Business Project Senior Advisor, Individual Dental Operations - Cigna Healthcare

Position Summary The Business Project Senior Advisor leads complex business projects and operational initiatives across Individual Dental Operations. This role is responsible for translating strategic priorities and business needs into structured project plans, coordinating execution across business, technology, vendor, and enterprise partners, and ensuring operational requirements are successfully implemented. The Business Project Senior Advisor manages assigned initiatives from planning through implementation and stabilization. The role establishes project structure, clarifies scope and requirements, coordinates operational readiness, manages risks and dependencies, and provides transparent reporting to business leaders and stakeholders. This position serves as a trusted project management advisor and senior individual contributor, supporting initiatives involving operational transformation, vendor implementation, customer experience, process improvement, regulatory change, and new or enhanced business capabilities. Core Accountabilities and Responsibilities Business Project and Program Leadership - Lead complex, cross-functional business projects from initial planning through execution, implementation, and operational stabilization. - Translate business objectives into defined project scope, deliverables, milestones, responsibilities, dependencies, and success measures. - Develop and maintain integrated project plans that provide clear visibility into activities, timing, ownership, and implementation readiness. - Coordinate execution across Operations, Technology, Product, Compliance, Finance, Vendor Management, Customer Experience, and other enterprise partners. - Maintain focus on intended business outcomes while adapting project plans to changing priorities, requirements, and operational conditions. - Provide structured leadership for initiatives that do not require a dedicated enterprise program-management resource but require disciplined business execution. Project Planning, Governance, and Execution - Establish project governance practices appropriate to the size, complexity, risk, and strategic importance of each assigned initiative. - Facilitate project meetings, working sessions, decision forums, status reviews, and implementation-readiness discussions. - Maintain project documentation, including plans, status reports, action items, decisions, risks, issues, dependencies, and supporting business artifacts. - Monitor progress against established milestones and proactively identify conditions that may affect timing, scope, quality, cost, or operational readiness. - Coordinate resolution of cross-functional issues and escalate matters requiring leadership direction or decisions. - Ensure project participants understand their responsibilities, deliverables, deadlines, and interdependencies. - Support post-implementation reviews to assess outcomes, capture lessons learned, and identify remaining stabilization needs. Business Requirements and Operational Readiness - Partner with business owners and subject matter experts to identify, document, validate, and communicate business and operational requirements. - Help translate complex business needs into clear requirements that can be understood and acted upon by Technology, Product, vendor, and operational teams. - Coordinate operational-readiness activities involving procedures, training, communications, testing, controls, reporting, customer support, and implementation planning. - Confirm that operational impacts and readiness needs are identified early and incorporated into project plans. - Support the development of implementation, transition, contingency, and stabilization plans. - Coordinate with accountable business owners to confirm that required processes, resources, documentation, and support models are prepared for implementation. - Identify gaps between proposed solutions and operational needs and facilitate decisions regarding remediation or risk acceptance. Vendor Implementation and Operational Coordination - Lead or support business projects involving vendor onboarding, transitions, new capabilities, service changes, and operational improvements. - Coordinate activities among internal business teams, vendor partners, Procurement, Technology, Finance, Compliance, and other responsible functions. - Incorporate vendor deliverables, dependencies, contractual milestones, and operational-readiness requirements into project plans. - Partner with Vendor Management and business owners to identify implementation risks, unresolved requirements, and potential service impacts. - Facilitate alignment between vendor-provided solutions and Individual Dental operational requirements. - Support vendor-related testing, training, documentation, communication, implementation, and stabilization activities. - Provide transparent reporting on vendor project progress, risks, dependencies, and decisions requiring attention. Risk, Issue, Dependency, and Decision Management - Establish and maintain clear processes for identifying, documenting, evaluating, escalating, and monitoring project risks and issues. - Track project dependencies and evaluate how delays or changes in one workstream may affect other deliverables or operational outcomes. - Facilitate timely resolution of issues by clarifying ownership, required actions, target dates, and escalation paths. - Prepare decision materials that clearly present the business question, relevant facts, alternatives, risks, dependencies, and operational considerations. - Maintain project decision records that document approved direction and resulting impacts. - Escalate material risks, unresolved issues, scope conflicts, and missed commitments to the appropriate project sponsor or governance body. - Distinguish confirmed project information from estimates, assumptions, and items requiring validation. Stakeholder Communication and Executive Reporting - Develop concise, accurate, and audience-appropriate project communications for business leaders, project teams, vendors, and enterprise partners. - Provide regular reporting on project health, delivery progress, upcoming milestones, risks, issues, dependencies, and decisions. - Translate detailed project information into clear leadership summaries that focus on business impact and required action. - Facilitate alignment among stakeholders with different priorities, responsibilities, and levels of technical or operational knowledge. - Establish communication approaches that promote transparency, accountability, and timely decision-making. - Maintain effective working relationships across organizational boundaries and influence outcomes without relying on direct authority. - Ensure material scope, schedule, requirement, or implementation changes are communicated to affected stakeholders. Change Management and Continuous Improvement - Incorporate change-management principles into project planning and implementation activities. - Assess how proposed changes will affect employees, customers, business partners, workflows, tools, and operating procedures. - Coordinate with business leaders, Training, Communications, and operational teams to support adoption of new processes or capabilities. - Develop or support stakeholder assessments, communication plans, readiness activities, and transition approaches. - Identify opportunities to improve project delivery practices, business workflows, governance, documentation, and cross-functional coordination. - Apply lessons learned from completed initiatives to strengthen future planning and execution. - Promote disciplined but practical project-management practices appropriate to the needs of a developing Individual Dental organization. Qualifications Required - Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Project Management, Healthcare Administration, Operations, or a related discipline, or an equivalent combination of education and relevant professional experience. - Advanced experience leading complex business projects, operational initiatives, implementations, or organizational change efforts. - Demonstrated experience managing projects involving multiple business functions, stakeholders, dependencies, and competing priorities. - Experience developing and maintaining project plans, milestones, status reporting, risk and issue documentation, decision records, and implementation-readiness materials. - Demonstrated ability to translate business objectives into clear requirements, deliverables, responsibilities, and execution plans. - Experience coordinating business, operational, technology, and vendor stakeholders through implementation and stabilization. - Strong understanding of business project management, operational readiness, risk management, change management, and process improvement. - Strong facilitation, organization, problem-solving, and decision-support skills. - Ability to identify emerging risks, evaluate potential business impacts, and escalate concerns appropriately. - Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to prepare executive-ready project updates and decision materials. - Demonstrated ability to influence outcomes and establish accountability without direct reporting authority. - Ability to manage multiple complex initiatives and adjust priorities in a changing business environment. - Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications and project-planning, collaboration, or reporting tools. Preferred - Project Management Professional, Prosci Change Management, Lean Six Sigma, Agile, or comparable professional certification. - Experience supporting healthcare, insurance, dental benefits, customer operations, or another regulated service environment. - Experience leading vendor onboarding, vendor transitions, sourcing implementations, or vendor-supported operational projects. - Experience serving as an Epic Owner, Business Project Manager, Program Manager, Agile Product Manager, or similar business delivery role. - Experience coordinating operational readiness across training, communications, procedures, testing, reporting, and business controls. - Experience supporting customer experience, digital, payment, communication, or operational transformation initiatives. - Advanced degree in Business, Project Management, Operations, or a related discipline. If you will be working at home occasionally or permanently, the internet connection must be obtained through a cable broadband or fiber optic internet service provider with speeds of at least 10Mbps download/5Mbps upload.About Cigna Healthcare Cigna Healthcare, a division of The Cigna Group, is an advocate for better health through every stage of life. We guide our customers through the health care system, empowering them with the information and insight they need to make the best choices for improving their health and vitality. Join us in driving growth and improving lives.Qualified applicants will be considered without regard to race, color, age, disability, sex, childbirth (including pregnancy) or related medical conditions including but not limited to lactation, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran or military status, religion, national origin, ancestry, marital or familial status, genetic information, status with regard to public assistance, citizenship status or any other characteristic protected by applicable equal employment opportunity laws. If you need a reasonable accommodation to complete the online application process, please email for assistance. Please note that this email inbox is dedicated to accommodation requests only and cannot provide application updates or accept resumes. The Cigna Group has a tobacco-free policy and reserves the right not to hire tobacco/nicotine users in states where that is legally permissible. Candidates in such states who use tobacco/nicotine will not be considered for employment unless they enter a qualifying smoking cessation program prior to the start of their employment. These states include: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Washington State. Qualified applicants with criminal histories will be considered for employment in a manner consistent with all federal, state and local ordinances.