Digital Solutions Architect (Hybrid - In Office 10 days/Month)

National Guardian Life Insurance Company • Madison, WI

5d • Hybrid

About The Position

We are adding a Digital Solutions Architect to our team! This is a hybrid position requiring to be In-Office 10 days per month.

Who We Are:
Since 1909, National Guardian Life Insurance Company (NGL) has been one of America’s most successful and highly rated independent life insurance companies. We specialize in a suite of innovative products for life’s journey, giving people the financial stability, careful guidance and peace of mind to lead a life filled with confidence, dignity and grace.
NGL's Core Values – integrity, dependability, collaboration, compassion and growth are a foundation of our company and help to build on the interactions we have with our policyholders, partners, funeral homes and each other. We believe in creating an inclusive, welcoming environment for all where diversity is celebrated, and everyone is encouraged to live their best, most authentic self. We offer Employee Resource Groups for employees to get involved, learn, network, and offer professional and personal development opportunities.

With over 100 years of experience, our passion is to serve people. Learn more.

Work Environment: NGL offers a flexible work environment where employees can work fully remote, hybrid or onsite at our Madison, Wis. office. We support virtual working arrangements in certain states outside of WI.

A Day in the Life:
The primary function of the Digital Solutions Architect is to partner with the Business teams, technology teams and external vendor teams to deliver highly scalable, flexible and resilient solution architectures that address business problems. This role possesses a unique balance of technical depth and strong interpersonal skills. The ability to think strategically about business, products, and technical challenges and connect technology with measurable business value and is a critical component of this position. In addition, this role functions as an architect with a strong engineering background especially in solutions architecture, specifically service oriented architecture, and enterprise applications such as cloud computing and software service offerings.

Requirements

• Experience building enterprise applications using modern architecture techniques (serverless, micro services and containerization) and cloud platforms (AWS preferred)
• Possess a solid understanding and experience of architecture patterns including SOA, integration, data, streaming and cloud architecture
• Ability to articulate and can effectively communicate with technical teams, non-technical business leaders, and clients
• Ability to quickly understand business requirements and propose reference architectures and technology solutions. Capable of presenting options and weighing implementation complexities and risks to recommend the right technical decision
• Experience building architectural patterns at scale, including thoughtfully designed application and data solutions, repeatable data pipelines, and efficient software engineering principles
• Knowledge of emerging trends in the digital transformation, technology and architecture space and ability to recommend solutions
• Demonstrated project management leadership
• Demonstrated ability to adapt to new technologies and learn quickly
• Familiarity with architecture frameworks (ITIL, Zachman, TOGAF), architecture processes and architecture governance
• A minimum of five years of relevant hands-on solution architecture/design experience in data, application, infrastructure, or security domains required.
• A minimum of one year of relevant hands-on Solution architecture exposure to building applications on AWS required.
• A minimum of five years of large-scale software development or application engineering with some coding experience in two or more of the following languages: Java, JavaScript, C/C++, C#, Node.js, Python required.

Nice To Haves

• Preferred: 4 Year Bachelors Degree in Computer Science or related field Engineering fields desired.

Responsibilities

• Assess proposed business ideas and determines architectural significance.
• Lead the identification and analysis of business drivers to develop solution architecture requirements.
• Analyze technology industry and market trends and determines potential impact upon the enterprise.
• Research and make recommendations on technology build vs. buy decisions.
• Partner with Business and IT Stakeholders and external third-party partners to craft highly scalable, flexible and resilient architectures that address business problems.
• Develop rough cost estimates (RCEs) for various candidate solution architectural options.
• Collaborate with other architects and system specialists to establish technical reference architectures, architecture patterns, and standards to promote enterprise efficiency and agility, ensure solution architecture quality, and ensure alignment of solutions with enterprise architecture directions.
• Drive technology discussions and analyze the current landscape for gaps in addressing business needs.
• Review existing architecture and capabilities from technical perspective and contribute to building architecture and technology roadmaps.
• Determines primary dependent systems and infrastructure; Determines high level system integrations needed to implement the proposed business ideas.
• Develop holistic architectural options, ensuring that all architectural aspects of the system, including data, application, infrastructure, and security are addressed.
• Identify, document, and communicate Architecture standards, patterns, and best practices.
• Participate in the development of enterprise architecture strategies and roadmaps.
• Evolve re-usable architectures and document best practice patterns for cloud-native development in both public and hybrid cloud usage scenarios.
• Evaluate new cloud technologies for fit-for-purpose and socialize architecture recommendations with agile teams.
• Resolve ad hoc architecture and technology support requests from application developers as it relates to developer tools and technologies.
• Incorporate Modern Security practices into architecture design including Zero Trust principles, Threat Modeling, IAM, and compliance framework built into design.
• Incorporate recommendations for practical adoption of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning capabilities into solutions within the boundaries of the organizational AI framework.
• Collaborate with agile teams to develop cloud applications by providing architecture guidance and hands-on technical support during all phases of agile SDLC.
• Mentor and develop others.
• Passionate about technology and solving important design challenges.

Benefits

• 20 days of Paid Time Off growing to 25 days after 5 years
• 11 Paid Holidays (10 company holidays and 1 personal holiday of your choice)
• Health care, dental and vision plans
• Up to $1,500 (Family) or $1,000 (Single) annually towards a Health Savings Account
• Annual bonus based on company performance
• Paid Parental Leave
• 401(k) match up to 9%
• Paid Sabbatical after 8 years
• Paid Volunteer Time
• Education Assistance Program
• Employee Recognition Program
• And much more!

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Number of Employees: 251-500 employees