coordination, and pre-project governance tasks.
• Develop, update, and socialize department portfolio and operational reporting in partnership with the digital leadership.
• Review and analyze project and operational metrics; identify risks, trends, and concerns, and recommend actions.
• Maintain comprehensive visibility into all departmental delivery efforts, including projects, operational work, documentation, and backlog commitments.
• Refine and validate goal outcomes prior to executive reporting, ensuring accuracy and strategic alignment.
• Monitor risks across initiatives throughout the Project Life Cycle (PLC) and escalate issues appropriately.
• Support vendor engagements, including contracting, Statements of Work (SOWs), and Technology Review process.
• Assist with departmental resource planning, capacity modeling, and budget monitoring.
• Identify and implement opportunities to improve departmental processes, efficiencies, and delivery outcomes.

Intake & Engagement Leadership

• Serve as the primary intake point for all digital requests across the organization.
• Maintain deep awareness of all active initiatives and operational efforts within the department.
• Attend team standups and maintain ongoing engagement with delivery and operational leaders to understand priorities, progress, and constraints.
• Ensure alignment between backlog priorities, roadmap commitments, and available capacity.

People Leadership & Talent Development

• Directly manage BA, QA, and UXD team members.
• Provide day-to-day leadership, assignment guidance, and performance coaching.
• Develop talent through mentoring, feedback, and professional growth planning.
• Foster collaboration across cross-functional teams and ensure effective partnership with development and operations leaders.
• Mentor and develop less experienced engagement specialists and leads.

Skills & Experience You Bring:

Leadership & Relationship Management

• Demonstrated ability to build trusted partnerships across IT, business units, and executive leadership.
• Strong interpersonal presence; approachable, collaborative, and able to influence at all organizational levels.
• Proven experience leading and developing professional teams, including coaching and performance management.

Strategic & Analytical Thinking

• Ability to connect strategy to execution and manage a portfolio view of work.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to interpret metrics, identify trends, and recommend action.&l