IT Change Governance Leader (Hybrid)

***At Securian the internal job title is Infrastructure Manager.

Position Summary

The Change Governance Leader is accountable for defining enforcing and continuously improving Securians enterprise change management and release readiness practices.
Reporting to the IT Technology Services leader this role ensures that all production changes whether manual or automated are executed safely compliantly and predictably through policy-driven controls auditable evidence and readiness validation.

Mission Statement

To safeguard production stability and compliance by governing risk-aware evidence-driven and policy-aligned change practices that enable safe auditable and reliable technology delivery.

Role Purpose

The Change Governance Leaderowns the enterprise change policy the control framework and the service readiness governance functions forETproduction deployment. They define how changes are proposed risk-assessed approvedvalidated andevidenced.

Theypartnerwith engineering operations and compliancestakeholders to embed risk-based change governance policy-as-code automation and service readiness gates into the technology delivery lifecycle.

By integrating governance into engineering and operational workflows this role ensures that every change entering production meets defined criteria for testing rollback readiness security validation and operational preparedness.

Key Responsibilities

1. Change Governance & Policy Ownership

• Own and evolve the enterprise change management policy and supporting standards.

• Define and govern risk-based change classifications (Standard Normal Emergency) aligned with regulatoryand industryexpectations.

• Ensureevery change to production is authorized testedvalidated andevidencedin accordance withpolicy.

• Maintain alignment with ITIL GRC and regulatory frameworks applicable to Securians environment.

2.Leadership& Organization

• Leadthe Change Enablement and Release teamfocused onservice governance functions

• Foster a culture of accountability empowerment and professional growthwithin the team

3. Policy-as-Code & Continuous Compliance

• Partner with Platform & Reliability Engineering to implement automated guardrails that enforce policy-as-code across CI/CD pipelines.

• Define control evidence requirements for testing approvals rollback and post-change verification.

• Govern the integration of change metrics control data andapprovalevidence within ServiceNow and related systems.

• Ensure real-time visibility of change posture compliance and risk exposure across production environments.

4. Release Readiness & Service Validation

• Govern thereleasereadiness process for all critical deployments.

• Define and enforce Go/No-Go criteria including validation of testing observability instrumentation rollback plans and capacity readiness.

• Ensure operational validation across observability performance and failover preparedness before changes are deployed.

• Facilitate Service Readiness Reviews (SRR) and Operational Readiness Assessments (ORA) for all major initiatives.

5.ChangeAdvisory & Risk Governance

• Modernize the Change Advisory Board (CAB) processemphasizingrisk intelligence automation evidence and cross-domain visibility.

• Govern emergency change protocols and ensure 100% post-implementationreviews (PIRs).

• Partner with compliance risk and audit teams to ensure continuous control adherence andevidenceintegrity.

• Report on change success emergency rates andcompliancehealthacross all domains.

6. Metrics Transparency & Continuous Improvement

• Define and monitor KPIsincluding:Change Success Rate Change Failure Rate (CFR) Emergency Change Rate Approval Cycle Time Evidence Completeness and Audit Findings Closure.

• Leverage analytics from Reliability Insights & Analytics to detect patterns preventregressions andidentifyimprovement opportunities.

• Continuously evolve the change policy and readiness framework based on lessons learned audit results and incident correlations.

Required Capabilities & Skills

• Deep understanding of ITIL-based change enablement and risk governance in regulated enterprises.

• Familiarity with policy-as-code concepts CI/CD governance integrations and ServiceNowITSM/Change modules.

• Working knowledge of release validation operational readiness and audit evidence frameworks.

• Understanding of GRC security and compliance controls relevant to financial services.

• Proven ability to govern enterprise-wide policy execution across distributed delivery and operations teams.

• Skilledat partnering with engineering and operations to balance agility with control.

• Experienced inworking with audit risk and compliance functions to ensure continuous readiness.

• Excellent communication andinfluence skills capable of driving policy adherence at scale.

Behavioral Competencies

• Governance-first mindset with balanced pragmatism for operational realities.

• Transparent and data-driven leader.

• Collaborative across technical and business functions.

• Advocate for proactive risk mitigation and continuous improvement.

#LI-Hybrid**This position willhave a hybrid working arrangement workingin-officefor a minimum of3days aweek.**

Securian Financial believes in hybrid work as an integral part of our culture. Associates get the benefit of working both virtually and in our offices. Ifyoureina commutable distance (90 minutes)youlljoin us 3 days each week in our offices to collaborate and build relationships. Our policy allows flexibility for the reality of business and personal schedules.