VP, Platform Services

Our Fortune 500 company is driving a digital transformation and looking for forward-thinking innovators to disrupt how our industry thinks about and uses technology. As one of the world's leading employee benefits providers, we help millions of people gain affordable access to benefits that help them protect their families, their finances, and their futures. We are seeking individuals to join our team of talented IT professionals who share a never-ending passion and an unwavering focus on our customer experience. Team members comfortable working in an agile, fast-paced, and delivery-focused environment thrive in our culture where we value an entrepreneurial spirit and those who challenge the status quo.

About the role

The VP, Platform Services is responsible for defining, building, and operating enterprise-scale shared platforms that enable speed, consistency, and quality across the organization. This role leads a unified platform strategy spanning digital capabilities, integration services, engineering excellence, enterprise workflow systems, and AI-enabled platforms, including agentic AI capabilities. This leader operates at the intersection of infrastructure and software engineering, ensuring platform reliability, scalability, and developer productivity while enabling business transformation.

The role oversees a complex ecosystem of approximately 120 platforms, tools, and applications supporting enterprise-wide capabilities. This leader will partner closely with business and technology leaders to deliver reusable, secure, and highly available platform services that accelerate digital delivery and innovation. They will provide direction, guidance, and strategic insights to senior leadership teams with the objective of maximizing growth, profitability, and stability. This leader is a significant contributor to the development and implementation of the organization's three- to five-year roadmap and provides day-to-day leadership to ensure business and technology outcomes are achieved.

The leader in this role must effectively partner, negotiate, and influence business and IT senior leadership to ensure the successful delivery of enterprise solutions. They will possess drive, a can-do/will-do attitude, innovation, a love of technology, leading-edge thinking, and the ability to inspire and positively impact the organization. This leader sets technology direction for a defined scope of Unum Group and is responsible for delivering the technology the company depends on to be successful.

Responsibilities

• Lead CI/CD, DevOps, and platform engineering practices (Engineering Excellence)
• Lead API strategy and integration architecture (Enterprise Integration Services)
• Own ServiceNow ecosystem including ITSM, CMDB, and workflow capabilities (ServiceNow Platform)
• Lead enterprise testing strategy and automation (Validation and Testing Services)
• Ensure reliability, performance, and resilience of platforms; establish KPIs and SLAs (Delivery and Operations)
• Identify, design, and implement state-of-the-art technology solutions to meet Unum's current and future business needs
• Manage the overall direction of the company's technology through strategic planning and evaluation
• Evaluate technology trends and developments for business opportunities and risks; introduce strategies to capitalize on opportunities and mitigate risks
• Partner closely with business leaders to understand Unum's business, the external marketplace, and customer needs
• Lead IT governance activities to ensure close partnership with the business and transparency in all IT initiatives
• Analyze and effectively communicate complex business and IT issues/needs; act as a consultant to help business leaders identify technology solutions to improve operations efficiency and effectiveness and support growth goals
• Keep innovation at the forefront; leverage fresh perspectives, breakthrough ideas, and new paradigms to create business technology value
• Monitor information technology performance and recommend continual improvements; focus on improving processes and practices that create the most value
• Build, lead, develop, mentor, and coach a high-performing, empowered staff of business and IT professionals across various locations
• Support the identification and implementation of a flexible technical architecture to support growth
• Effectively manage operating expenses within the established budget; continually review opportunities for reducing expenses and driving efficiencies; identify and recommend strategic investments with positive ROI
• Oversee creation of IT business plans in support of business needs and technology strategy, partnering closely with business leadership; consistently deliver results against defined plans
• Leverage external partners effectively in all aspects of IT, from strategy through delivery; manage complex vendor relationships and hold vendors accountable for results
• Ensure the security and protection of data, information systems, and equipment; actively implement security, privacy, risk management, and disaster recovery initiatives and best practices
• Take bold actions and act as a change leader; advocate for change with confidence, take ownership and personal responsibility for implementing change, and leverage communications, goals, resources, and metrics to ensure broader understanding and accountability
• Effectively communicate upward and across business and technology teams; build strong partnerships with senior leaders and IT stakeholders, both internal and external
• Create KPIs, goals, and metrics across the portfolio to drive continuous improvement throughout the organization
• Lead large organizations in the delivery of all responsibilities for the role, promoting a culture based on guiding principles of customer, agility, and empowerment
• Other duties and responsibilities as assigned

Requirements

• 15+ years of technology leadership including Shared Platform, infrastructure, and software engineering
• Bachelor’s degree required; Master’s degree preferred
• Experience leading large-scale platform ecosystems
• Expertise in Cloud, DevOps, APIs, and enterprise platforms such as ServiceNow, Pega, OpenText, MuleSoft, and GitHub
• Expertise in GenAI-assisted software development pipeline
• Proven change leadership and transformation experience
• Significant experience in leading the strategic and operational direction of an IT organization
• Strong communication and influencing skills; able to communicate with all levels of organizational leadership and deliver impactful presentations
• Demonstrated ability to lead and manage a mixture of highly specialized technical and operational resources across a range of locations
• Experience leading teams who deliver integrated solutions to meet customer needs
• Budget and financial management; ability to maximize resources and manage capacity
• Change agent; advocate for ever-needing change across the organization and able to create followership
• Able to elevate the performance of empowered teams
• Ability to act with an owner-mindset, responsible for all aspects of the business’ success including customer satisfaction, financial returns, and continued growth
• Demonstrated track record for attracting and developing strong leadership talent
• Proven ability to look strategically and creatively at complex problems and systems and identify practical solutions to solve those challenges
• Ability to motivate and hold people accountable for delivering results

Benefits

Our company is built on helping individuals and families, and this starts with our employees. We provide access to the benefits and resources they need to invest in themselves, including:

• Onsite fitness facilities
• Generous paid time off
• Employee professional development programs
• Healthcare benefits (health, vision, dental)
• Insurance benefits (short- and long-term disability)
• Performance-based incentive plans
• 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.

Pay

The base salary range for this position is $202,200.00 - $415,100.00. Unless actual salary is indicated in the job description, actual pay will be based on skill, geographical location, and experience.