Enterprise Architect

Overview

National Life Group is in the midst of tremendous growth and change. The company is growing double digit year-over-year, replacing legacy platforms, and modernizing the IT landscape. The Enterprise Architect will play a critical role in the transformation and management of core insurance technology platforms while driving innovation through technology. Role will focus on key transformations around but not limited to policy administration, claims mgmt. systems, sales, billing & commissions distribution systems.

The Enterprise Architect will drive the exploration and development of emerging technologies – core insurance systems and innovation opportunities across National Life Group IT organization and will report to the Chief Technology Officer. You will be expected to proactively research market trends, perform hands on evaluation and competitive assessment to inform technology strategy that supports overall CTO’s technology stack and CIO’s vision. As a direct report to CTO, you will interface directly with senior business and technology leaders to transform our current business and technology capabilities to pave the way for best-in-class future solutions. You will be a dedicated partner to senior Technology and Business leaders as you support understanding current state, defining target state, roadmaps, blueprints and identify how these technologies will transform and optimize the business. You will be required to go deep with business capability assessments to then support business process re-engineering in support of adopting and roll out of new technologies. This role will be hands-on, dedicated and focused on supporting 1-2 major multiyear IT & business transformation programs e.g. working on concept, inception followed by implementation and adoption of various modules of an insurance policy administration system.

In addition, Enterprise Architect role will partner broadly across our business, evangelize for the art of the possible, and provide thought leadership guiding the delivery of our IT solutions.

In support of NLG’s servant leadership tenants, and as an organizational leader, you will serve and inspire high-performing members of various IT practices who you will coach, mentor, and empower. As a successful candidate, you have deep expertise and ability to clearly communicate complex ideas and will exercise influence across the enterprise. You will build relationships with key internal and external stakeholders to maximize opportunities and bring capabilities to scale. Effective communications, a positive attitude, and a proven track record of serving in a senior technical leadership role are key qualifications.

Key Responsibilities

Enterprise Architecture, Governance, & Strategy

• Define, curate, and evangelize technology standards, reference architectures, roadmaps, strategies, and models to drive disruption in the insurance industry.
• Provide thought leadership to business and technology teams and positively influence our customer’s experience.
• Collaboratively define future states and roadmaps to realize the vision.
• Protect our information by staying current on security best-practices, regulations, and aggressively monitoring our compliance.
• Provide regular high-level communications to executive staff and detailed communications to company-wide stakeholders and our development community.
• Drive and continuously improve our Architecture Review Process.
• Mentor solution delivery and architecture team members on architecture topics and trends.
• Understand our business strategies and translate them into technical requirements and strategies.
• Effectively communicate technology strategies & trade-offs up to senior leaders and across our technical community.
• Maintain a solid partnership with business leaders and provide strategic technical leadership.

Solution Delivery

• Translate business needs into technology solutions based on a deep understanding of our business needs and current and future technical capabilities.
• Deliver high quality solutions within aggressive timelines and with little or no guidance.

• Provide architectural oversight and direction to multiple scrum teams.

• Ensure solutions satisfy business requirements and are of the highest possible quality.
• Develop project deliverables, proof-of-value experiments, and pilot new technologies.
• Identify and manage implementation risk.
• Ensure delivered solutions are monitored, have a support plan, and adequate business controls.
• Assists in driving the implementation of key processes related to building Product as a digital business
• Evaluates third-party suppliers, products and solutions and engage in/leading collaborative discussions

Job Requirements

• Master’s degree, preferred in Computer Science; or relevant work experience.
• 2 years experience defining and implementing technical strategies under a CIO or equivalent
• Minimum of 10 years of application development experience with progressive responsibilities.
• Demonstrated ability to lead in a highly matrixed, heavily outsourced organization through a combination of influence, partnership, and authority
• Hands-on knowledge of current technology standards/trends coupled with a desire to continually expand personal knowledge/skills
• Domain knowledge of the Insurance Industry (preferably L&A) and value chain as well as the technologies and solutions relevant to this industry is desired
• Ability and interest in mentoring technical staff and raising our collective technical competencies
• Ability to manage change and cope with complex and ambiguous situations
• Ability to establish and maintain relationships with other business and technology leaders
• Strong written and verbal communication skills coupled with the ability to tailor communication to all levels of an organization
• Open-minded with proven ability to work collaboratively with others in team environment
• Desired Skills – DevOps, Azure, API Management, Spring Cloud, Enterprise Integration Patterns, Microservice Design, Mainframe, Test Automation, SSO (OpenID Connect, SAML), Big Data, ML, Responsive Web Design (AngularJS)

Job Type: Full-time

Pay: $133,000.00 - $246,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• 401(k) matching
• Dental insurance
• Employee assistance program
• Employee discount
• Flexible spending account
• Health insurance
• Health savings account
• Life insurance
• Paid time off
• Parental leave
• Professional development assistance
• Referral program
• Relocation assistance
• Tuition reimbursement
• Vision insurance

Schedule:

• Day shift

COVID-19 considerations:
National Life requires all new hires to record their vaccination status and, if applicable, submit acceptable proof of vaccination, within 3 business days of their start date.

Ability to commute/relocate:

• Addison, TX 75001: Reliably commute or planning to relocate before starting work (Required)

Experience:

• Azure: 1 year (Preferred)
• AWS: 1 year (Preferred)
• APIs: 1 year (Preferred)

Work Location: One location

Salary : $133,000 - $246,000