Director, Technology Strategy & Enablement

AbilityLinks; Naperville (IL); On-site; USD 161,000 - 222,000; Full time

Job summary

Southern Company Services is seeking a Director of Technology Strategy & Enablement to lead the Technology Organization's horizontal strategy function. This leader will develop overarching technology strategy, multi-year capability roadmaps, and value realization frameworks to support business objectives and transformation.

Working across Architecture, Infrastructure & Cloud Engineering, Cybersecurity, and Data & AI, the role aggregates demand from Electric, Gas, Enterprise, and Shared Services

Qualifications

• Leadership, Change & People Management responsibilities.
• Executive Influence & EQ and strong communication to executives.
• Experience building enterprise technology strategies and roadmaps.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Technology Organization's strategic planning process and translate priorities into a technology strategy and 3–5 year roadmap.
• Partner with business and functional leaders to translate objectives into technology capabilities and investment recommendations.
• Assess and design the operating model, governance, and workforce planning for scalable delivery.
• Identify shared capabilities and opportunities for reuse across portfolios to optimize costs.
• Develop and maintain multi-year roadmaps that support transformation, modernization and innovation.
• Collaborate with Enterprise Architecture and other leaders to align strategy with investment priorities.
• Define OKRs and dashboards to measure progress and value realization.
• Support investment planning with strategic insights and capability requirements.

Skills

Leadership

Executive communication

Strategic planning

Portfolio management

AI/ML fluency

Education

Bachelor's degree in IT/CS/Engineering/Business

MBA or MS in Technology Management

Tools

Databricks

Job description

Job Title: Director, Technology Strategy & Enablement

Department : Technology Services

Company: Southern Company Services

Reports To: Vice President, Technology Services

Job Summary

Southern Company Services is seeking a Director of Technology Strategy & Enablement to lead the Technology Organization's horizontal strategy function. This role is responsible for developing the overarching technology strategy, multi-year capability roadmaps, technology OKRs, and value realization framework that enable Southern Company's business and transformation objectives.

Operating across the Technology Organization, this leader will aggregate demand and strategic requirements from Electric, Gas, Enterprise, and Shared Services portfolios to identify common capability needs, strategic dependencies, and opportunities for platform reuse and standardization. Working closely with Architecture, Infrastructure & Cloud Engineering, Cybersecurity, Data & AI, and Application leaders, the Director will help ensure foundational technology capabilities are planned, aligned, and available to support future business needs.

This role serves as a strategic enabler and connector across the Technology Organization. It is accountable for technology strategy, capability planning, alignment, and value measurement. It does not own project delivery, portfolio execution governance, application business ownership, or investment approval authority.

Major Job Responsibilities

• Lead the Technology Organization's strategic planning process and translate enterprise priorities into a cohesive technology strategy and multi-year capability roadmap.
• Partner with business strategy, operating company, and functional leadership teams to translate business objectives, growth strategies, regulatory requirements, and operational priorities into technology capabilities, roadmaps, and investment recommendations.
• Lead strategic assessments and recommendations for the Technology Organization operating model, including organizational capabilities, governance, sourcing strategies, workforce planning, and service delivery models required to support future business needs.
• Aggregate demand across technology portfolios to identify shared foundational capabilities, strategic dependencies, and opportunities for reuse, standardization, and cost optimization.
• Develop and maintain 3-5 year technology capability roadmaps that support business transformation, modernization, and innovation objectives.
• Partner with Enterprise Architecture, Infrastructure & Cloud Engineering, Cybersecurity, Data & AI, and Application leadership to align technology strategies and investment priorities.
• Identify technology capability gaps, platform overlap, technical debt reduction opportunities, and future-state enablement requirements.
• Establish and manage Technology Organization OKRs, executive scorecards, and dashboards that measure strategic progress, organizational performance, and value realization.
• Translate strategic priorities into roadmap recommendations, investment themes, and executive decision support materials.
• Support technology investment planning by providing strategic insights, capability requirements, business outcome alignment, and expected value realization.
• Partner with PMO, Application VPs, and business stakeholders to ensure alignment between technology strategy, portfolio priorities, and execution plans while maintaining clear ownership within each organization.
• Drive visibility and transparency into Technology Organization performance, ensuring leaders can effectively measure outcomes, business value, and strategic impact.

Knowledge And Skills

Leadership, Change & People Management

• Transformational Leadership & Talent Development:Recognized as a change agent who challenges the status quo. Demonstrated ability to attract top talent, build high-performing teams, and lead with well-defined core values.
• A Proactive, "Business-First" Mentality:Applies sound business judgment to "connect the dots," with a relentless focus on removing friction, clearing roadblocks, and partnering with the business to accelerate transformation.

Influence, Collaboration & Communication

• Executive Influence & EQ:High emotional intelligence with outstanding credibility. Demonstrated ability to influence senior management
• Exceptional Communication:Superb written and verbal communication skills, with extensive experiencepresenting to, advising, and building strong relationships with executive leadership, steering committees, and key vendors.

Strategic Technology & Portfolio Capabilities

• Enterprise Portfolio & Financial Acumen:Demonstratedability to manage large-scale technology investment portfolios,establish capability roadmaps, and define value-realization frameworks (such as OKRs) to track technology ROI.
• Strategic Technology & AI Fluency:Strong conceptual understanding of modern technology paradigms—specifically Cloud architectures, Data Platforms (e.g., Databricks), AI/MLOps, and high-density Telecom—with the ability to translate complex concepts into business outcomes.
• Horizontal Capability Synthesis:Proven success in aggregating fragmented technology demands from multiple business units (e.g., Power Delivery, Gas, Customer Service) into unified, shared-platform strategies to prevent redundant investments.
• Tech-for-Tech Strategy Facilitation:Demonstratedability to partner with core engineering leaders tofacilitatelong-term strategic roadmaps for back-end technical functions (Infrastructure, platforms) to reduce technical debt.

Education

• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, Business, or related field; advanced degree preferred.
• MBA or Master's degree (e.g., MS in Technology Management or Information Systems) is highly preferred.

Experience

• 10+ years of progressive leadership experience in technology strategy, enterprise architecture, portfolio management, technology consulting, or related disciplines.
• Demonstrated success developing enterprise technology strategies, capability roadmaps, and value realization frameworks.
• Experience establishing OKRs, executive scorecards, and performance measurement programs.
• Demonstrated experience shaping strategies for modern data environments, AI enablement, cloud transformations, and proactive enterprise security protocols.
• Extensive experience interfacing with non-technical business executives, representing IT on steering committees, and driving consensus across highly matrixed, cross-functional organizations.
• Experience operating within large, complex, regulated organizations.

Leadership Competencies

• Strategic and enterprise thinker
• Trusted advisor and relationship builder
• Strong business and financial acumen
• Executive presence and stakeholder influence
• Collaborative leadership style with high emotional intelligence
• Ability to translate strategy into measurable business outcomes

About Southern Company

Southern Company (NYSE: SO ) is a leading energy provider serving 9 million customers across the Southeast and beyond through its family of companies. Providing clean, safe, reliable and affordable energy with excellent service is our mission. The company has electric operating companies in three states, natural gas distribution companies in four states, a competitive generation company, a leading distributed energy solutions provider with national capabilities, a fiber optics network and telecommunications services. Through an industry-leading commitment to innovation, resilience and sustainability, we are taking action to meet customers' and communities' needs while advancing our goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Our uncompromising values ensure we put the needs of those we serve at the center of everything we do and are the key to our sustained success. We are transforming energy into economic, environmental and social progress for tomorrow. Our corporate culture has been recognized by a variety of organizations, earning the company awards and recognitions that reflect Our Values and dedication to service. To learn more, visit www.southerncompany.com .

Southern Company invests in the well-being of its employees and their families through a comprehensive total rewards strategy that includes competitive base salary, annual incentive awards for eligible employees and health, welfare and retirement benefits designed to support physical, financial, and emotional/social well-being. This position may also be eligible for additional compensation, such as an incentive program, with the amount of any bonus/awards subject to the terms and conditions of the applicable incentive plan(s). A summary of the benefits offered for this position can be found here https://seo.nlx.org/southernco/pdf/SOCO-Benefits.pdf . Additional and specific details about total compensation and benefits will also be provided during the hiring process.

Southern Company is an equal opportunity employer where an applicant's qualifications are considered without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other basis prohibited by law.

Job Identification: 21421

Job Category: Information Technology

Job Schedule: Full time

Company: Southern Company Services

Pay Range: 161119.00 - $221,538.90 USD Annually: Base salary varies depending on a wide array of factors, which may include but are not limited to the specific office location, role, skill set, and level of experience. As required by local law, and at the time of this posting, this is the reasonable salary range for this role.