Lead Software Engineer - Delivery Platform & Developer Experience

Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield; Des Moines (IA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield is seeking a technical leader to design, develop, and evolve complex software delivery platforms. You will lead CI/CD engineering, reusable pipelines, and delivery automation, ensuring solutions meet security and architecture standards while aligning with business goals.

You will drive cross-team collaboration, governance, and continuous improvement of software delivery workflows, applying a product mindset to adoption, metrics, and developer experience across the

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, MIS, or related field with 5+ years of development experience or 9 years of related experience.
• Strong analytical problem-solving skills and attention to detail.
• Demonstrated experience in software development lifecycle methodologies.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate and coach/mentor team members.
• Big picture thinker with the ability to translate WaaS strategy to company strategy.
• Strong ability to perform root cause analysis and recommend solutions using data.
• Demonstrated ability to build relationships and communicate with stakeholders.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment with changing priorities.
• Continuous learning mindset and awareness of industry trends.
• Ability to collaborate and work within a diverse development team model.
• Demonstrated experience leading cross team technical initiatives.
• Demonstrated experience designing and implementing reusable pipeline capabilities, defining CI/CD engineering standards, and driving adoption across engineering teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design, development, and evolution of complex software engineering solutions and delivery platform capabilities.
• Provide technical leadership for CI/CD engineering, delivery automation, reusable pipelines, and self-service capabilities.
• Ensure engineering solutions align with business expectations, standards, architecture, and security requirements.
• Act as a consultant on software delivery capabilities and process improvements across the organization.
• Lead enterprise CI/CD capability development, governance controls, and adoption metrics.
• Develop reusable pipelines and reference implementations; document governance and self-service capabilities.
• Apply a product mindset to enterprise CI/CD capabilities and measure adoption, reliability, and developer experience outcomes.
• Operate, monitor, and continuously improve enterprise CI/CD capabilities; collaborate across teams to evaluate tradeoffs.

Skills

Agile delivery

GitHub Actions

AWS deployment

Reusable pipelines

CI/CD governance

Developer tooling

Cross-team leadership

Security integration

Metrics & telemetry

Product mindset

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/MIS or related field

Tools

GitHub Actions

AWS

CI/CD tooling

Job description

Why Wellmark

We are a mutual insurance company owned by our policy holders across Iowa and South Dakota, and we’ve built our reputation on over 80 years’ worth of trust. We are not motivated by profits. We are motivated by the well-being of our friends, family, and neighbors–our members. If you’re passionate about joining an organization working hard to put its members first, to provide best-in-class service, and one that is committed to sustainability and innovation, consider applying today!

Why Wellmark Technology?

Wellmark is building innovative, modern solutions using cutting edge technology. We are driving organizational transformation and business strategy by empowering our technology team to innovate new and elegant solutions to enhance the customer experience. Together, we are leaning into the future, owning the outcome, and driving organizational change to transform how we work.

Job Description

Leads the design, development, and evolution of complex software engineering solutions and software delivery platform capabilities that support Wellmark’s business and technology initiatives. Serves as a technical leader for CI/CD engineering, software delivery automation, reusable pipelines and workflows, self-service, and engineering enablement. Ensures engineering solutions align with business expectations, Wellmark standards, architecture principles, and security requirements.

Utilizes established relationships with Wellmark leaders and acts as a consultant on software delivery capabilities, engineering delivery challenges, process improvements, and technology enhancements. Provides technical leadership and contributes to the direction and evolution of enterprise CI/CD, including reusable pipelines and workflows, delivery automation, platform integrations, governance controls, and continuous improvement of software delivery workflows.

Qualifications

Preferred

• Experience working within Agile product delivery or software engineering environments.
• Experience designing, implementing, and supporting enterprise CI/CD capabilities using GitHub Actions or similar technologies.
• Experience designing and implementing CI/CD capabilities for AWS-based applications and infrastructure, including build, deployment, configuration, environment, and release automation.
• Experience developing and driving adoption of reusable pipelines, workflows, automation templates, and self-service capabilities, including integrations with cloud platforms, security tooling, testing frameworks, observability solutions, and developer tools.
• Experience defining software delivery roadmaps, prioritizing engineering capabilities, and balancing developer, security, operational, and business needs.
• Experience identifying developer friction and gaps across software delivery workflows and driving measurable improvements across tools, processes, and teams.
• Experience in integrating CI/CD capabilities with internal developer platforms, developer portals, and other self-service engineering experiences.
• Experience implementing software supply chain security, automated governance, and compliance controls within delivery workflows.
• Experience using software delivery, reliability, adoption, usage or developer productivity measures to identify opportunities and evaluate outcomes.
• Experience with infrastructure as code, configuration as code, or policy as code practices.
• Experience applying product management principles to software delivery capabilities, including gathering developer feedback, prioritizing capabilities, measuring adoption, and creating alignment with engineering standards.

Required

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, MIS, or related field of study and at least five years of development experience or nine years of related and applicable experience.
• Strong analytical problem-solving skills and attention to detail.
• Demonstrated experience in software development lifecycle methodologies.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate and coach/mentor team members.
• Big picture thinker with the ability to translate WaaS strategy to company strategy.
• Strong ability to perform root cause analysis and recommend solutions using data.
• Demonstrated ability to build relationships and communicate with stakeholders.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment with changing priorities.
• Continuous learning mindset and awareness of industry trends.
• Ability to collaborate and work within a diverse development team model.
• Demonstrated experience leading cross team technical initiatives.
• Demonstrated experience designing and implementing reusable pipeline capabilities, defining CI/CD engineering standards, and driving adoption across engineering teams.

Additional Information

• Lead the design, development, and implementation of highly complex programs. Coordinate the preparation, coding, testing, and debugging of complex programs including the analysis and development of workflows that utilize emerging technology and meet and exceed Wellmark’s evolving business needs.
• Serve as a subject matter expert for CI/CD, reusable pipelines and workflows, software delivery automation, delivery platform integrations, self-service capabilities, and related engineering practices. Lead the implementation of innovative, secure, scalable, and cost-effective capabilities used across multiple applications, systems, and engineering teams.
• Provide technical leadership, training, and guidance to team members in gathering information, conducting root cause analysis, defining problems and formulating solutions, verifying outcomes, and continuously optimizing solutions.
• Mentor, guide, and problem-solve with other technology areas in the design, development, and implementation of solutions, including how to use new or enhanced software/applications.
• Partner with application engineering, cloud, security, architecture, operations, quality engineering, and other technology teams to integrate platform capabilities, products, and processes.
• Utilize established relationships with Wellmark leaders and act as a primary consultant on enterprise pipeline capabilities, engineering delivery challenges, process improvements, and technology enhancements.
• Lead and participate in enterprise pipeline capability development, capability assessments, project proposals, estimates, and proof-of-concept activities as needed.
• Maintain awareness of industry best practices and standards and proactively participate in relevant industry and knowledge-sharing groups. Provide direction for enterprise standards, conduct code reviews, and monitor adherence to standards.
• Lead the design, development, integration, adoption, and ongoing maturity of enterprise CI/CD capabilities, including reusable pipelines, workflows, automation templates, and build and deployment automation. Integrate source control, cloud platforms, security tooling, testing frameworks, observability solutions, developer tools, and internal developer platform capabilities to provide a consistent and reliable software delivery experience.
• Develop reusable pipelines, workflows, automation templates, reference implementations, documentation, governance controls, and self-service delivery capabilities that reduce developer friction and enable engineering teams to adopt Wellmark standards and preferred engineering practices.
• Apply a product mindset to enterprise CI/CD capabilities by gathering developer feedback, understanding software delivery journeys, prioritizing capabilities, contributing to software delivery capability development, and defining measures for adoption, reliability, effectiveness, performance, and developer experience outcomes.
• Operate, support, monitor, and continuously improve enterprise CI/CD capabilities. Partner with application engineering, architecture, security, cloud, internal developer platform, and other technology teams to evaluate technical tradeoffs, improve software delivery reliability, and promote reliable service and shared team ownership.
• Other duties as assigned.

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

An Equal Opportunity Employer

The policy of Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield is to recruit, hire, train and promote individuals in all job classifications without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, veteran status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or any other characteristic protected by law.

Applicants requiring a reasonable accommodation due to a disability at any stage of the employment application process should contact us at [e-mail]

Please inform us if you meet the definition of a "Covered DoD official".

At this time, Wellmark is not considering applicants for this position that require any type of immigration sponsorship (additional work authorization or permanent work authorization) now or in the future to work in the United States. This includes, but IS NOT LIMITED TO: F1-OPT, F1-CPT, H-1B, TN, L-1, J-1, etc. For additional information around work authorization needs please refer to the following resources:Nonimmigrant Workers and Green Card for Employment-Based Immigrants

Wellmark supports and expects the responsible use of AI for our workforce! We welcome the responsible use of these tools by job seekers as well and are interested in learning from you; you will have an opportunity in the application process to share which tools you used and how you applied them.