SVP, Chief Data and AI Engineering Officer

Date: Feb 3, 2026

Primary Location: Radnor, PA, US

Company: Lincoln Financial

Alternate Locations: Radnor, PA (Pennsylvania); Charlotte, NC (North Carolina); Fort Wayne, IN (Indiana); Greensboro, NC (North Carolina)

 

Work Arrangement:

Hybrid : Employee will work 3 days a week in a Lincoln office

 

Relocation assistance:  will be considered/provided for this opportunity within our company guidelines.

 

Requisition #: 75726

 

The Role at a Glance

Lincoln is seeking an SVP, Chief Data & AI Engineering Officer—a transformational leader who will architect the data and infrastructure foundation essential to powering the company’s AI driven future. This role requires someone highly entrepreneurial, with a track record of building and scaling high performing teams, while simultaneously delivering both foundational technical platforms and production ready AI products.

In this role, you will define and execute the enterprise data and AI engineering strategy, ensuring that Lincoln has the platforms, pipelines, governance, and operational excellence required to accelerate AI at scale. You’ll build the modern, governed, cloud native data and AI ecosystem that enables rapid experimentation, responsible AI, production deployment, and enterprise wide value realization. You’ll partner closely with AI Product & Delivery, Divisional CIOs, and senior business leaders to ensure data becomes a strategic asset that fuels innovation, improves operations, and drives competitive advantage.

What you'll be doing

Enterprise Data & AI Engineering Leadership

  • Define & execute strategy: Lead the multi-year enterprise roadmap for data and AI engineering aligned with AI transformation and business priorities.
  • Governance & stewardship: Establish and chair the enterprise data governance council; define data ownership, stewardship, and responsible AI governance frameworks.
  • Architect for scale: Build modern, cloud-native data infrastructure—including storage, compute, streaming, and batch capabilities—to support high-throughput, low-latency AI workloads.
  • Shape enterprise architecture: Develop logical architectures, semantic models, ontologies, and domain definitions tailored for AI consumption.

AI Solution Delivery & Product Partnership

  • Lead rapid experimentation and quick proof of concepts for priority AI use cases.
  • Guide MVPs through scalable, production ready pathways.
  • Lead hands on technical design, including model approach, data needs, and solution architecture in partnership with AI product teams.

Data Platforms, Pipelines & MLOps

  • Build robust data pipelines: Oversee ingestion, transformation, and orchestration pipelines engineered for reliability, scalability, and reusability.
  • Enable end-to-end MLOps: Implement enterprise capabilities such as feature stores, model registries, CI/CD, automated testing, deployment, and rollback.
  • Operationalize responsible AI: Embed model observability, drift detection, performance monitoring, lineage, and audit trails to meet regulatory and ethical standards.

Reliability, Security & Optimization

  • Champion security & compliance: Ensure enterprise-level data security, privacy controls, access governance, and regulatory compliance across all platforms.
  • Drive operational excellence: Lead Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), incident response, and capacity planning to meet availability and performance targets.
  • Optimize cloud economics: Implement FinOps practices—right-sizing, autoscaling, workload optimization—to ensure cost-efficient platform operations.

Enablement, Partnerships & Culture

  • Deliver trusted data products: Lead the design of data products, catalogs, and self-service tooling that empower AI, analytics, and business teams.
  • Lead organizational change: Drive data literacy, enablement, and cultural transformation to accelerate enterprise-wide AI readiness.
  • Manage strategic partnerships: Oversee vendor relationships and evaluate build-vs-buy decisions across platforms, tools, and data services.
  • Influence at the executive level: Communicate strategy, risk posture, and engineering outcomes in clear business terms to senior leadership.

What we’re looking for

Must Haves:

  • Bachelor’s degree plus 15+ years of progressive experience in large-scale data management, platform engineering, or software engineering supporting AI/ML.
  • 7-10+ years in senior leadership with proven experience scaling teams from <10 to 30+ people, overseeing large engineering organizations with accountability for strategy, architecture, governance, and delivery excellence.
  • Hands-on experience leading pilot-to-production transitions for AI/ML solutions
  • Track record building agentic AI or multi-agent orchestration platforms
  • Proven experience delivering cloud-native data platforms, high‑volume pipelines, and production-grade AI/MLOps in complex, regulated environments.
  • Demonstrated success enabling AI/ML products through strong data foundations from experimentation to production.
  • Background in regulated industries (insurance, banking, financial services) with deep knowledge of compliance and responsible AI governance.
  • Executive communication and influence skills with experience shaping enterprise architecture and driving cross-functional outcomes.

Nice to Haves:

  • Advanced degree in Technology, Engineering, Business, or a related field.
  • Deep expertise in Databricks or Snowflake preferred
  • Expertise in distributed systems, DevOps/CI-CD, SRE/observability, and cost-performance optimization.
  • Experience leading enterprise-scale transformation across multiple business units.
  • Strong relationship management skills with an ability to navigate complex organizational environments and influence without direct authority.

Application Deadline

Applications for this position will be accepted through March 13, 2025, subject to earlier closure due to applicant volume. 

 

What’s it like to work here?

At Lincoln Financial, we love what we do. We make meaningful contributions each and every day to empower our customers to take charge of their lives. Working alongside dedicated and talented colleagues, we build fulfilling careers and stronger communities through a company that values our unique perspectives, insights and contributions and invests in programs that empower each of us to take charge of our own future. 

 

What’s in it for you:

  • Clearly defined career tracks and job levels, along with associated behaviors for each of Lincoln's core values and leadership attributes

  • Leadership development and virtual training opportunities

  • PTO/parental leave

  • Competitive 401K and employee benefits

  • Free financial counseling, health coaching and employee assistance program

  • Tuition assistance program

  • Work arrangements that work for you

  • Effective productivity/technology tools and training

 

The pay range for this position is 250 - 750 with anticipated pay for new hires between the minimum and midpoint of the range and could vary above and below the listed range as permitted by applicable law. Pay is based on non-discriminatory factors including but not limited to work experience, education, location, licensure requirements, proficiency and qualifications required for the role. The base pay is just one component of Lincoln’s total rewards package for employees.  In addition, the role may be eligible for the Annual Incentive Program, which is discretionary and based on the performance of the company, business unit and individual.  Other rewards may include long-term incentives, sales incentives and Lincoln’s standard benefits package.

 

About The Company

Lincoln Financial (NYSE: LNC) helps people to confidently plan for their version of a successful future. We focus on identifying a clear path to financial security, with products including annuities, life insurance, group protection, and retirement plan services. 

 

With our 120-year track record of expertise and integrity, millions of customers trust our solutions and service to help put their goals in reach. 

 

Lincoln Financial Distributors, a broker-dealer, is the wholesale distribution organization of Lincoln Financial. Lincoln Financial is the marketing name for Lincoln Financial Corporation and its affiliates including The Lincoln National Life Insurance Company, Fort Wayne, IN, and Lincoln Life & Annuity Company of New York, Syracuse, NY. Lincoln Financial affiliates, their distributors, and their respective employees, representatives and/or insurance agents do not provide tax, accounting or legal advice. 

 

Lincoln is committed to creating an inclusive environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status. 

 

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Be Aware of Fraudulent Recruiting Activities

If you are interested in a career at Lincoln, we encourage you to review our current openings and apply on our website. Lincoln values the privacy and security of every applicant and urges all applicants to diligently protect their sensitive personal information from scams targeting job seekers. These scams can take many forms including fake employment applications, bogus interviews and falsified offer letters.

 

Lincoln will not ask applicants to provide their social security numbers, date of birth, bank account information or other sensitive information in job applications. Additionally, our recruiters do not communicate with applicants through free e-mail accounts (Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail) or conduct interviews utilizing video chat rooms. We will never ask applicants to provide payment during the hiring process or extend an offer without conducting a phone, live video or in-person interview.  Please contact Lincoln's fraud team at fraudhotline@lfg.com if you encounter a recruiter or see a job opportunity that seems suspicious.

 

Additional Information

This position may be subject to Lincoln’s Political Contribution Policy.  An offer of employment may be contingent upon disclosing to Lincoln the details of certain political contributions. Lincoln may decline to extend an offer or terminate employment for this role if it determines political contributions made could have an adverse impact on Lincoln’s current or future business interests, misrepresentations were made, or for failure to fully disclose applicable political contributions and or fundraising activities.

 

Any unsolicited resumes or candidate profiles submitted through our web site or to personal e-mail accounts of employees of Lincoln Financial are considered property of Lincoln Financial and are not subject to payment of agency fees.

 

Lincoln Financial ("Lincoln" or "the Company") is an Equal Opportunity employer and, as such, is committed in policy and practice to recruit, hire, compensate, train and promote, in all job classifications, without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin or disability. Opportunities throughout Lincoln are available to employees and applicants are evaluated on the basis of job qualifications. If you are a person with a disability that impedes your ability to express your interest for a position through our online application process, or require TTY/TDD assistance, contact us by calling 260-455-2558.

 

This Employer Participates in E-Verify. See the E-Verify notices.

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