Application Development Manager

Farm Bureau Financial Services; West Des Moines (IA); Hybrid; USD 110,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Enhanced 401K match

Health, dental, and vision benefits

Life and disability insurance

Paid time off & holidays

Volunteer time off

Job summary

Farm Bureau Financial Services is seeking an Application Development Manager to lead the Life Development team within our IT organization. You will partner with business and IT leadership to drive strategic initiatives and deliver platform roadmaps for life insurance applications.

The ideal candidate has strong leadership, experience with SDLC and Agile, and the ability to mentor engineers while coordinating with vendors and internal clients.

Qualifications

• College degree or equivalent; 8 years relevant experience required.
• 2 years supervisory/management experience preferred.
• Strong leadership, communication, planning, decision making and negotiation skills.
• Solid understanding of Software Development Lifecycle and Agile principles.
• Experience with insurance applications and life insurance systems is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Oversee staffing including selection, training, performance reviews, capacity and budget.
• Communicate goals to staff and align with Digital Transformation efforts.
• Serve as liaison between team and business areas to deliver products and services.
• Work with IT leaders and engineers to define scope, requirements, and deliverables.
• Identify system problems and coordinate resolution with stakeholders.
• Design and ensure compliance with underlying principles and strategies.
• Maintain the integrity of all applications within accountability.
• Manage vendor relationships and prioritize initiatives with business goals.
• Keep current with technologies and prioritize maintenance and projects.

Skills

Leadership

Strategic thinking

Communication

Staffing & development

Project delivery

Relationship building

Education

College degree or equivalent

Job description

Do you have proven passion for leadership, customer focus, and teamwork with the desire to drive and support strategic initiatives that impact client, agent, and employee experiences? Are you self-driven and thrive in a fast paced, results oriented environment? If so, this Application Development Manager opportunity might just be the perfect match for you!

We are seeking an individual with strong leadership and collaboration skills to manage the Life Development team within our IT department. This team is responsible for the key Life Company strategic platform and related tools. In this position you will have the opportunity to partner with Business and IT leadership, Innovation, and application teams from across the organization to drive tactical and strategic imperatives and will work closely with the team's engineers to develop application roadmaps and recommendations for future capabilities. The successful candidate would have the ability to effectively lead a group of high-performing individuals, have experience with software development practices and project delivery, and can communicate effectively with various levels of the organization.

Who We Are:

At Farm Bureau Financial Services, our client/members can feel confident knowing their family, home, cars, and other property are protected. We value a culture where integrity, teamwork, passion, service, leadership, and accountability are at the heart of every decision we make and every action we take. We're proud of our more than 80-year commitment to protecting the livelihoods and futures of our client/members and creating an atmosphere where our employees thrive.

What You’ll Do

• Oversee all aspects of staffing including selection, training/development, performance reviews, managing capacity/demand of work and controlling workflow, motivation of employees, and assigned budget activities.
• Responsible for ensuring the goals of the company are communicated effectively to staff, that the goals of the team are in alignment with driving organizational results including Digital Transformational efforts
• Serve as a key liaison between the team and the business areas it supports to interpret and analyze complex business problems and ensure the delivery of products and services.
• Work with other IT leaders, engineers, and development teams to implement high risk, highly complex business applications by defining business scope, objectives, requirements, and deliverables based on system development methodologies.
• Identify business system problems, determine level of urgency, work with technical team, and communicate to impacted stakeholders regarding issues, status, and resolution.
• Partner with IT leaders, engineers, and technical team to design and ensure compliance with underlying principles, assumptions, and strategies, ensure the integrity of applications, and to make recommendations for improvement.
• Partner with engineers and technical team to ensure the integrity of all system applications within their accountability are maintained at all times.
• Partner with vendors to assist in recognizing possible business solutions and will partner with business and IT leadership to manage vendor relationships, Service Level Agreements, and to set priorities that are in line with business goals.
• Keep abreast of current technologies and assist the business with prioritization of maintenance and projects, ensuring that initiatives with the greatest benefit/risk will be worked first.

What It Takes To Join Our Team

• College degree or equivalent plus 8 years relevant experience required. 2 years prior supervisory/management experience preferred.
• Strong leadership skills and a passion for developing people is required.
• Very strong oral and written communication, planning, decision making, and negotiation skills.
• Must have strong interpersonal skills and be able to build effective relationships with Business, IT and external vendors.
• Strong analytical/conceptual thinking skills, strategic thinking, and the ability to deliver outcomes is required.
• Must have a strong aptitude to learn both business and technical terms and processes.
• Solid understanding of the Software Development Lifecycle, Agile principles, and technologies specific to a distributed environment a plus.
• Prior experience with insurance applications and life insurance systems a plus.
• Must have or attain a strong understanding of all entities of the FBL Financial Group.

When you're on our team, you get more than a great paycheck. You'll hear about career development and educational opportunities.

• We offer an enhanced 401K with a match
• low-cost health, dental, and vision benefits
• life and disability insurance options
• We also offer paid time off, including holidays and volunteer time
• casual Fridays
• a flexible hybrid work location policy
• teams who know how to have fun
• an onsite wellness facility with fitness classes and programs
• a daycare center
• a cafeteria
• an onsite medical clinic

Farm Bureau....where the grass really IS greener!

Work Authorization/Sponsorship

At this time, we are not considering candidates that need any type of immigration sponsorship now or in the future, such as additional or permanent work authorization. Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time, permanent basis. We are not able to sponsor now or in the future, or take over sponsorship of, an employment visa or work authorization for this role. For example, we are not considering candidates with OPT status.