Dir, Enterprise Applications

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey•Newark, NJ

About The Position

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey empowers our members to achieve their best health. For over 90 years, we have been New Jersey’s health solutions leader driving innovations that improve health care quality, affordability, and member experience. Our members are our neighbors, our friends, and our families. It is this understanding that drives us to better serve and care for the 3.5 million people who place their trust in us. We pride ourselves on our best-in-class employees and strive to maintain an innovative and inclusive environment that allows them to thrive. When our employees bring their best and succeed, the Company succeeds. The Director of Enterprise Applications, in partnership with business customers and corporate leaders, creates technology and digital strategy for multiple business application (software) products ensuring integration with Horizon’s overall strategic plan. Maintains, plans and implements major modifications to a technology portfolio up to approximately 150 applications in pursuit of IT and business goals. Accountable for exemplary quality, performance, and availability service levels. Directs and oversees the software development lifecycle for new and existing in-house and vendor off-the-shelf application assets. People Leader Accountable for workforce strategy ensuring the necessary balance of internal and external technology talent, in terms of budget and skill, to appropriately meet customer demands. Large team management and engagement including; interviewing and hiring, training and skills development, performance management, communication, and overall compliance with Horizon regulatory requirements, policies, and procedures Transformational leader able to guide teams through culture transition Manage multiple application teams up to approximately 350 full time equivalents; both Horizon employees and on/offshore contingent resources Customer Liaison and Strategic Driver Establish and uphold effective partnerships with business customers to create and maintain digital and technology roadmaps as aligned with corporate strategy Act as customer liaison for information technology Implement and maintain cohesive and transparent demand management practices within a group of several product teams Application Development and Software Lifecycle Management – In house development and vendor off-the-shelf software implementation and integration Ensure software development best practices and quality standards are embedded within all lifecycle phases and consistently utilized for software architecture, engineering, integration, testing and acceptance, and implementation Align to Horizon’s SDLC methodology and act as transformational leader as the organization moves to Agile/Scrum Establish and oversee close alignment with the business ensuring functional and nonfunctional requirements are collected and met and delivery commitments are upheld Partners with EBTS directors (IT, Infrastructure & Operations, Information Security) to align on and implement divisional goals Make certain of best practice artifact development, maintenance, and availability Application Portfolio Management and Service Level Availability Ensure technology roadmaps are created, managed, and implemented for the entirety of the application product line(s) within span of control Align team members to enterprise, information security, and data governance standards on architecture Maintain 24x7x365 production support and agreed upon service levels for performance, availability, and quality Vendor and Contract Management Develop and maintain a vendor strategy supportive of budgeted demand that aligns to the EBTS workforce strategy Partner with corporate Legal and Procurement experts to ensure favorable terms and thorough vendor contracts Manage effective vendor relationships, overseeing resource numbers/skill mix for capacity services relationships and delivery metrics for fixed priced contracts Ensure month over month vendor adherence to contractual SLAs, contract terms, and quality of delivery Uphold controls over the processes and transactions under areas of responsibility including the completeness and accuracy of financial information, business transactions, compliance with applicable laws and regulations, and the effectiveness and efficiency of operations Administrative, Fiscal and Budget Management Monthly and yearly management of budgets over approximately $5M Direct strategies that increase efficiency and throughput while maintaining cost and quality Assure timely adherence to EBTS and Horizon’s administrative and compliance policies

Requirements

High School Diploma/GED required
Ten to fifteen years professional experience in information systems delivery
Requires a minimum of six years of managerial experience, specifically supervising a technology staff
Software development lifecycle expertise
Experience in software engineering, development and maintenance
Proven ability to deliver quality software products and applications on time and within budget
Successful management of complex technology programs and projects
Demonstrated ability to effectively lead a technology team
Strong organizational and problem solving skills
Deep experience with Agile frameworks (Scrum, Kanban) and ability to oversee Agile teams and ceremonies such as PI Planning, sprint planning, daily stand-ups, reviews, and retrospectives strongly preferred.
Proven track record in web and mobile application development, including architecture and deployment across multiple platforms (iOS, Android, responsive web) strongly preferred.
Demonstrated experience in designing and implementing customer-facing portals, ensuring intuitive navigation and responsive design across devices strongly preferred.
Experience integrating portals with backend systems (CRM, IVR, APIs) to enable seamless data flow and personalized experiences strongly preferred.
Experience interpreting customer survey and feedback data to measure satisfaction and suggesting systemic improvements to drive continuous improvement strongly preferred.
Familiarity with UX design and guided support tools to enhance user journeys and reduce friction strongly preferred.
Knowledge of omnichannel strategies, ensuring consistency across portals, mobile apps, IVR, and other customer touchpoints strongly preferred.
Familiarity with DevOps practices including CI/CD pipelines, automated builds, and deployment for web and mobile environments strongly preferred.
Horizon BCBSNJ employees must live in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut or Delaware

Nice To Haves

Bachelor degree preferred or relevant experience in lieu of degree
The following are preferred but not required: Lean Six Sigma Project Management Agile/Scaled Agile training and related certifications

Responsibilities

Creates technology and digital strategy for multiple business application (software) products ensuring integration with Horizon’s overall strategic plan.
Maintains, plans and implements major modifications to a technology portfolio up to approximately 150 applications in pursuit of IT and business goals.
Accountable for exemplary quality, performance, and availability service levels.
Directs and oversees the software development lifecycle for new and existing in-house and vendor off-the-shelf application assets.
Accountable for workforce strategy ensuring the necessary balance of internal and external technology talent, in terms of budget and skill, to appropriately meet customer demands.
Large team management and engagement including; interviewing and hiring, training and skills development, performance management, communication, and overall compliance with Horizon regulatory requirements, policies, and procedures
Transformational leader able to guide teams through culture transition
Manage multiple application teams up to approximately 350 full time equivalents; both Horizon employees and on/offshore contingent resources
Establish and uphold effective partnerships with business customers to create and maintain digital and technology roadmaps as aligned with corporate strategy
Act as customer liaison for information technology
Implement and maintain cohesive and transparent demand management practices within a group of several product teams
Ensure software development best practices and quality standards are embedded within all lifecycle phases and consistently utilized for software architecture, engineering, integration, testing and acceptance, and implementation
Align to Horizon’s SDLC methodology and act as transformational leader as the organization moves to Agile/Scrum
Establish and oversee close alignment with the business ensuring functional and nonfunctional requirements are collected and met and delivery commitments are upheld
Partners with EBTS directors (IT, Infrastructure & Operations, Information Security) to align on and implement divisional goals
Make certain of best practice artifact development, maintenance, and availability
Ensure technology roadmaps are created, managed, and implemented for the entirety of the application product line(s) within span of control
Align team members to enterprise, information security, and data governance standards on architecture
Maintain 24x7x365 production support and agreed upon service levels for performance, availability, and quality
Develop and maintain a vendor strategy supportive of budgeted demand that aligns to the EBTS workforce strategy
Partner with corporate Legal and Procurement experts to ensure favorable terms and thorough vendor contracts
Manage effective vendor relationships, overseeing resource numbers/skill mix for capacity services relationships and delivery metrics for fixed priced contracts
Ensure month over month vendor adherence to contractual SLAs, contract terms, and quality of delivery
Uphold controls over the processes and transactions under areas of responsibility including the completeness and accuracy of financial information, business transactions, compliance with applicable laws and regulations, and the effectiveness and efficiency of operations
Monthly and yearly management of budgets over approximately $5M
Direct strategies that increase efficiency and throughput while maintaining cost and quality
Assure timely adherence to EBTS and Horizon’s administrative and compliance policies