AVP, GenAI & Agentic Data Science

Job Posting End Date: November 15

When you join the team at Unum, you become part of an organization committed to helping you thrive.

Here, we work to provide the employee benefits and service solutions that enable employees at our client companies to thrive throughout life’s moments. And this starts with ensuring that every one of our team members enjoys opportunities to succeed both professionally and personally. To enable this, we provide:

• Award-winning culture

• Inclusion and diversity as a priority

• Performance Based Incentive Plans

• Competitive benefits package that includes: Health, Vision, Dental, Short & Long-Term Disability

• Generous PTO (including paid time to volunteer!)

• Up to 9.5% 401(k) employer contribution

• Mental health support

• Career advancement opportunities

• Student loan repayment options

• Tuition reimbursement

• Flexible work environments

*All the benefits listed above are subject to the terms of their individual Plans.

And that’s just the beginning…  

With 10,000 employees helping more than 39 million people worldwide, every role at Unum is meaningful and impacts the lives of our customers. Whether you’re directly supporting a growing family, or developing online tools to help navigate a difficult loss, customers are counting on the combined talents of our entire team. Help us help others, and join Team Unum today!

General Summary:

We are seeking an accomplished AVP, GenAI & Agentic Data Science to lead a team of Data Scientists and GenAI Engineers building, deploying, and scaling GenAI and agentic solutions across the enterprise.
This is a technical leadership role for someone who has successfully taken agentic AI from experimentation into production at scale. The ideal candidate combines deep expertise in GenAI and Agentic AI with strong foundations in Data Science and Machine Learning, and knows how to turn emerging technology into trusted, scalable solutions that solve real business problems.
As a leader in advanced analytics within Unum, you will play a critical role in transforming Unum from a traditional insurance player to a leading AI-first digital insurance company.
1. Own and drive strategic AI-based products/offerings, with particular focus on GenAI and Agentic AI solutions
2. Influence senior executives around strategies and investments related to AI
3. Lead a world-class team of Data Scientists and GenAI Engineers with cross-discipline partnerships with other functional areas across Finance, Marketing, Operations
4. Support efforts to evangelize and democratize AI across the enterprise
5. Identify high-value business opportunities for GenAI and Agentic AI and lead solutions from concept through production and scale

Principal Duties and Responsibilities 

• Provide inputs and support execution on the advanced analytics roadmap.
• Lead efforts for AI-first digital products/offerings/capabilities, including GenAI and Agentic AI solutions.
• Partner with Product Innovators/Managers to integrate and operationalize AI into business processes and digital product offerings to deliver measurable business value.
• Lead the design and deployment of production Agentic AI solutions, including agent orchestration, tool use, RAG, memory and state management, multi-agent architectures, and human-in-the-loop workflows.
• Establish practices for AI and agent evaluation, observability, monitoring, guardrails, governance, security, reliability, and responsible AI.
• Influence senior executives and business leaders around strategies and investments related to AI.
• Lead and manage a team of Data Science and Information Technology professionals working within agile/infrastructure or operations teams, working across a wide range of environments, supporting the analysis, development, design, creation, modification and testing of Unum data analytics, GenAI, Agentic AI, and machine learning software and related applications.
• Develops, coaches and engages people to higher levels of performance.
• Lead cross-functional, cross-disciplinary teams to drive AI-centric programs and develop reusable AI patterns, frameworks, and capabilities that can scale across the enterprise.
• Understands and is an advocate of following architecture standards, practices and processes.
• Stay current with rapidly evolving GenAI and Agentic AI technologies and translate emerging capabilities into practical enterprise applications.

Job Specifications

• Bachelor’s degree required, Master’s preferred.
• Background in CS-Math/Data Science/Operational Research.
• 10+ years of experience in designing and building scaled AI/ML products/capabilities, e.g., Virtual Agents, Predictive Systems, Cognitive Process Automation, Computer Vision applications, Knowledge Virtualization, GenAI and Agentic AI solutions.
• Proven experience building and deploying agentic AI systems into production at meaningful scale within a large enterprise or business unit.
• Demonstrated expertise designing production agent architectures, including orchestration, multi-agent systems, tool use, memory/state, evaluation, observability, and human oversight.
• Deep expertise across LLMs, GenAI, Agentic AI, RAG, evaluation, and production AI systems.
• Strong foundations in traditional Data Science, Machine Learning, statistical methods, and experimentation.
• Experience building AI systems requiring enterprise-grade governance, security, reliability, monitoring, and operational controls.
• Excellent knowledge of computer programming, software engineering, DevOps/MLOps practices and production AI systems.
• Experience with AI toolsets like SageMaker, TensorFlow, H2O, as well as modern GenAI/LLM technologies and frameworks.
• Experience building enterprise AI solutions requiring strong governance, security, reliability, monitoring, operational controls, and responsible AI practices.
• Strategic innovator with demonstrated experience of pushing the boundaries and reimagining the art of possible.
• Think strategic, act tactical. Execution experience taking ideas to scale, with demonstrated judgment around where GenAI and Agentic AI are, and are not, the right solutions.
• Experience bridging the divide between the theoretical and the applied. Proven expertise in communicating that vision and experience to non-technical stakeholders.
• Exhibits courage by taking smart risks and encourages others to do so; empowers innovative approaches by motivating others to be proactive and resourceful.
• Demonstrated depth of IT knowledge with diversity in technical experience. Is seen as a credible technology partner, with the ability to effectively partner on solution design and architecture.
• Formal people leadership experience developing highly technical Data Scientists, GenAI Engineers, ML Engineers, or similar technical talent.
• Proven track record of translating emerging AI technologies into scalable solutions that deliver measurable business value.

#LI-RA1

~IN1

Unum and Colonial Life are part of Unum Group, a Fortune 500 company and leading provider of employee benefits to companies worldwide. Headquartered in Chattanooga, TN, with international offices in Ireland, Poland and the UK, Unum also has significant operations in Portland, ME - plus over 35 US field offices. Colonial Life is headquartered in Columbia, SC, with over 40 field offices nationwide.

Unum is an equal opportunity employer, considering all qualified applicants and employees for hiring, placement, and advancement, without regard to a person's race, color, religion, national origin, age, genetic information, military status, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, or protected veteran status.

The base salary range for applicants for this position is listed below. Unless actual salary is indicated above in the job description, actual pay will be based on skill, geographical location and experience.

$133,500.00-$274,100.00

Additionally, Unum offers a portfolio of benefits and rewards that are competitive and comprehensive including healthcare benefits (health, vision, dental), insurance benefits (short & long-term disability), performance-based incentive plans, paid time off, and a 401(k) retirement plan with an employer match up to 5% and an additional 4.5% contribution whether you contribute to the plan or not.  All benefits are subject to the terms and conditions of individual Plans.

Company:

Unum