Alberta Blue Cross® is an Alberta based organization dedicated to delivering exceptional customer experience and community leadership. We’re committed to providing the best health coverage to over 1.8 million members and take an active role in promoting wellness. We believe in what we do - and place trust in our employees to deliver our vision.
Working at Alberta Blue Cross® means having a career where you’ll be recognized for your contributions. We value diversity, encourage our team members to maintain a healthy work-life balance and provide opportunities for career growth.
OVERVIEW
We have an exciting opportunity for a Director, IT Cybersecurity to join our dynamic IT team. Reporting to the Director, CISO, this position is a senior enterprise leader responsible for shaping, governing, and advancing the cybersecurity strategy for Alberta Blue Cross. This role provides authoritative oversight of the cybersecurity portfolio and ensures the organization is equipped with a resilient, risk‑based security posture that protects our systems, data, and reputation. The role ensures that our cybersecurity team continues to be a strong partner for IT and the business, that our cybersecurity practice is optimized, and that we are positioned for rapid response to cybersecurity events and incidents.
A key mandate of this role is to define and execute our cybersecurity strategy, and to continuously evolve our risk-based cybersecurity program to strengthen our organization’s resilience.
WHAT YOU WILL DO
- Lead and inspire our cybersecurity teams, fostering a culture of collaboration, accountability and high performance.
- Direct and oversee a team of cybersecurity managers and subject matter experts.
- Mentor and develop team members to strengthen capability, support growth and build an engaged, high-performing workforce.
- Define and execute a multi‑year cybersecurity strategy aligned to enterprise objectives, risk appetite, and regulatory expectations.
- Manage and support the continuous assessment of our cybersecurity practice.
- Build and maintain strong relationships with senior executives, business leaders, and technology partners to influence decision‑making and embed cybersecurity into enterprise planning.
- Establish and maintain strategic external partnerships to strengthen our practice and represent Alberta Blue Cross.
- Lead cybersecurity governance to provide effective management of the cybersecurity program and enable risk-based decision making.
- Oversee the entire cybersecurity practice to ensure our cybersecurity risk is within the organization’s tolerance levels.
- Lead the management and evolution of our cybersecurity policy, standards, runbooks and methodologies.
- Ensure compliance to internal and external standards, regulations and audit expectations.
- Partner with business leaders and technology teams to ensure alignment, manage dependencies, and drive successful outcomes.
- Direct the response to critical and enterprise‑wide cybersecurity incidents, ensuring coordinated action, executive communication, and rapid recovery.
POSITION SCOPE
- Strategic alignment with Enterprise Risk, Privacy, Legal, Human Resources, and other key partners to ensure a unified approach to risk and compliance.
- Accountability for the IT cybersecurity portfolio, including governance, operations, risk management, and strategic planning.
- Drive significant operational impact in delivery performance, prioritization discipline, risk mitigation, and value realization.
- Influence senior leadership and executive teams with cybersecurity insights to support strategic decision.
- Manage the budget and spend for the entire cybersecurity portfolio.
- Oversight of the cybersecurity partner ecosystem, ensuring scalable, resilient, and high‑quality service delivery.
KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES
- Accountable for the current state and management of the risk associated with IT cybersecurity.
- Continuous monitoring of emerging threats, technologies, and regulatory changes to inform strategic investments and roadmap evolution.
- Thought leadership in modern cybersecurity practices, advocating for innovation and continuous improvement.
- Alignment of cybersecurity initiatives with enterprise risk, privacy, legal, and HR frameworks.
- Preparation and delivery of cybersecurity reporting to executive leadership and the Board of Directors.
- Leadership of enterprise‑wide incident response, ensuring coordinated action and timely resolution.
- Representation of Alberta Blue Cross on national committees and regulatory bodies, strengthening our influence and industry alignment.
KEY SUCCESS MEASURES
- Demonstrated reduction and effective management of cybersecurity risk across the organization.
- Strong organizational resilience and rapid response to cybersecurity threats and incidents.
- Timely closure of audit findings and compliance gaps.
- Mature, repeatable, and well‑governed cybersecurity processes.
- High confidence in cybersecurity leadership from executives, IT, and business partners.
- Clear, well‑defined roles and responsibilities across the cybersecurity organization.
- High levels of cybersecurity awareness and engagement across the enterprise.
- Measurable improvements in mean time to detect and respond to cybersecurity events.
WHAT YOU WILL HAVE
- Bachelor’s degree in information technology or a related field; advanced education or cybersecurity certifications are strong assets.
- 10+ years of progressive IT leadership experience, including 5+ years overseeing enterprise cybersecurity portfolios.
- Strong knowledge of, and experience with, NIST Cybersecurity Framework.
- Strong financial acumen, including budgeting, forecasting, capital planning, and value realization.
- Proven ability to build and lead high-performing teams while fostering a culture of collaboration, accountability and trust.
- Strong strategic thinking and data-driven decision making skills.
- Composure and leadership presence during high intensity and critical cybersecurity events.
- Excellent communication and relationship building skills with the ability to influence at all levels, including executives.
- Demonstrated change leadership; guiding teams through transformation with resilience, clarity, and empathy.
- A forward-looking, innovative, and adaptable mindset with the ability to anticipate organizational needs.
- Demonstrated curiosity and commitment to lifelong learning; actively exploring new ideas, asking questions, and seeking knowledge to fuel innovation.
- Ability to thrive in dynamic environments, adapt quickly to shifting priorities while guiding others to embrace new ways of working with empathy, patience, and persistence.
- Ability to inspire and develop talent; build high performing, engaged teams through coaching, mentoring, and accountability.
- Demonstrated strengths in negotiation, budgeting, planning, organizing, and delegation.
- Experienced in partnering with senior leaders to shape and deliver strategies that drive measurable results.
COMPETENCY MATRIX
Strategic thinking
- Description – Ability to align portfolio decisions with enterprise strategy.
- Proficiency level – Advanced.
- Evidence – Demonstrated in portfolio alignment outcomes.
Leadership
- Description – Builds high-performing teams and leads change.
- Proficiency level – Advanced.
- Evidence – Feedback, team outcomes.
Analytical skills
- Description – Use critical thinking and data for decisions and forecasting.
- Proficiency level – Advanced.
- Evidence – Dashboard use, forecasting accuracy.
Collaboration
- Description – Works across business units effectively.
- Proficiency level – Advanced.
- Evidence – Cross-functional success cases.
Incident commandership
- Description – Ability to thinking critically and stay composed during response to high intensity cybersecurity events
- Proficiency level – Advanced.
- Evidence – Effective leadership of cybersecurity events.
BEHAVIORAL INDICATORS
Strategic thinking:
- Consistently anticipates enterprise impacts before decisions are made.
- Connect portfolio choices to external market and organizational context.
Leadership:
- Model calm, confident leadership during ambiguity.
- Actively coach team members and builds successors.
Analytical skills:
- Employ critical thinking leveraging data to challenge assumptions and drive prioritization.
- Simplify complex information for executive decision making.
Collaboration:
- Proactively seek alignment across business functions.
- Resolve conflicts by focusing on outcomes, not positions.
Incident commandership:
- Demonstrate effective leadership during highly intense cybersecurity events.
- Skilled at managing and leveraging relationships with partner divisions to ensure a coordinated and highly effective response to cybersecurity events.
This position will remain open until a suitable candidate is selected.
Alberta Blue Cross® is an inclusive employer committed to a workplace that reflects the diversity of the communities we serve. We empower and are advocates for our team members by welcoming, respecting and valuing their unique perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences.
We offer the opportunity to work in an innovative, high-energy team-focused environment. If you have the qualifications we are looking for, apply online at careers.ab.bluecross.ca
A criminal record check satisfactory to Alberta Blue Cross will be required as a condition of employment, following a conditional offer.
