Corporate Vice President - Head of Storage & Data Protection

Location Designation: Hybrid - 3 days per quarter
Technology, Data, AI and Ventures:
Within the Tech, Data, AI, Ventures (TDAV) organization, our work is guided by a shared vision: deploying the power of technology, data, AI and ventures to accelerate sustainable competitive advantage for New York Life's businesses. We build solutions that power how we serve policy owners, agents, advisors and employees while delivering measurable business outcomes.
Across technology, data, AI, cyber, product, digital experience, architecture and infrastructure, TDAV combines the scale and investment of an industry leader, access to leading-edge technologies and the opportunity to help shape how a world-class financial services company competes in the AI era - all backed by the stability and purpose of a mutual company built to last.
Business Unit Overview
Enterprise Technology Services (ETS) is responsible for delivering secure, reliable, and innovative technology solutions that enable New York Life's business strategy. ETS provides technology leadership across infrastructure, platforms, enterprise architecture, end-user services, software engineering, and operational excellence, supporting the company's policyholders, employees, and business partners.
Role Summary
The Storage & Data Protection Leader is a highly technical leadership role within Core Infrastructure Technology, accountable for New York Life's enterprise-wide storage, data protection, and recovery capability. This leader owns strategy, architecture, engineering, and operational direction across colocation/private cloud, AWS, GCP, Azure, and SaaS, unifying Infrastructure, Cloud, Cybersecurity, and Enterprise Resiliency around reliable services and recoverable data.
What You'll Do
Strategy, Vision & Governance

• Own the enterprise storage, data protection, and recovery strategy, operating model, and prioritized roadmap across on-premises/private cloud, public cloud, and SaaS; establish owners, milestones, dependencies, adoption measures, and measurable outcomes.
• Define service ownership, decision rights, and governance with Infrastructure, Cloud, Cybersecurity, Enterprise Resiliency, and application teams.
• Build investment cases and portfolio priorities with Procurement, Finance, and Enterprise Architecture, addressing TCO, production dates, risks, and product dependencies.

Enterprise Product Ownership

• Serve as product owner for block, file and object storage, backup, replication, cloud/SaaS protection, immutable backups, isolated recovery, and self-service capabilities.
• Publish product roadmaps, OKRs, and scorecards for protection coverage, backup/restore success, RTO/RPO attainment, availability, performance, capacity, automation, cost, and risk. Deliver consumable services with clear SLAs, documentation, onboarding, support, ownership, and appropriate chargeback.

Architecture, Design & Patterns

• Define reference architectures and reusable storage, backup, replication, retention, cyber-vaulting, and validated recovery patterns across private cloud, AWS/Azure/GCP, Kubernetes, and SaaS.
• Embed identity and access controls, encryption, immutability, isolation, policy-as-code, Infrastructure as Code, and multi-region disaster recovery into engineering standards.
• Integrate platforms, cloud services, application inventories, and ServiceNow CMDB/CSDM so protection policies and recovery playbooks reflect trusted dependencies, ownership, changes, and business impact.

Service Enablement & Scale

• Scale adoption through service catalogs, protection-policy templates, engineering blueprints, and onboarding requirements; establish executable runbooks, dependency mapping, and restore sequencing integrated with ServiceNow incident, change, and problem workflows.
• Automate provisioning, protection-policy deployment, backup exception remediation, and recovery orchestration using Ansible, APIs, and related capabilities. Build and deploy AI agents to investigate backup failures, recommend capacity actions, and coordinate recovery workflows, with least-privilege access, testing, human approval for consequential actions, and audit trails.

Reliability, Performance & Risk

• Set storage availability and performance objectives; agree RTO/RPO with application and business owners. Use service health, backup results, and restore validation to correct issues and eliminate recurring failures.
• Validate operational restore, disaster recovery, and cyber recovery through exercises with measurable outcomes across on-premises, cloud, and SaaS; sponsor capacity and performance programs.
• Partner with Security, Risk, and Compliance on least privilege, encryption, immutability, recovery isolation, retention, controlled automation, and audit-ready evidence for frameworks including SOX and NYDFS.

Financials, Vendor & Lifecycle Management

• Own portfolio financial performance, capacity planning, cloud storage/backup costs, licensing, storage and retention tiering, and value realization against service and recovery outcomes.
• Lead vendor selection, platform rationalization, contract negotiations, and renewals; hold vendors accountable for delivery dates, support, roadmap commitments, investigations, product dependencies, and service outcomes through transparent scorecards.
• Manage lifecycle and supportability across storage hardware, firmware, backup platforms/agents, cloud integrations, recovery environments, and automation dependencies to reduce operational risk.

Leadership, Organization & Change Management

• Lead engineering and matrixed storage, backup, data protection, recovery, and operations teams; attract and develop senior talent, strengthen engineering ownership, and establish operational accountability. Build team skills in applied AI, agent development, and workflow automation through practical use cases that reduce manual effort and improve recovery readiness.
• Translate architecture, recovery readiness, delivery status, investment tradeoffs, and material risks into clear decisions and outcomes for CIO/CTO, risk committees, and business leaders.
• Champion continuous improvement, design and architecture reviews, and shared practices across Infrastructure, App/SRE, Security, Product, Network, Cloud, and Data teams.

Qualifications

• 12-15+ years in enterprise storage, data protection, infrastructure, cloud, or recovery engineering, including 5+ years in senior leadership owning enterprise-scale services in complex, regulated environments.
• Deep expertise in block, file and object storage, backup, replication, retention, encryption, immutability, cyber vaulting, and isolated recovery.
• Strong hybrid-cloud architecture and engineering experience, particularly AWS, spanning on-premises, cloud, SaaS, and containers; ability to establish reusable standards using Infrastructure as Code, APIs, scripting, and controlled automation.
• Proven delivery of operational, disaster, and cyber recovery, including dependency mapping, restore sequencing, RTO/RPO validation, and partnership with Security, Risk, Compliance, and Audit.
• Experience running reliable enterprise services through ITIL practices, ServiceNow integration, capacity and lifecycle planning, budget ownership, and vendor selection, negotiation, and accountability.
• Proven ability to lead technical teams, establish cross-functional accountability, and communicate strategy, architecture, investment tradeoffs, and recovery risks to senior technology and business leaders.
• Preferred: experience with Everpure, NetApp ONTAP, NetApp DII, and Cohesity; practical experience building or integrating AI agents and evaluating their accuracy, controls, and operational value in storage and recovery workflows.

Tooling You May Lead

• Enterprise Storage & Data Protection: Everpure, NetApp ONTAP, IBM Cloud Object , NetApp DII, and Cohesity.
• Recovery Orchestration & ITSM: ServiceNow ITSM/ITOM/CMDB/CSDM and recovery orchestration integrations.
• Cloud & SaaS Data Protection: AWS/Azure/GCP services, Kubernetes (EKS/AKS/GKE), and SaaS protection platforms.

• Automation: Rundeck, Ansible, Terraform/Terragrunt, GitHub/GitLab/ADO pipelines, Argo CD/Flux, APIs, Python/PowerShell, and related orchestration capabilities.

Education
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or equivalent experience; advanced degree (MBA or technical Master's) preferred.
Job Level: LEVELMG3
Pay Transparency
Salary Range: $160,000-$228,500
Overtime eligible: Exempt
Discretionary bonus eligible: Yes
Sales bonus eligible: No
Actual base salary will be determined based on several factors but not limited to individual's experience, skills, qualifications, and job location. Additionally, employees are eligible for an annual discretionary bonus. In addition to base salary, employees may also be eligible to participate in an incentive program.
Company Overview
At New York Life, our 180-year legacy of purpose and integrity fuels our future. As we evolve into a more technology-, data-, and AI-enabled organization, we remain grounded in the values that drive lasting impact.
Our diverse business portfolio creates opportunities to make a difference across industries and communities-inviting bold thinking, collaborative problem-solving, and purpose-driven innovation. Here, you'll find the rare balance of long-standing stability and forward momentum, supported by an inclusive team that honors tradition while embracing progress.
As a Fortune 100 mutual company, we offer a place to grow your skills, contribute to meaningful work, and deliver solutions that matter. Your ideas drive what's next, and your growth powers it.
Our Benefits
We provide a full package of benefits for employees - and have unique offerings for a modern workforce, including leave programs, adoption assistance, and student loan repayment programs. Based on feedback from our employees, we continue to refine and add benefits to our offering, so that you can flourish both inside and outside of work.Click hereto discover more about our comprehensive benefit options or visit our NYL Benefits Site.
Our Commitment to Inclusion
At New York Life, fostering an inclusive workplace is fundamental to who we are and how we serve our communities. We have a longstanding commitment to creating an environment where individuals can contribute their best and succeed together. This foundation is rooted in our core values of humanity and integrity, ensuring that every employee feels valued and supported. By embracing a broad range of perspectives and experiences, we achieve greater success and fulfill our promise of providing financial security and peace of mind to families across all communities. Click here to learn more about New York Life's leadership in this space.
Recognized as one of Fortune's World's Most Admired Companies, New York Life is committed to improving local communities through a culture of employee giving and volunteerism, supported by the Foundation. We're proud that due to our mutuality, we operate in the best interests of our policy owners. To learn more about career opportunities at New York Life, please visit the Careers page of www.NewYorkLife.com.
Job Requisition ID: 95387
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