Application Development Manager

FBL Financial Group, Inc.•West Des Moines, IA

6d•Hybrid

About The Position

We are seeking an individual with strong leadership and collaboration skills to manage the Life Development team within our IT department. This team is responsible for the key Life Company strategic platform and related tools. In this position you will have the opportunity to partner with Business and IT leadership, Innovation, and application teams from across the organization to drive tactical and strategic imperatives and will work closely with the team’s engineers to develop application roadmaps and recommendations for future capabilities. The successful candidate would have the ability to effectively lead a group of high-performing individuals, have experience with software development practices and project delivery, and can communicate effectively with various levels of the organization.

Requirements

College degree or equivalent plus 8 years relevant experience required.
Strong leadership skills and a passion for developing people is required.
Very strong oral and written communication, planning, decision making, and negotiation skills.
Must have strong interpersonal skills and be able to build effective relationships with Business, IT and external vendors.
Strong analytical/conceptual thinking skills, strategic thinking, and the ability to deliver outcomes is required.
Must have a strong aptitude to learn both business and technical terms and processes.
Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time, permanent basis.

Nice To Haves

2 years prior supervisory/management experience preferred.
Solid understanding of the Software Development Lifecycle, Agile principles, and technologies specific to a distributed environment a plus.
Prior experience with insurance applications and life insurance systems a plus.
Must have or attain a strong understanding of all entities of the FBL Financial Group.

Responsibilities

Oversee all aspects of staffing including selection, training/development, performance reviews, managing capacity/demand of work and controlling workflow, motivation of employees, and assigned budget activities.
Responsible for ensuring the goals of the company are communicated effectively to staff, that the goals of the team are in alignment with driving organizational results including Digital Transformational efforts
Serve as a key liaison between the team and the business areas it supports to interpret and analyze complex business problems and ensure the delivery of products and services.
Work with other IT leaders, engineers, and development teams to implement high risk, highly complex business applications by defining business scope, objectives, requirements, and deliverables based on system development methodologies.
Identify business system problems, determine level of urgency, work with technical team, and communicate to impacted stakeholders regarding issues, status, and resolution.
Partner with IT leaders, engineers, and technical team to design and ensure compliance with underlying principles, assumptions, and strategies, ensure the integrity of applications, and to make recommendations for improvement.
Partner with engineers and technical team to ensure the integrity of all system applications within their accountability are maintained at all times.
Partner with vendors to assist in recognizing possible business solutions and will partner with business and IT leadership to manage vendor relationships, Service Level Agreements, and to set priorities that are in line with business goals.
Keep abreast of current technologies and assist the business with prioritization of maintenance and projects, ensuring that initiatives with the greatest benefit/risk will be worked first.