Lead Application Development Engineer (Hybrid)

American Family Insurance; Madison, Northern (WI, KY); On-site; USD 131,000 - 220,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k)

Pension plan

Annual incentive

Holidays

PTO

Student loan repayment

Paid family leave

New employee orientation

Job summary

American Family Insurance in Madison, WI seeks a Lead Application Development Engineer to provide technical leadership for the Guidewire Commercial Lines PolicyCenter platform. You will guide design, modernization, and support of critical business applications, partnering with architects, product teams, and stakeholders to deliver secure, scalable solutions.

This role emphasizes engineering excellence, problem solving, and mentorship.

Qualifications

• Proven experience providing customer-driven solutions or services.
• Experience analyzing and understanding complex software systems.
• Strong communication of technical information.
• Ability to present different solution delivery approaches to customers.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership for the Guidewire CLPC platform and complex solutions.
• Lead solution design, technical reviews, and engineering decisions for scalable architectures.
• Collaborate with architects, product teams, and stakeholders to align technical solutions with business goals.
• Drive platform reliability, resiliency, performance, and operational excellence.
• Lead root cause analysis and long-term corrective actions for production issues.
• Promote engineering standards, best practices, and SDLC governance across the platform.
• Mentor engineers through design reviews and knowledge sharing.

Skills

Technical leadership

Guidewire PolicyCenter

Solution design

Root cause analysis

Mentoring

Architecture reviews

Tools

Guidewire Platform

Cloud technologies

Job description

As a Lead Application Development Engineer with American Family Insurance, you will provide technical leadership for the Guidewire Commercial Lines PolicyCenter platform, driving the design, development, modernization, and support of critical business applications. You will collaborate with architects, engineering teams, and business stakeholders to deliver secure, scalable, and maintainable solutions, while influencing technical direction, advancing modern engineering practices, and ensuring operational excellence. Through mentorship, problem solving, and strategic decision-making, you will help build a high-performing platform that supports current business needs and future growth. You will report to Senior Manager Engineering. Relocation assistance may be available. Role NOT eligible for sponsorship. #LI-HybridPosition Compensation Range:$131,000.00 - $220,000.00Pay Rate Type:Salary*Compensation may vary based on the job level and your geographic work location.* *Relocation support is offered for eligible candidates.***Primary Accountabilities:*** Serves as the technical lead for the Guidewire CLPC platform, providing guidance and leadership for complex business and technology solutions.* Leads solution design, technical reviews, and engineering decision-making to ensure scalable, secure, and maintainable application architectures.* Partners with architects, product teams, engineering leaders, and business stakeholders to align technical solutions with business objectives.* Drives platform reliability, resiliency, performance, maintainability, and operational excellence.* Leads root cause analysis and resolution of complex production issues and implements long-term corrective actions.* Identifies and drives opportunities to reduce technical debt and improve overall platform health and supportability.* Establishes and promotes engineering standards, development best practices, and quality expectations across the platform.* Provides technical leadership, mentoring, and coaching to engineers through design reviews, knowledge sharing, and guidance on technical solutions.* Evaluates emerging technologies and engineering capabilities, including automation and AI-assisted development opportunities, to improve engineering effectiveness.* Leads and influences platform modernization initiatives focused on scalability, resiliency, maintainability, automation, and long-term sustainability.* Collaborates across teams to understand system dependencies, integration requirements, risks, and technology impacts.* Supports estimation, planning, and technical execution activities for complex initiatives and platform enhancements.**Specialized Knowledge & Skills Requirements:*** Demonstrated experience providing customer-driven solutions, support, or service.* Demonstrated experience analyzing and understanding complex software systems.* Demonstrated experience communicating technical information.* Demonstrated experience developing different solution-delivery and design approaches and solutions to customers.* Demonstrated experience developing different solution-delivery and design approaches and solutions to customers.* Demonstrated experience developing complex software/systems using one or more programming language.* Demonstrated experience analyzing and estimating project size and work efforts for software solutions.* Demonstrated experience providing technical guidance and leadership to less experienced staff.* Extensive knowledge and understanding of software development and design standards and methodologies.* Extensive knowledge and understanding of infrastructure technologies, operating systems, and the interconnectivity between infrastructure platforms and software tools.* Extensive knowledge and understanding of systems development life cycle (SDLC).* Solid knowledge and understanding of application architecture and design alternatives.* Solid Knowledge and understanding of integration and migration strategies and technologies.**Preferred Qualifications:*** Experience in software engineering, application development, or platform engineering supporting complex enterprise applications.* Experience with Guidewire PolicyCenter in development, solution design, support, or technical leadership roles strongly preferred.* Knowledge of Guidewire BillingCenter, ClaimCenter, integrations, and modernization initiatives.* Experience supporting business-critical applications requiring high availability, reliability, and operational excellence.* Strong analytical, troubleshooting, problem-solving, and decision-making skills.* Demonstrated ability to influence technical direction and collaborate effectively across architecture, engineering, product, and business teams.* Experience leading technical design discussions, architecture reviews, and solution planning efforts.* Experience improving application performance, resiliency, reliability, and operational effectiveness.* Experience performing root cause analysis and resolving complex production issues.* Familiarity with cloud technologies, automation, observability tools, and modern engineering practices.* Interest in emerging technologies, including AI-assisted engineering and intelligent automation.**Licenses:**Not Applicable. **Travel Requirements** Up to 10%. **Physical Requirement**s Work that primarily involves sitting/standing. **Working Conditions** Not Applicable.### Additional Information* To ensure a strong start, all employees participate in our New Employee Orientation during their first week. This experience is held in person at our Madison, WI Headquarters or one of our AmFam core locations to help you connect with our mission, meet key team members and build relationships that support your growth. At times, sessions may be delivered virtually based on scheduling and availability.* Offer to selected candidate will be made contingent on the results of applicable background checks* Offer to selected candidate is contingent on signing a non-disclosure agreement for proprietary information, trade secrets, and inventions* Sponsorship will not be considered for this position unless specified in the posting In this hybrid role, you will be expected to work a minimum of 10 days per month out of our Madison, WI or Boston, MA offices.We provide benefits that support your physical, emotional, and financial wellbeing. You will have access to comprehensive medical, dental, vision and wellbeing benefits that enable you to take care of your health. We also offer a competitive 401(k) contribution, a pension plan, an annual incentive, 9 paid holidays and a paid time off program (23 days accrued annually for full-time employees). In addition, our student loan repayment program and paid-family leave are available to support our employees and their families. Interns and contingent workers are not eligible for American Family Insurance Group benefits.We are an equal opportunity employer. It is our policy to comply with all applicable federal, state and local laws pertaining to non-discrimination, non-harassment and equal opportunity. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law.American Family Insurance is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals. If a reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and/or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please email [e-mail] to request a reasonable accommodation.