Head of Cybersecurity & Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)

Securian Financial Group; Saint Paul (MN); Hybrid; USD 225,000 - 295,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

PTO and holiday pay

401(k) and pension plans

Annual incentive program

Long-term incentive program

Health insurance and family benefits

Volunteer time and matching gifts

Flex work options

Job summary

Securian Financial Group is seeking a senior cybersecurity leader to guide enterprise security strategy, supporting safe, secure progress across technology delivery, resilience, and emerging risks. This hybrid role is designed for a senior executive who can protect trust and enable responsible innovation.

The ideal candidate will bring deep expertise in cybersecurity, risk management, and executive communication, with experience in regulated financial services environments and a track record of

Qualifications

• Significant senior leadership experience in cybersecurity, technology risk, security architecture, or adjacent enterprise technology disciplines.
• Proven success leading cybersecurity or technology transformation, not just operating an existing program.
• Deep cybersecurity expertise with strong technology, data, and AI fluency.
• Strong understanding of enterprise risk, regulatory requirements, risk appetite, and how cybersecurity supports business.

Responsibilities

• Provide leadership, vision, and direction for Securian's enterprise cybersecurity organization and contribute to overall strategy.
• Evolve cybersecurity strategy aligned to enterprise, technology, data, and AI priorities.
• Advise senior business and technology leaders to enable responsible pursuit of opportunities while managing risk.

Skills

Senior leadership

Cybersecurity transformation

AI fluency

Regulatory risk understanding

Executive communication

Board communication

CISO experience

Financial services security

Cloud and data security

Job description

Securian Financial Group is hiring a cybersecurity leader to guide enterprise security strategy while helping the business adopt data and AI responsibly. This hybrid role is built for a senior executive who can protect trust and enable safe, secure progress across technology delivery, resilience, and emerging risks.

What you'll bring

• Significant senior leadership experience in cybersecurity, technology risk, security architecture, engineering, or adjacent enterprise technology disciplines.
• Demonstrated success leading meaningful cybersecurity or technology transformation, not only operating an established security program.
• Deep cybersecurity expertise paired with strong technology, architecture, data, and AI fluency.
• Strong understanding of enterprise risk, regulatory requirements, risk appetite, and how cybersecurity supports a complex business environment.
• Proven ability to influence broader technology strategy, architecture, cloud, data, AI, engineering, and modernization decisions.
• Experience operating successfully in a regulated environment and building credibility with Risk, Legal, Compliance, Audit, and regulatory stakeholders.
• Experience advising executive leadership and presenting material cybersecurity, technology, or enterprise risk matters to Boards or Board committees.
• Demonstrated crisis leadership across cybersecurity response, recovery, technology resilience, business continuity, and third-party dependencies.
• Proven ability to build leadership teams, support succession, and create durable organizational capability.
• Senior cybersecurity or technology leadership experience within financial services, insurance, or another highly regulated industry.
• Experience leading cybersecurity within a large, complex technology environment undergoing modernization or transformation.
• Experience enabling enterprise adoption of AI, cloud, modern engineering practices, and emerging technologies while managing associated cybersecurity and data risks.
• CISO experience (serving as a CISO, Deputy CISO, divisional CISO, Security CTO, or similarly broad senior executive) is valuable, though prior CISO title is not required if you demonstrate the needed breadth, judgment, and executive trajectory.

How you'll lead cybersecurity strategy

• Provide leadership, vision, and direction for Securian's enterprise cybersecurity organization and contribute broadly to Enterprise Technology and company strategy.
• Develop and continuously evolve cybersecurity strategy aligned to Securian's enterprise, technology, data, and AI priorities.
• Serve as a trusted advisor to senior business and technology leaders to enable responsible pursuit of opportunities instead of defaulting to risk avoidance.
• Bring an enterprise-first perspective to complex decisions, balancing customer, business, technology, financial, regulatory, and reputational factors.
• Maintain awareness of the external cybersecurity environment and translate emerging threats, industry developments, and technology trends into clear implications and actions for Securian.
• Establish a focused, risk-informed cybersecurity strategy and operating model that protects Securian while enabling business pace.
• Strengthen Securian's ability to understand and protect sensitive and critical data, including where it resides, how it moves, who can access it, and how it is used.
• Differentiate resources, controls, and investments based on actual enterprise risk to reduce unnecessary friction and concentrate on areas of greatest exposure.

Where you'll partner across the enterprise

• Partner closely with Risk, Legal, Compliance, and Audit to meet regulatory requirements while keeping distinctions clear between regulatory obligation, organizational preference, and risk appetite.
• Drive cybersecurity priorities and investment discussions with senior leaders, ensuring material risks are surfaced early and addressed transparently.
• Partner across architecture, engineering, data, AI, infrastructure, reliability, and technology operations to embed secure-by-design, resilient-by-design, and trustworthy-by-design practices into technology delivery.
• Provide cybersecurity leadership for a rapidly evolving AI environment, including enterprise models, agents, machine identities, privileged access, sensitive data, AI application security, software supply-chain risk, and AI-enabled threats.
• Strengthen cyber and technology resilience by integrating cybersecurity with technology operations, reliability engineering, architecture, business continuity, crisis management, and third-party risk.
• Act as a visible and trusted enterprise voice on cybersecurity risk, preparedness, resilience, and emerging threats.
• Communicate complex cybersecurity and technology risks clearly to senior executives, the Board, regulators, and key stakeholders.
• Build relationships with external industry peers, regulators, and cybersecurity communities to bring leading practices and emerging perspectives back to Securian.
• Represent Securian during significant cybersecurity events, regulatory interactions, and other high-visibility situations.

Leadership and cultural fit

• Low ego and high conviction, comfortable putting difficult issues on the table while remaining open to different perspectives and adapting when facts change.
• Build trust through competence, transparency, consistency, and follow-through; collaborate effectively across the enterprise and commit to enterprise decisions after constructive debate.
• Think enterprise first, technology second, and function third while protecting Securian's trust and helping the company move forward with confidence.

Hybrid work location

Saint Paul, MN (hybrid). Securian Financial values meaningful in-person collaboration. Associates may work remotely and in the office to support connection, learning, and innovation. Associates who live within a 90-minute commute of the Home Office in St. Paul spend 3 or more days each week working from the office.

Compensation and incentives

• Estimated base pay range: $225,000 - $295,000 per year.
• Pay may vary based on job-related factors and individual experience, skills, and knowledge.
• Eligible for an annual incentive program and a long-term incentive program.

Benefits

• Paid time off (PTO) and additional PTO the longer you stay at Securian
• Leave programs: parental leave, caregiver leave for family members, bereavement and military leave
• Nine company paid holidays
• Company-funded pension plan and a 401(k) retirement plan
• 401(k) company contribution tied to performance up to 10% of eligible earnings (target 5%)
• Health insurance (medical, dental and vision) from the first day of employment for eligible associates and family members
• Volunteer time (volunteer paid time off, dollar-for-dollar matching gift program and more)
• Associate Resource Groups (associate-led ARGs)

Internal position title: 2nd VP-Chief Information Security Officer.