Manager - Policy Administration Systems

Socket.dev; Merrill (WI); Hybrid; USD 110,000 - 165,000; Full time

Job summary

Church Mutual seeks an IT Development Manager to lead the Policy Administration System (PAS) technology platform, guiding engineers, leads, analysts, and QA toward scalable, secure policy lifecycle solutions. You will ensure SDLC adherence, drive architecture, and align tech with business roadmaps.

You will collaborate with Product Owners, Underwriting, and Operations, with a focus on modernization, API integration, and cloud enablement.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required in a technical field.
• 7+ years of progressive application development experience.
• 3+ years of direct people leadership or technical leadership.
• Experience delivering enterprise applications in an Agile environment.
• Strong understanding of software engineering principles and integration patterns.
• Experience leading distributed teams and managing multiple priorities.
• Experience with Property & Casualty insurance preferred.
• Guidewire PolicyCenter experience highly preferred.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team of software engineers, QA, and business analysts across PAS-related initiatives.
• Oversee SDLC, Agile, DevOps, security, and governance practices for policy systems.
• Drive architecture conformity, solution reviews, and deployment planning.
• Manage budgets, vendor relationships, and technology investments.
• Partner with Product Owners and business leaders on roadmaps and priorities.
• Drive AI-assisted development and workflow automation opportunities.

Skills

Leadership

Communication

Agile

Stakeholder management

Cloud computing

DevOps

CI/CD

Distributed teams

Security practices

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or related field

Tools

Guidewire PolicyCenter

Guidewire Cloud Platform

Azure DevOps

SQL Server

Git

REST APIs

Job description

What you'll be doing:

The IT Development Manager is responsible for leading the design, development, support, and continuous improvement of the organization's Policy Administration System (PAS) technology platform. This role provides leadership to a team of software engineers, technical leads, business analysts, and quality assurance professionals responsible for delivering scalable, secure, and high-quality solutions that support policy lifecycle processes including quoting, underwriting, policy issuance, endorsements, renewals, cancellations, and integrations with downstream insurance systems.

The ideal candidate combines strong leadership, software development expertise, and a solid understanding of Property & Casualty insurance operations. Experience with Guidewire PolicyCenter is highly desirable.

PRIMARY JOB RESPONSIBILITIES:

Business Partnership & Technology Governance

• Establish relationships with Product Owners, Business Unit Leaders.
• Conduct monthly operational and strategic reviews covering operations, projects, Run/Grow/Transform priorities, and emerging business needs.
• Ensure alignment between technology investments, delivery execution, and the Business Technology Roadmap agreed upon by IT and Business executives.
• Lead business intake, demand management, prioritization, capacity planning, and roadmap governance.
• Communicate progress, risks, dependencies, and outcomes to business and IT leadership.

Leadership & Team Management

• Lead, coach, develop, and retain a team of application developers, technical leads, and quality assurance professionals.
• Establish clear goals, performance expectations, and career development plans for team members.
• Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement.
• Manage resource planning, workload balancing, staffing, and succession planning activities.
• Partner with business and IT leaders to align technology investments with organizational objectives.

Application Delivery

• Oversee the delivery of enhancements, integrations, upgrades, and production support activities related to the Policy Administration System.
• Ensure development activities follow established SDLC, Agile, DevOps, security, and governance practices.
• Drive solution design reviews and ensure adherence to architecture standards and best practices.
• Manage application releases and coordinate deployment activities across environments.
• Ensure technical solutions meet business requirements, quality expectations, and regulatory requirements.
• Establish clear ownership and accountability for all Policy Administration applications and integrations, ensuring defined roles, operational responsibilities, documented support processes, and business continuity through cross-training and backup resource planning.
• Own engineering performance metrics and continuous improvement.
• Manage Individual budgets, vendor spend, and technology investments and align with IT executive leadership and PMO.
• Drive AI-assisted development and workflow automation opportunities.
• Ensure secure-by-design engineering practices.

Insurance Platform Leadership

• Serve as a technology leader for policy administration capabilities and related ecosystem applications.
• Collaborate closely with Product Owners, Business Analysts, Underwriting, Operations, and Enterprise Architecture teams.
• Support modernization initiatives involving policy administration, digital capabilities, workflow automation, and API integration strategies.
• Identify opportunities to improve application performance, reliability, scalability, and maintainability.

Vendor & Partner Management

• Manage relationships with software vendors, consulting partners, and system integrators.
• Participate in contract reviews, project planning, and service management discussions.
• Ensure vendor deliverables meet quality, schedule, and budget expectations.

Governance & Risk Management

• Ensure compliance with security, audit, regulatory, and governance requirements.
• Manage technical debt remediation and application lifecycle planning.
• Monitor production support metrics, incident trends, and service level performance.
• Participate in disaster recovery planning and operational readiness activities.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or related field.
• 7+ years of progressive application development experience.
• 3+ years of direct people leadership or technical leadership experience managing software development teams.
• Experience delivering enterprise applications in an Agile environment.
• Strong understanding of software engineering principles, application architecture, and integration patterns.
• Experience leading distributed teams and managing multiple priorities simultaneously.
• Strong communication, stakeholder management, and executive presentation skills.
• Experience within the Property & Casualty insurance industry preferred.
• Experience supporting or implementing Policy Administration Systems preferred.
• Guidewire PolicyCenter implementation, configuration, development, or support experience highly preferred.
• Experience with Guidewire Cloud Platform and Guidewire Digital products preferred.
• Knowledge of underwriting, policy issuance, endorsements, renewals, billing, claims, and agency operations preferred.
• Experience with API development, microservices, event-driven architecture, and cloud technologies preferred.
• Experience with Azure cloud services and DevOps toolsets preferred.
• Familiarity with modern software engineering practices including CI/CD, automated testing, and infrastructure as code preferred.

Desired Technologies

• Guidewire PolicyCenter
• Guidewire Integration Framework
• Gosu
• Java
• REST APIs
• Web Services (SOAP/REST)
• Azure Cloud Services
• SQL Server
• Git
• Azure DevOps
• CI/CD Pipelines
• Automated Testing Frameworks

Development Practices

• Agile and Scrum methodologies
• Test-driven development
• Secure coding practices
• DevOps and release automation
• Application lifecycle management

Leadership Competencies

• Strategic Thinking
• Talent Development
• Business Partnership
• Results Orientation
• Customer Focus
• Change Leadership
• Technical Excellence
• Risk Management
• Decision Making
• Continuous Improvement

WORK ENVIRONMENT:

• Professional office environment. Regularly uses standard office equipment such as computers, phones, photocopiers, filing cabinets and fax machines.
• Regularly required to communicate; sit; stand; walk; use hands to finger, handle or feel; and reach with hands and arms.

Church Mutual is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status.

Exact compensation will vary based on consideration of a variety of factors including education, skills, experience, and location. #LI-Hybrid