Senior Vice President, Technology Strategy & Enablement

Unum; Portland (ME); On-site; USD 234,000 - 442,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

Vision & Dental

Short & Long-Term Disability

Paid time off

Job summary

Unum in Portland, ME seeks an accomplished senior technology leader to drive the company’s technology strategy, governance, and delivery excellence. You will partner with CIO/DTO leadership to align investments, enable agile delivery, and optimize enterprise platforms across product, infrastructure, data, and security teams.

The role requires 15+ years of senior technology leadership, experience in portfolio governance, vendor relationships, and financial management, with a proven track record

Qualifications

• 15+ years of progressive technology leadership.
• Executive-level experience in technology strategy and governance.
• Experience leading large-scale technology transformations.
• Proven ability to manage technology investment portfolios and vendor relationships.
• Deep understanding of agile delivery, cloud technologies, and FinOps.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain the enterprise technology strategy and multi-year roadmap.
• Establish governance frameworks for technology investments and decisions.
• Lead the Agile Center of Excellence and enterprise agile enablement.
• Oversee delivery excellence, portfolio health, and benefits realization.
• Partner with CIO/DTO leadership and business stakeholders to drive outcomes.

Skills

Executive leadership

Technology strategy

Portfolio management

Agile delivery

Education

Bachelor's degree

Master's degree preferred

Job description

When you join the team at Unum, you become part of an organization committed to helping you thrive.

Benefits

Here, we work to provide the employee benefits and service solutions that enable employees at our client companies to thrive throughout life’s moments. And this starts with ensuring that every one of our team members enjoys opportunities to succeed both professionally and personally.

To enable this, we provide:

• Award-winning culture
• Inclusion and diversity as a priority
• Performance Based Incentive Plans
• Competitive benefits package that includes: Health, Vision, Dental, Short & Long-Term Disability
• Generous PTO (including paid time to volunteer!)
• Up to 9.5% 401(k) employer contribution
• Mental health support
• Career advancement opportunities
• Student loan repayment options
• Tuition reimbursement
• Flexible work environments
• All the benefits listed above are subject to the terms of their individual Plans.

And that’s just the beginning…

With 10,000 employees helping more than 39 million people worldwide, every role at Unum is meaningful and impacts the lives of our customers. Whether you’re directly supporting a growing family, or developing online tools to help navigate a difficult loss, customers are counting on the combined talents of our entire team. Help us help others, and join Team Unum today!

General Summary

The Senior Vice President, Technology Strategy & Enablement serves as the strategic operating executive for the Chief Information & Data Officer and is accountable for the overall effectiveness, governance, and strategic direction of the technology organization. This executive is responsible for ensuring technology investments, operating practices, vendor partnerships, delivery performance, organizational capabilities, and governance processes are aligned to enterprise priorities and measurable business outcomes. The role acts as the connective tissue across Product Engineering, Infrastructure & Operations, Data & AI, Cybersecurity, and Enterprise Architecture, providing the governance, planning discipline, executive engagement, and organizational enablement necessary to operate a modern technology organization at scale. Technology Strategy & Enablement functions as the operating system of the technology organization is inclusive of setting direction, establishing governance, enabling execution, and driving continuous improvement without directly owning delivery teams or day-to-day operational execution. The organization includes responsibility for technology strategy and roadmap development, enterprise portfolio and investment governance, vendor and partner strategy, technology finance and FinOps, delivery excellence, Agile Center of Excellence, technology change management, executive stakeholder engagement, CIO communications, and Chief of Staff functions.

Enterprise Technology Strategy & Roadmap

• Develop and maintain the enterprise technology strategy and multi-year technology roadmap aligned to business strategy and enterprise priorities.
• Assess emerging technology trends, competitive developments, and industry innovations to inform strategic direction.
• Partner with Enterprise Architecture to define future-state technology capabilities, modernization priorities, and technology investment opportunities.
• Lead the annual technology planning process and support investment prioritization decisions.
• Ensure technology strategy supports long-term growth, customer experience, risk management, and operational objectives.

Technology Governance & Operating Model

• Establish enterprise governance frameworks that guide technology investment, prioritization, resource allocation, and decision-making.
• Maintain technology operating rhythms, executive forums, governance councils, and leadership review processes.
• Define accountability frameworks, decision rights, escalation paths, and performance management disciplines across the technology organization.
• Continuously evolve the technology operating model to improve organizational effectiveness and business outcomes.
• Serve as the primary steward of technology governance across the enterprise.

Delivery Excellence & Portfolio Governance

• Lead governance of the enterprise technology investment portfolio.
• Establish visibility into technology demand, capacity, dependencies, execution risks, and delivery performance.
• Drive portfolio health reviews, benefits realization tracking, and value measurement.
• Implement operating frameworks that improve delivery predictability, transparency, and accountability.
• Oversee executive reporting on portfolio performance, delivery effectiveness, and strategic investment outcomes.
• Provide governance and oversight for enterprise platform and technology investment decisions.

Agile Center of Excellence

• Lead the Agile Center of Excellence and enterprise agile enablement strategy.
• Establish standards, practices, playbooks, and methodologies for technology teams.
• Deploy agile coaching capabilities across product, platform, infrastructure, security, and data organizations.
• Drive engineering effectiveness through the use of DORA metrics, flow metrics, and delivery health indicators.
• Promote continuous improvement and maturity across enterprise delivery teams.

Technology Finance & FinOps

• Lead technology investment governance and financial management processes.
• Partner with Finance to establish planning, budgeting, forecasting, chargeback, and show back practices.
• Oversee cloud cost governance and optimization efforts.
• Drive transparency into technology spending, value realization, and return on investment.
• Provide executive recommendations regarding technology investments and resource allocation.

Vendor & Partner Strategy

• Develop and manage the enterprise technology partner strategy.
• Lead executive relationships with strategic technology vendors, service providers, and system integrators.
• Establish build-buy-partner frameworks for technology decision making.
• Evaluate emerging vendors, industry partnerships, and strategic technology opportunities.
• Drive platform rationalization and vendor optimization efforts across the enterprise.

Management & Executive Engagement

• Serve as a trusted strategic advisor to the CIDO and DTO Leadership Team.
• Build strong partnerships with enterprise business leaders, transformation leaders, Finance, Risk, and People and Communications.
• Align technology priorities and investments with business outcomes and value stream objectives.
• Represent the technology organization with executive stakeholders and governance bodies.

Technology Change Management & Organizational Enablement

• Lead enterprise technology change management and organizational readiness efforts.
• Establish communities of practice (chapters), leadership forums, and knowledge-sharing.
• Support adoption of new operating models, governance structures, and delivery practices.
• Partners with DTO leadership team to drive consistent ways of working across technology teams.

Technology Strategy and Executive Operations

• Coordinate leadership team operating cadence, governance activities, and executive priorities.
• Partners closely with People and Communications on the delivery of technology communications, strategic messaging, and organizational engagement plans.
• Oversee Board, Audit Committee, Executive Leadership Team, and regulatory reporting.
• Partners closely with People and Communications, the incumbent will ensure technology strategy and priorities are clearly communicated across the enterprise.

Job Specifications

• Bachelor’s degree required; Master’s degree preferred
• 15+ years of progressive leadership experience within technology organizations.
• Significant executive-level experience in technology strategy, technology transformation, portfolio management, operating model design, enterprise governance, or technology management.
• Experience serving as a strategic advisor to CIOs, CDOs, CTOs, or other senior executives.
• Proven success leading large-scale business and technology transformation initiatives.
• Experience managing enterprise technology investment portfolios and strategic planning processes.
• Demonstrated experience leading executive vendor relationships and complex technology partnerships.
• Deep understanding of product operating models, agile delivery methods, cloud technologies, technology governance frameworks, and technology financial management.
• Proven abilities regarding talent development, inclusive of attracting, developing and retaining talent.

Leadership Characteristics

• Enterprise Leadership: Demonstrates the ability to think beyond organizational boundaries and align technology strategy, investments, and operating practices with enterprise priorities and long-term business outcomes.
• Strategic Agility: Anticipates industry shifts, emerging technologies, and changing business needs while translating complex challenges into actionable strategies and measurable outcomes.
• Executive Influence: Builds trust and credibility with executives and external partners while effectively influencing decisions across a complex stakeholder environment.
• Business & Financial Acumen: Understands how technology investments drive enterprise value and apply strong financial discipline to planning, prioritization, and resource allocation decisions.
• Organizational Leadership: Creates clarity, alignment, and accountability across large, matrixed organizations. Establishes governance and operating mechanisms that enable scale, consistency, and execution excellence.
• Talent & Capability Builder: Develops leaders, builds high-performing teams, and creates an environment focused on continuous improvement, learning, innovation, and accountability.
• Change Leadership: Leads through ambiguity and transformation while building organizational readiness, resilience, and commitment to change.
• Collaborative Mindset: Partners effectively across business, technology, risk, finance, and corporate functions to achieve shared enterprise outcomes.
• Results Orientation: Maintains a relentless focus on value creation, excellence, operational performance, and measurable business impact.

Unum and Colonial Life are part of Unum Group, a Fortune 500 company and leading provider of employee benefits to companies worldwide. Headquartered in Chattanooga, TN, with international offices in Ireland, Poland and the UK, Unum also has significant operations in Portland, ME, and Baton Rouge, LA - plus over 35 US field offices. Colonial Life is headquartered in Columbia, SC, with over 40 field offices nationwide.

Unum is an equal opportunity employer, considering all qualified applicants and employees for hiring, placement, and advancement, without regard to a person's race, color, religion, national origin, age, genetic information, military status, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, or protected veteran status.

The base salary range for applicants for this position is listed below. Unless actual salary is indicated above in the job description, actual pay will be based on skill, geographical location and experience.

$233,800.00-$441,800.00

Additionally, Unum offers a portfolio of benefits and rewards that are competitive and comprehensive including healthcare benefits (health, vision, dental), insurance benefits (short & long-term disability), performance-based incentive plans, paid time off, and a 401(k) retirement plan with an employer match up to 5% and an additional 4.5% contribution whether you contribute to the plan or not. All benefits are subject to the terms and conditions of individual Plans.

Company

Unum