Dir, Business Optimization - Applications

CNO Financial Group•Carmel, IN

12h•Hybrid

About The Position

CNO Financial Group’s IT Team is seeking a Director, Business Optimization - Applications who will be responsible for managing and overseeing moderately large applications technology investments to modernization CNO’s technology. Moreover, the role will oversee multiple external vendor partnerships, establish contracts ensuring CNO’s interests are protected, and balance responsibilities for reducing technical debt and system complexity with the need for speed to market and competitive delivery costs. As a Dir, Business Optimization - Applications , your responsibilities will include: Identifying avenues for continuous improvement for services within scope of responsibility, including new approaches and processes and the eventual retirement and replacement of systems and processes that have reached the end of cost-effective functionality. Developing overall Applications future state architecture strategy, with goal of eliminating legacy applications and building the application foundation for the future, which includes sunsetting systems and archiving data. Leading application conversion efforts, process and outcomes; directing and overseeing the strategic plans and road maps for the conversion programs that have moderately high dollar investments and high risk (provide critical business functionality), and moderate to high complexity (may connect to multiple systems inside and outside CNO). Driving the analysis, development, and implementation of application conversion solutions. This includes ensuring robust reviews and governance processes for the design and configuration of software solutions. Ensuring that conversions align with CNO’s business goals, promote standardization, and support high system availability objectives. Overseeing the quality of external teams and deliverables provided by sourcing partners, ensuring CNO is receiving appropriate value for fees paid to sourcing partners; ensures sourcing partner for Statements of Work and Work Orders are complete, and that external vendors implement a program of continuous improvement on behalf of CNO. Ensuring compliance and understanding of Core Processes that support: Demand Management, Sourcing contracts, Service Level Agreements, Sox Compliance, Internal Audit, Disaster Recovery, Business Continuity, System Development Life Cycle, and Vendor Management which aligns to the Foundational Strategies. Providing input into appropriate CBA's for programs where investment exceeds $500,000. Aligning the Application Architecture to the Enterprise Architectural decisions to enable growth of the IT organization in whole. Playing a role in managing business area portfolio of technologies, assessing the fit, health and effective operation of in-scope technologies.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field of study.
10 years of experience leading large programs within IT Life & Health Insurance (i.e. budgets exceeding $1M).
Strong experience delivering business specific programs.
Proven moderate to large scale system design and development experience.
Previous experience with LifeComm, Vantage-One and mainframe is a must for this role.
Have deep knowledge of multiple technology application domains with expert knowledge in Vantage-One and LifeComm and legacy applications, including mainframe and open systems
Have in-depth working knowledge of technology and insurance business processes, and remain current with emerging industry and technological trends.
Possess extensive knowledge of life and health insurance products and processing to contribute effectively to operational excellence, ensuring accurate and efficient handling of insurance processes while maintaining compliance with regulatory standards and delivering exceptional service to clients
Have proven experience in Application and Data architecture, medium-scale system design and development experience.
Possess strong analytic and conceptual skills and can understand long-term and short-term implications of decisions, in order to estimate the financial impact of various alternatives.
Has a broad technology background with exposure to a variety of platforms, operating systems, and tools.
Can to communicate with appropriate context to all levels of the organization (primarily up to VP levels) and across business units; able to leverage communication skills to influence decisions.
Can lead groups of people and provide key input into decisions that have a major impact on key business metrics.
Can provide respective Application architecture perspective in decisions related to other architecture disciplines.

Nice To Haves

Masters Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology or a related field of study
Program Management experience
Strong interpersonal skills, with specific emphasis on team building and facilitation
Strong Verbal and Writing skills to enable clear communication of company objective and project plans

Responsibilities

Identifying avenues for continuous improvement for services within scope of responsibility, including new approaches and processes and the eventual retirement and replacement of systems and processes that have reached the end of cost-effective functionality.
Developing overall Applications future state architecture strategy, with goal of eliminating legacy applications and building the application foundation for the future, which includes sunsetting systems and archiving data.
Leading application conversion efforts, process and outcomes; directing and overseeing the strategic plans and road maps for the conversion programs that have moderately high dollar investments and high risk (provide critical business functionality), and moderate to high complexity (may connect to multiple systems inside and outside CNO).
Driving the analysis, development, and implementation of application conversion solutions. This includes ensuring robust reviews and governance processes for the design and configuration of software solutions.
Ensuring that conversions align with CNO’s business goals, promote standardization, and support high system availability objectives.
Overseeing the quality of external teams and deliverables provided by sourcing partners, ensuring CNO is receiving appropriate value for fees paid to sourcing partners; ensures sourcing partner for Statements of Work and Work Orders are complete, and that external vendors implement a program of continuous improvement on behalf of CNO.
Ensuring compliance and understanding of Core Processes that support: Demand Management, Sourcing contracts, Service Level Agreements, Sox Compliance, Internal Audit, Disaster Recovery, Business Continuity, System Development Life Cycle, and Vendor Management which aligns to the Foundational Strategies.
Providing input into appropriate CBA's for programs where investment exceeds $500,000.
Aligning the Application Architecture to the Enterprise Architectural decisions to enable growth of the IT organization in whole.
Playing a role in managing business area portfolio of technologies, assessing the fit, health and effective operation of in-scope technologies.