Manager, Policy Administration Systems (1150059)

The Judge Group; Milwaukee (WI); On-site; USD 105,000 - 155,000; Full time

Job summary

The Judge Group seeks an IT Development Manager to lead the Policy Administration Systems (Guidewire PolicyCenter) team in Milwaukee, WI. You will shape strategy, oversee development, and deliver secure, scalable insurance applications across the full policy lifecycle.

Ideal candidates bring strong technical leadership, software engineering expertise, and P&C insurance domain knowledge, with Guidewire PolicyCenter experience preferred.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or related field.
• 7+ years of application development or software engineering experience.
• 3+ years of leadership experience managing software development teams.
• Experience delivering enterprise applications in Agile environments.
• Strong understanding of software architecture, engineering principles, and integration patterns.
• Experience managing multiple priorities and distributed teams.
• Excellent communication, leadership, and stakeholder management skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team of software engineers, technical leads, business analysts, and QA professionals.
• Establish performance goals, career development plans, and succession strategies.
• Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement.
• Manage team capacity planning, staffing, resource allocation, and budgeting activities.
• Align technology execution with business objectives and strategic priorities.
• Oversee enhancements, upgrades, integrations, releases, and production support activities.

Skills

Leadership

Software engineering

Agile

Stakeholder management

Cloud technologies

DevOps

APIs

Education

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

Tools

Guidewire PolicyCenter

Azure DevOps

Git

REST APIs

Job description

Location: Milwaukee, WI

Salary: $105,000.00 USD Annually - $155,000.00 USD Annually

Contract to hire opportunity for W2 candidates that do not and will not require sponsorship

IT Development Manager – Policy Administration Systems (Guidewire PolicyCenter)

We are seeking an experienced IT Development Manager to lead the strategy, development, support, and modernization of our Policy Administration Systems (PAS) platform. This leader will oversee a team of software engineers, technical leads, business analysts, and QA professionals responsible for delivering secure, scalable, and business-critical solutions supporting the full policy lifecycle.

The ideal candidate brings a combination of technical leadership, software engineering expertise, and Property & Casualty (P&C) insurance domain knowledge, with experience supporting or implementing Guidewire PolicyCenter strongly preferred.

Key Responsibilities

Leadership & Team Management

• Lead, coach, and develop a team of software engineers, technical leads, business analysts, and QA professionals.
• Establish performance goals, career development plans, and succession strategies.
• Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement.
• Manage team capacity planning, staffing, resource allocation, and budgeting activities.
• Align technology execution with business objectives and strategic priorities.

Policy Administration Platform Leadership

• Serve as the technology leader for Policy Administration capabilities and related insurance applications.
• Oversee enhancements, upgrades, integrations, releases, and production support activities.
• Partner closely with Product Owners, Underwriting, Operations, Enterprise Architecture, and Business leadership.
• Drive modernization initiatives involving policy administration, workflow automation, digital capabilities, and API-driven integrations.
• Identify opportunities to improve application performance, reliability, scalability, and maintainability.

Application Delivery & Engineering

• Lead the delivery of enterprise-scale software solutions in Agile environments.
• Ensure compliance with SDLC, DevOps, security, governance, and architecture standards.
• Drive solution design reviews and technical decision-making.
• Oversee release management and deployment activities across environments.
• Champion AI-assisted development, automation, and engineering efficiency initiatives.
• Promote secure‑by‑design software engineering practices.

Business Partnership & Governance

• Build strong relationships with Product Owners, Business Leaders, and Executive Stakeholders.
• Lead demand management, prioritization, roadmap planning, and capacity management activities.
• Conduct operational and strategic reviews focused on business outcomes and technology investments.
• Communicate project status, risks, dependencies, and key accomplishments to leadership teams.

Vendor & Risk Management

• Manage relationships with software vendors, consulting partners, and system integrators.
• Participate in contract reviews, project planning, and service management activities.
• Ensure vendor deliverables meet quality, budget, and timeline expectations.
• Monitor application health, production incidents, compliance requirements, and service‑level performance.
• Support disaster recovery and business continuity initiatives.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or related field.
• 7+ years of application development or software engineering experience.
• 3+ years of leadership experience managing software development teams.
• Experience delivering enterprise applications in Agile environments.
• Strong understanding of software architecture, engineering principles, and integration patterns.
• Experience managing multiple priorities and distributed teams.
• Excellent communication, leadership, and stakeholder management skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Property & Casualty Insurance industry experience.
• Experience implementing or supporting Policy Administration Systems (PAS).
• Guidewire PolicyCenter development, configuration, implementation, or support experience.
• Experience with Guidewire Cloud Platform and Guidewire Digital solutions.
• Knowledge of underwriting, policy issuance, endorsements, renewals, billing, claims, and agency operations.
• Experience with APIs, microservices, event‑driven architecture, and cloud technologies.
• Experience with Azure cloud services and DevOps toolsets.
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and Infrastructure as Code (IaC).

Desired Technologies

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

What We're Looking For

A hands‑on technology leader who can successfully bridge business and technology, drive software delivery excellence, and modernize policy administration capabilities within a complex insurance environment. Experience leading Guidewire initiatives and supporting core insurance operations is highly desired.

Medical, dental, and vision insurance are available to qualified candidates who meet eligibility requirements.