Manager - Policy Administration Systems

Church-Mutual-Insurance-Company; Merrill (WI); Hybrid; USD 107,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work model

Job summary

Church Mutual Insurance Company is seeking an IT Development Manager to lead the design, development, and support of the Policy Administration System (PAS) technology platform. You will guide a team of software engineers, business analysts, and QA professionals delivering scalable, secure insurance solutions.

The role requires strong leadership, deep software engineering knowledge, and experience with Guidewire PolicyCenter.

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.

Responsibilities

• 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.
• 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.

Skills

Leadership

Communication

Project Management

Stakeholder management

Agile

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Guidewire PolicyCenter

Guidewire Cloud Platform

Azure DevOps

REST APIs

Java

Job description

Introduction

Looking to join a vibrant organization that makes a difference? At Church Mutual, our customers are at the heart of everything we do. For more than 125 years, we've made it our business to protect those who serve and inspire others through our specialized insurance expertise and innovative solutions. Our customers do amazing things for the world -- when we protect them, we Stand for Good. We foster a workplace where all employees are treated with dignity and respect; diversity, inclusion and belonging are woven into the fabric of our company through our customers, employees, leadership, business relationships and outreach programs.

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.

EEO is the Law

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

#LI-Hybrid

Position Type

Full-time

Pay Range/Compensation

107,000 to 160,400

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