Brett Stewart
1215 NE Milan Ave. Ankeny,IA
Summary
Transformational IT Leader with 23 years of experience leading enterprise technology organizations across HR, Risk, Compliance, Internal Audit, Data, and Infrastructure domains. Proven success in modernizing legacy systems, migrating platforms to the cloud, and embedding automation and analytics into business operations. Skilled at managing multi-million-dollar IT budgets, with a track record of fiscal responsibility and cost optimization. Adept at managing large global teams through diverse staffing models, including direct employees, contractors, and Managed Service Providers, while aligning technology with strategic business outcomes. Expert in leading the full lifecycle transformation of enterprise systems, including HCM and IRM, with deep expertise in platform product ownership, stakeholder alignment, vendor management, and service delivery in highly regulated environments.
Overview
26
26
years of professional experience
Work History
Director of Engineering
Principal Financial Group Inc
Des Moines, IA
11.2023 - Current
- Serve as a member of the HR Leadership Team, partnering with the CHRO and global leaders to align enterprise technology strategy with HR and organizational priorities.
- Leading technology department responsible for global HR platforms and technology solutions, aligning product roadmaps with business and digital transformation goals.
- Modernized enterprise onboarding solutions, eliminating 75% of manual processes and significantly improving employee experience, accuracy, and time-to-productivity.
- Enabled workforce and people analytics through a unified data strategy, integrating disparate HR data sources into a curated data lake to drive actionable insights and enhance decision-making for business and HR leaders.
- Optimized delivery model by leveraging a blended staffing strategy - combining local and global employees, contractors, and managed service providers - to maintain top-tier service while reducing staffing overhead by 3% annually.
- Driving modernization initiatives in HCM platforms and enabling next-gen capabilities using automation and data.
- Engaging HR leadership to continuously improve usability, scalability, and performance of enterprise systems.
- Core lead to the Employee Experience Program, helping shape investment decisions by creating emotional value through connection and functional value through performance.
- Oracle HCM, ServiceNow, iCIMS, ADP, AWS, Perceptyx
Asst. Director of Engineering
Principal Financial Group Inc
Des Moines, IA
03.2022 - 11.2023
- Led enterprise-wide assessments of IRM, Compliance, and Internal Audit platforms, developing the business case and vendor evaluation strategy to support long-term modernization and risk alignment.
- Directed the transformation and execution of the IRM data lake strategy, establishing a new team and function to deliver high-quality, integrated data pipelines supporting enterprise risk analytics and reporting.
- Partnered with business stakeholders on product prioritization, investment planning, and change adoption.
- ArcherIRM, Riskonnect, AuditBoard, iManage, Bridger Insight XG
IT Manager
Principal Financial Group Inc
Des Moines, IA
12.2019 - 03.2022
- Directed global support for Governance, Risk, Compliance (GRC), and Audit platforms.
- Implemented scalable, cloud-ready GRC solutions; supported global risk analytics enablement.
- Facilitated strong alignment with Risk and Compliance officers across multiple geographies.
Application Development Manager
Farm Bureau Financial Services of Iowa
West Des Moines, IA
02.2019 - 12.2019
- Leading three teams responsible for IT Data and Analytic Solutions, Content Management and Print capabilities.
- Lead teams through significant changes in staffing, process improvements and agile adoption.
IT Manager - Data Services
Principal Financial Group Inc
Des Moines, IA
02.2016 - 02.2019
- Product owner for Content Management, Data Integration (ETL, MFT), and Backup platforms.
- Led $8M budget and 3 departments delivering core enterprise data services across HR and Finance.
- Developed multi-year technology roadmap; introduced ITSM best practices and data automation.
- Championed the evaluation and deployment of cloud-native data platforms in collaboration with global business partners.
IT Manager, Dist App Hosting
Principal Financial Group Inc
Des Moines, IA
03.2009 - 02.2016
- Led team supporting 1,000+ hosted applications with over 5M weekly transactions.
- Designed and implemented enterprise hosting strategy, balancing performance and cost.
- Initiated and led application performance management (APM) strategy and tool implementation.
- Delivered a new foreign data center environment in Chile; supported global expansion.
Senior IT Systems Analyst
Principal Financial Group Inc
Des Moines, IA
11.2007 - 03.2009
IT System Analyst / Strategy Lead
State Farm Insurance Inc
Bloomington, IL
12.1999 - 11.2007
Education
Bachelor of Science - Computer Information Systems
Missouri State University
Springfield, MO12-1999
Skills
- Executive Stakeholder Engagement
- Strategic Planning & Roadmapping
- Global Team Leadership
- Organizational Change Management
- Vendor & Budget Management
- Cloud Migrations (Oracle, ServiceNow, AWS)
- HCM/IRM Platform Modernization
- AI & Automation Enablement
- Data Integration & Analysis
- Team Building & Talent Development
Accomplishments
- Technology Association of Iowa Information Technology Leadership Institute TAI ITLI) Cohort 2024
Timeline
Director of Engineering
Principal Financial Group Inc
11.2023 - Current
Asst. Director of Engineering
Principal Financial Group Inc
03.2022 - 11.2023
IT Manager
Principal Financial Group Inc
12.2019 - 03.2022
Application Development Manager
Farm Bureau Financial Services of Iowa
02.2019 - 12.2019
IT Manager - Data Services
Principal Financial Group Inc
02.2016 - 02.2019
IT Manager, Dist App Hosting
Principal Financial Group Inc
03.2009 - 02.2016
Senior IT Systems Analyst
Principal Financial Group Inc
11.2007 - 03.2009
IT System Analyst / Strategy Lead
State Farm Insurance Inc
12.1999 - 11.2007
Bachelor of Science - Computer Information Systems
Missouri State University
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