VP, Chief Technology Officer

About National Life Group

Come join one of America’s fastest-growing insurance companies. Since 1848, National Life Group has aimed to keep our promises, providing families with stability in good times and in bad. Throughout that history, we have provided peace of mind to those families as they plan their futures.

Our mission extends beyond the insurance and annuities policies that we offer. We strive to make the world a better place through our grants from our charitable foundation, paid volunteer time for our employees, environmentally sustainable and healthy workplaces, and events that promote the work of nonprofits in our own backyard.

We foster a collaborative environment with opportunities for growth and encourage our associates to live our values: Do good. Be good. Make good.

Please note that we do not offer visa sponsorship for this position.

This role required a minimum of 10 years of Life and Annuity information technology experience.

Key Responsibilities

National Life Group is in the midst of significant growth and enterprise transformation, requiring technology to evolve to the next gen of maturity to enable greater scale, better customer experiences, and foster top-line growth. The role of the Chief Technology Officer is to lead the modernization of the company’s core insurance platforms and technology ecosystem so the organization can grow efficiently, innovate faster, and compete effectively in a rapidly changing life insurance and annuity market.

The CTO will play a lead role in transforming and managing core technology platforms while driving innovation through technology and thought leadership. The CTO will be responsible for assessing the talent to ensure they are fit for purpose and provide the skills, capabilities, behaviors, and processes required to deliver a modern, agile, and integrated environment. The CTO will lead transformations across cloud computing, contemporary software architectures, continuous delivery and DevOps, Advanced Analytics, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence. Additionally, the CTO will be a key partner in promoting new ways of working, including advanced concepts in Agile, Lean Product Development, Lean Operations, and Design Thinking. Collectively, the CTO is expected to lead these transformations to facilitate National Life’s transformation as it competes in the AI era.

Through disciplined execution, strong partnerships, and clear executive communication, this leader will ensure that technology investments are aligned with business priorities, deliver meaningful returns on investment, and support sustained growth. Ultimately, the CTO will help position National Life’s technology capabilities as a strategic advantage.

Success in this role will often require careful coordination of activities with the larger (approx. 850 people) IT organization. Candidates must demonstrate the ability to organize complex work streams and collaborate effectively with colleagues and business leaders to influence transformation in a highly outsourced, multi-vendor environment, including onshore and offshore teams. Top candidates will have demonstrated success and feel comfortable working in this heavily outsourced, globally distributed environment.

This is a senior and critical role within the technology leadership team and will report directly to the Chief Information Officer and will have consideration for the CIO role in succession planning.

Other Specific Responsibilities Include

• Responsible for all aspects of establishing quality technology platforms and services.
• Influence business outcomes collaboratively to define the “art of the possible” for the future state of National Life
• Develop and instill a core innovation and incubation strategy that fosters emerging technology solutions that capture economic value across the National Life organization.
• Develop a fit-for-purpose operating model, based on the right sourcing decisions, location, talent and capability strategy as well as a high-performing team.
• Responsible for ensuring the operating model is optimized in terms of cost and quality of service, and that internal resources and supplier partner relationships meet the agreed model and service framework.
• Create a culture of continuous improvement that proactively manages the resolution of complex problems, identifies their underlying causes and improves processes accordingly.
• The courage to challenge the status quo, fail forward, learn, and influence change through self-awareness, clear communication, humility, and vulnerability

YEAR ONE CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS

The Key Objectives Of The Role Are To

• Operate in a fast-paced environment while building trust with IT and the business
• Partner closely with the CIO and be able to run workloads independently
• Clearly understand and adopt the National Life culture and ways of working
• Establish credibility through relationships with business leaders and the IT organization as a whole
• Continue to bring process and rigor to the architecture and development organization
• Infuse AI into IT practices consistently to make it a fabric of IT development operations
• Build relationships with key stakeholders across the business; work diligently to understand business needs and tie those needs back into the IT organization, creating transparency as well as a customer-centric IT environment.
• Bring process and rigor to the IT organization, with particular emphasis on shoring up the architecture and software development lifecycle methodology.
• Assess the IT leadership team and develop or fortify as needed.
• Being able to present and story tell the IT Vision, Technical direction, and various transformation “pitches” to a wide variety of audiences spanning from Board, executive team, business leaders, business operations and IT teammates
• Bringing thought leadership by being asked to participate in various thought leadership areas, strategies, meetings, committees as more than just an IT representative
• The ability to give feedback and receive feedback. Demonstrably changing and learning through received feedback with vulnerability

Professional Experience/Qualifications

• 20+ years of information technology experience and 10+ years of IT leadership and business transformation work in the life and annuities business is required.
• Deep understanding of the business landscape of a Life & Annuity organization, including but not limited to New Business, Underwriting, Claims, InForce management, Product development, Actuarial analysis, and Investment management.
• Recognized achievement in delivering a successful major technology transformation program, and in the delivery of a modern heavily cloud-based environment.
• Proven track record in identifying opportunities and delivering innovative and pragmatic digital solutions that challenge the status quo.
• Willingness to roll-up his/her sleeves and go both deep and wide into technology issues.
• Ability to effectively present technical or complex information to senior management with simplicity.
• Significant experience working with technology vendors through strategic partnership and managing a diverse workforce of internals and externals. Examples include eApplication, Policy Administration, eDelivery, Automated Underwriting, Digital Experiences, Hierarchy based compensation, Licensing and Contracting, Broker/Dealer automation, Fraud and Risk Management, CRM and Workflow
• Strong financial management experience and demonstrable track-record in driving continual improvements in the cost base.
• Experience developing and deploying IT change programs with detailed business case development and delivery at the board or business unit level.
• Track record of successfully working on complicated initiatives encased in ambiguity and uncertainty.
• Strong communication skills and persuasion and influencing skills.
• Broad experience in architecture and application software delivery.
• Adept at defining IT vision and strategy and identifying initiatives that lead to target state architectures and outcomes.
• Adept at continuous learning, especially in emerging areas of technology, modern work practices, and digital transformation.
• Strong and concise communication ability with persuasion and influencing skills in a matrixed organization
• Ability to coach, mentor, and develop a trusted learning organization that creates teams of future leaders
• Broad experience in application software delivery, infrastructure, security, data, and vendor management
• Adept at defining the IT technical direction and identification of initiatives that lead to target state architectures and outcomes. Then bringing people along towards the target state through leadership and influence
• Adept at continuous learning, especially in emerging areas of technology, modern work practices, and digital transformation
• Ability to create a culture of engagement, empowerment, execution, and trust amongst teams through self-awareness, influence, humility, and vulnerability

EDUCATION

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, information systems, engineering, or a related engineering of science field is required.
• MBA or master’s degree is required.
• Other certifications are preferred but not required

Key skills/competency

• Technology Leadership
• Enterprise Transformation
• Cloud Computing
• DevOps
• Artificial Intelligence
• Machine Learning
• Agile Methodologies
• Lean Product Development
• Design Thinking
• Vendor Management