Head of Technology Strategy and Governance

Overview

Established nearly two centuries ago, FM is a leading mutual insurance company whose capital, scientific research capability and engineering expertise are solely dedicated to property risk management and the resilience of its policyholder-owners. These owners, who share the belief that the majority of property loss is preventable, represent many of the world’s largest organizations, including one of every four Fortune 500 companies. They work with FM to better understand the hazards that can impact their business continuity to make cost-effective risk management decisions, combining property loss prevention with insurance protection.

Responsibilities

The Head of  Technology Strategy and Governance is a senior executive reporting to the CIO responsible for helping define and monitoring the execution of the enterprise technology strategy, ensuring alignment with business objectives, regulatory requirements, and workforce capabilities.  The crucial objectives to this role are ensuring a consistent and strategic approach to the application of information technology across the enterprise, and ensuring a consistent, transparent and efficient approach to the way the IT organization delivers value to the business.

The core capabilities of this role is strategy, planning, governance, IT operating model and performance management.  This role oversees governance frameworks, technology investment decisions, and the Technology Project Management Office (PMO), while partnering across the organization to optimize resource utilization, drive innovation, and foster a culture of continuous learning and transparency.  Serves as the central coordinator, this role provides enterprise-wide visibility into IT project requests and staff capacity, and supporting long range planning. 

Strategic Planning & Alignment

- Develop and maintain a forward-looking enterprise technology strategy and corresponding roadmap in collaboration with business and IT leaders.- Ensure technology initiatives are aligned with organizational goals, business priorities, and operational needs.

Governance & Risk Management

- Establish and lead IT governance frameworks, policies, and standards to ensure consistency, accountability, and compliance.- Provide oversight of technology performance, risk exposure, and value realization.

Demand & Capacity Management

- Lead workforce demand and capacity planning across technology teams to ensure effective and efficient resource utilization.- Collaborate with delivery and operations leaders to forecast staffing needs, balance workloads, and inform sourcing strategies.- Use data-driven insights to support workforce planning, talent acquisition, and skills development.

Portfolio & Technology Investment Management

- Oversee the IT portfolio management process, including initiative prioritization, budgeting, and resource allocation.- Lead and manage the Technology Project Management Office (PMO), ensuring consistent project delivery practices, governance, and reporting across all technology initiatives.- Establish and maintain standards for project execution, including methodologies, tools, and performance metrics.- Establish and oversee Technology governance practices to ensure that technology investments are based on strategic alignment, return on investment, and risk profile.- Provide executive-level visibility into portfolio performance, risks, and dependencies to support informed decision-making.

Financial Management

- Provide greater cost transparency and enable analytics to support strategic decision making, financial planning, budget justification, chargeback/showback, performance analytics, benchmarking and value measurement capabilities.- Establish and maintain processes to aggregate and allocate all IT cost and consumption data against a cost model that reflects IT products or services – “run IT like a business”

IT Performance Management

- Establish key performance indicators (KPIs) to help oversee, monitor and measure the technology organization against the goal to run IT efficiently and ensure we are operating within established governance frameworks

Stakeholder Engagement & Communications

- Collaborate with internal communications teams to ensure consistent messaging and engagement around technology strategy and governance.- Promote transparency and alignment through regular updates, dashboards, and stakeholder forums.

Learning & Development Collaboration

- Partner with HR and Learning & Development teams to identify skill gaps and design targeted training programs for technology staff.- Support the development of career paths, competency models, and professional growth opportunities within the technology organization.- Champion a culture of continuous learning, innovation, and knowledge sharing.

Vendor Management & Strategic Sourcing

Analyze and anticipate future IT procurement needs, and ensure these needs will be met through high-quality strategic relationships with key vendors. 

Knowledge Management

Ensure there are processes in place to capture, distribute and effectively use IT knowledge across the enterprise, driving continuous learning and improvement. 

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Business Administration, or related field (Master’s preferred).
• 10+ years of experience in IT strategy, governance, or enterprise architecture, with demonstrated leadership in complex environments.
• Proven experience managing a PMO and overseeing large-scale technology portfolios.
• Strong understanding of IT governance frameworks (e.g., COBIT, ITIL), workforce planning, and enterprise risk management.
• Exceptional communication, stakeholder engagement, and analytical skills
• Ability to influence and drive enterprise-wide change

Preferred Certifications

• Certified in Governance of Enterprise IT (CGEIT)
• TOGAF, ITIL, or PMP
• Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) or similar