Director Back Office Development

THE EMPIRE LIFE INS. CO•Kingston, ON

5d•Remote

About The Position

Empire Life is looking to hire a Director Back Office Development to join our IT Development team! We are actively seeking candidates to fill a current, open position. Reporting directly to the VP, Back Office Development, the primary responsibility of the incumbent is to lead the strategic development and management of the company’s enterprise back office technology systems, in line with, and in support of, the broader business strategies and objectives. The incumbent will work closely with business partners, architecture and other teams to ensure we achieve our corporate objectives. They will assist the team in adopting shared methodologies, making commitments and will develop team training programs. The incumbent will also be accountable for the technical feasibility of the solutions provided by the teams, as well as integration across domains. The Director, Development, Back Office also contributes to the Enterprise Architecture practice in a support and advisory role, and liaises closely with IT leadership and peers to assist with strategic planning and integration.

Requirements

University education in Computing or equivalent educational and professional experience.
7-10+ years of experience in managing development teams
Comprehensive understanding of Event Driven Development, Bounded Context, Agile Software Development and microservices/APIs, streaming technologies (Kafka, etc.)
Strong communication skills, ability to influence and lead. Proven ability to build strong relationships with Senior Leadership, IT staff and peers. Collaborates with business stakeholders and Vendors to evolve and facilitate IAM services and processes.
Highly motivated and able to work effectively under minimal supervision. Demonstrates strong organization skills and time management. Ability to manage multiple tasks / projects while ensuring deadlines are met.
Must be process driven, detail oriented and organized in both thought and practice. Strong analytical and problem solving skills.
Demonstrated leadership and mentorship skills. Ability to lead technical resources both within the company and at third party vendors.
Extended Availability: Requirement for occasional overtime or after-hours support as dictated by business needs.
If you are applying for a position which is open to applicants across Canada, unless otherwise indicated in the position, language proficiency in English is required for communicating with customers, advisors, or employees across Canada.

Responsibilities

Identify, recruit and develop fully functional Back Office WorkTeams
Manage an evolving organization structure, identify key skills, promote a strong and positive culture and forecast future skills, in line with core strategic company planning
Work with Enterprise Architecture to define a technical roadmap and options on how to evolve the current architecture and systems deployment towards the Future State Architecture (FSA)
Work with Product Owners to schedule technical improvements that will evolve the current architecture towards the FSA
Identify/socialize KPIs and metrics to monitor, assess and improve team performance, efficiency and security
Work closely with the Process Improvement group to help evolve development standards
Maintain strong working relationships with key stakeholders to ensure the team has a key understanding of the company objectives.
Stay up to date on industry news. Be knowledgeable about developments from our company, our competitors, and our largest customers, including financial performance, market share, product roadmap, and overall business strategy.
Manage teams and delivery - be prompt and proactive in helping remove impediments that are detrimental to the back office WorkTeams’ ability to be effective
Support development teams in the resolution of technical difficulties and/or help identify issues the team team may overlook during feature development (i.e scalability, performance, security)
Stay abreast of developments in the tools and technologies that Teams are using. Solicit input from Teams and other stakeholders on tools and technologies that could be useful. Spend time getting hands-on familiarity with these tools and technologies.
Perform financial planning and budgeting for Teams, including anticipating future people requirements, skills development and training needs, tools and technologies required, hardware, travel, and any other resources that people will require.
Coordinate & manage information across Back Office Team(s)
Provide mentorship, career development advice and guidance to Team-members. This mentorship should include both technical mentorship, as well as soft-skills and other aspects of being effective and successful in a development organization.
Plan and manage skills development and training for Team-members. Think carefully about areas where their skills need greatest development, or where the most opportunity for improvement exists; work with the person to identify appropriate training; and obtain budget and time allowance to complete it.
Provide performance feedback and complete performance evaluations for Team-members. Informal performance feedback should be provided on a frequent basis, and should include feedback from fellow Team-members. Feedback should be focused on recognition for achievement, and opportunities for growth.

Benefits

Competitive salaries with annual pay increases
Annual bonus program, which recognizes both strong company performance and individual contributions, for non sales positions
Competitive uncapped commission, for sales positions
A comprehensive employer-funded benefits package starting from day one of employment, that includes life insurance, disability, health and dental and a generous health account
Flexible work arrangements and an annual allotment of personal health days.
Four weeks annual vacation from hire date
A defined contribution pension plan with generous employer matching
Top up programs for parental leave and compassionate leave
Employer-sponsored wellness and recognition programs
A cash employee referral program