AVP, Software Engineering Leader

The Hartford•Hartford, CT

About The Position

We’re determined to make a difference and are proud to be an insurance company that goes well beyond coverages and policies. Working here means having every opportunity to achieve your goals – and to help others accomplish theirs, too. Join our team as we help shape the future. The Hartford is in search of a software engineering leader, reporting to the CIO of Employee Benefits Technology. This critical leadership role will define and execute the technical strategy to expedite delivery of significant business capabilities and products in an Agile delivery model, enhancing productivity, and improving code quality. This leader will be accountable for our Software Engineering discipline and workforce strategy, enabling our engineering team to deliver critical business in collaboration with Value Stream owners, Business Owners, Architecture and other shared technology shared services. Candidates must be eligible to work in the US without company sponsorship.

Requirements

12+ years of experience in application software solution development and engineering leadership
Strong understanding of business strategy and aligning technology roadmaps to business goals.
Ability to engage leaders across organizational boundaries and influence technology decisions.
Servant leadership abilities with skills in cultivating technology talent for the future through coaching, developing, and mentoring
Track record of driving innovation and continuous improvement in engineering practices, fostering a culture of excellence and accountability.
Experience managing complex vendor relationships and experience working with an offshore delivery model
Excellent communicator who can effectively translate technology concepts into business language and adjust as needed to target audience
Excellent leadership skills including the ability to effectively influence across multiple teams, organizations and across the enterprise.
Bachelor’s or advanced degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Industrial & Systems Engineering, Information Technology, or related field
Strong hands-on coding and technical troubleshooting skills, including backend frameworks (Node.js, Python, Java/Spring Boot, Ruby on Rails); frontend frameworks (React, Angular, Vue.js); GenAI engineering platforms (Cursor, GitHub copilot, etc.); database platforms (AWS RDS, Redis, Opensearch; MySQL and Oracle).
Deep expertise in multi-cloud environments (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud), infrastructure as code (Terraform, CloudFormation, Ansible), and containerization/orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes, Helm).
Advanced CI/CD and DevOps practices, including GitOps tools (ArgoCD, Flux), and experience with Jenkins, GitHub Actions, and GitLab CI.
Security and compliance skills: IAM integration, automated security scanning (SonarQube, CheckMarx), vulnerability management, and DevSecOps policy enforcement.
API design and management (RESTful, GraphQL), API gateway configuration, and enterprise integration (batch import/export, mapping to enterprise data models).
Performance and reliability engineering: load/stress/regression testing, observability (Dynatrace, Splunk), disaster recovery, and high availability architecture.
Data engineering: relational and NoSQL database management (PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, DynamoDB), ETL pipeline development, and analytics platform integration.
Automation and quality engineering: test automation frameworks (Playwright), release management (feature flagging, staged rollouts, UAT environments).
Agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban, SAFe), technical documentation, and distributed team leadership.
Proven ability to architect and deliver enterprise-grade solutions using modern technologies (e.g., multi-cloud environments, API-driven microservices, well-architected framework assessments, etc.).
Demonstrated track record in leading distributed engineering teams and delivering complex projects on time and within budget.
Skilled in leveraging data-driven insights to inform strategic decisions and enhance software delivery processes.
Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.

Responsibilities

Responsible for the transformation of Employee Benefits software engineering, driving high quality technology and establishing modern software engineering processes and practices that enable greater business results
Evangelize high quality technology and software engineering processes and practices, fostering an environment that works closely with other teams and stakeholders to deliver agile, enterprise technology solution
Provide thought leadership, direction and mentorship to division wide engineering and operations professionals on modern engineering driven software delivery practices.
Define and document technical specifications, ensuring adherence to best practices in security, reliability, and performance.
Influence application solution architecture across delivery teams.
Engage directly in coding, testing, and deployment of critical components to accelerate delivery and validate design decisions.
Oversee end-to-end delivery of THPB initiatives, balancing time-to-market goals with quality and risk management, including championing DevSecOps and continuous improvement practices to ensure robust CI/CD and automation testing frameworks are in place.
Partner with IT and business leaders to influence and advance strategy, roadmaps, platforms and tool choices for the enterprise.
Promote adoption of software engineering standards and guidelines across teams, including use of GenAI engineering standards and visibility into key engineering, Agile and quality metrics to provide line of sight to delivery productivity capability quality.
Champion innovation across the organization and the business to enable enhanced customer value.
Influence modern technology choices relevant to meet the business challenges and or gain market advantage.
Stay up to date with the latest advancements in AI and machine learning, identifying opportunities to enhance business processes and drive innovation.
Ensure high quality talent, bench strength and succession planning through best practices in recruiting, selection, training, developing, and retaining software engineering staff.