Director, Enterprise Architecture

AAA Life Insurance Company•Livonia, MI

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

AAA Life is a respected and trusted American brand that has been focusing on Life Insurance and Annuity Products since 1969. At AAA Life we have over 1.8 million policies where we take pride in earning the trust of our policyholders who understand our promise to be there for them – and their families – when we’re needed most. By joining the AAA Life team, you are joining a company that genuinely cares about helping each other, with a devotion to protect the lives of those around us. We embrace a diverse, equitable, inclusive culture where all associates can feel a sense of belonging and use their unique talents and perspective to influence, innovate, motivate, and thrive. The Director of Enterprise Architecture reports directly to the Vice President, Technology Transformation. The Director is responsible for understanding and translating the AAA Life business vision and strategy, and providing overall direction, guidance and definition of IT architecture to effectively support the strategy. The Director must be capable of practically applying existing, new and emerging technologies to new and evolving business and operating models. The ability to develop these technology roadmaps and communicate to AAA Life executives and leaders is key to ensuring the proper buy-in and delivery of results. The Governance of the Enterprise Architecture across the organization is a key role to ensure that the architectural direction upholds the current and future state business, data, and infrastructure and application roadmaps.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in information technology, Computer Science, Engineering or related field required. Master's degree preferred.
15 years of experience in the IT industry with emphasis on Application.
At least 7 years architecting Cloud (AWS or Azure).
Must have managed a team of 4-5 people.
Development, Application Delivery, and Business Process Solutions.
Leadership experience managing several direct reports, including managers.
Demonstrated experience in software development technology and Enterprise Architecture.
Demonstrated RFP and contract development experience.

Nice To Haves

Master's degree in business, computer science, computer engineering, electrical engineering, system analysis or a related field of study, or equivalent experience
Seven or more years of experience in at least three disciplines, such as business, information, solution or technical architecture, application development, middleware, information analysis, database management or operations in a multitier environment
Five or more years of business experience in strategic and operations planning and/or business analysis

Responsibilities

Lead and coordinate all aspects of the EA program, including: (1) business architecture, which is focused on guiding people, process and organizational change; (2) information architecture, which is focused on the consistent sharing of information across the enterprise; (3) solutions architecture, which is focused on developing a direction for managing the portfolio of to-be solutions; (4) technical architecture, which is focused on evolving the technical infrastructure; and (5) security architecture, which is focused on managing IT risk through the exchange of information between people, systems and things inside and outside the organization.
Lead the evolution of the Enterprise Architecture function with a team of architects and partner with the engineering organization leads.
Promote the business value of the EA function and its process, and the results of the EA program to business and technology leaders/executives.
Lead the buy versus build analysis where appropriate.
Be a catalyst for technology transformation and innovation across the technology department and across the company.
Lead the development of an implementation plan for the Enterprise Architecture based on business strategy and requirements.
Construct technology-enabled operating models and provide viable options and visibility into execution issues.
Communicate these options to AAA life leadership.
Provide leadership on enterprise technologies and platforms.
Create architectural and technology strategic roadmaps that result in stronger, more effective and more reliable business technology platforms
Understand the business's economic and financial levers that are susceptible to digital transformation, to effectively support and guide technology investment decisions.
Design and construct future and current state business models to educate and inform decision makers
Manage the development of transformation plans for moving from the current to the future state environment across application portfolio
Demonstrate the business value of EA as an enabler of strategy formulation, and as support for technology innovation, which drives the organization's top and bottom lines.
Formulate, translate, advocate, support and execute business strategy to achieve the organization's targeted business outcomes.
Scan the world for major disruptive technology and nontechnology trends (trendspotting) that affect business. Provide practical advice and best practices to overcome these challenges and successfully deliver the expected business outcomes.
Lead the analysis of business and operating models, market trends and the technology industry to determine their potential impact on the enterprise's business strategy, direction and architecture.
Track and apply innovative and existing technologies, anchoring them in the business model to assess their potential, and use rapid prototyping approaches to evolve innovations.
Run technology experiments, helping to create new products and services and integrating the best of these into steady-state operations for the organization.
Work with business peers to develop and present business capability models and roadmaps to facilitate discussion and decision making with stakeholders across the enterprise.
Lead analysis of the business' future-state capabilities and future (and current) IT environment to detect critical deficiencies and recommend solutions for improvement and driving the business forward.
Work with business peers and lead the identification and analysis of enterprise business outcomes and drivers to derive useful business context, and in response to disruptive forces.
Lead analysis of the technology environment to detect critical deficiencies and recommend solutions for improvement.
Lead and facilitate the creation of governance, assurance and standards to guide EA decision making.
Ensure that the optimal governance structure and compliance activities are associated with EA compliance.
Oversee the evaluation and selection of EA standards, as necessary.
Oversee EA implementation, continuous improvement and ongoing refinement activities.
Oversee the documentation of all architecture design and analysis work.
Consult with infrastructure, project and product teams to ensure consistency with the Enterprise Architecture, as well as to identify when it is necessary to modify the Enterprise Architecture.