Director, IT

Markel • Richmond, VA

2d • $152,600 - $318,000

About The Position

Markel is hiring an IT Director to lead multiple full-stack development teams responsible for its Wholesale and Specialty policy administration platform, a large, actively developed application built on Microsoft technologies. The platform supports underwriters in quoting, issuing, and servicing commercial insurance policies and is central to the business. The Director leads teams through the design, development, and delivery of new capabilities, contributes to planning and management activities for the assigned business area, and balances operational priorities with long-term engineering goals. Prior insurance systems experience is preferred but not required.

Requirements

• 8 to 10 years of software development, infrastructure, or project delivery experience, including full-stack application development.
• Hands-on experience with the Microsoft technology stack, including C#/.NET (.NET Core / .NET 6+), ASP.NET, REST APIs, and SQL Server.
• Experience delivering and operating applications in Microsoft Azure, such as App Services, Functions, Azure SQL, storage, and messaging.
• Experience with modern CI/CD practices and tooling, preferably Azure DevOps and/or GitHub, including automated build, test, and release pipelines.
• Experience with modern front-end development, such as Angular, React, or Blazor.
• Experience with agile software development methodologies.
• Experience providing coaching and mentoring to team members.
• Ability to balance immediate operational needs with progress toward long-term engineering goals.
• Practical experience applying AI-assisted development tooling and AI capabilities in application engineering.
• Strong knowledge of technologies and methodologies relevant to the assigned business area.
• Skill in organizing resources and establishing priorities; strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to gather technical information and turn it into clear, concise communication materials.
• Strong commitment to continuous improvement and ability to lead, coach, and develop staff across multiple teams.
• Excellent communication, negotiation, and presentation skills; ability to work with all levels of internal and external business partners.
• Ability to manage and prioritize multiple projects, with attention to detail and deadlines.
• Confidence working with and persuading employees at all levels; ability to lead in a fast-paced environment with shifting priorities.
• Willingness to learn a complex business domain and translate it into technical direction.
• Working knowledge of application architecture patterns, secure coding practices, and technical debt management for a long-lived, business-critical system.
• Working knowledge of AI tools and techniques and ability to apply them to software engineering and delivery problems.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or another related field, or equivalent work experience, including military experience.
• U.S. work authorization is required. Markel does not provide visa sponsorship for this position, now or in the future.

Nice To Haves

• Experience managing multiple teams.
• Experience leading teams that support a large, long-lived, business-critical application.
• Insurance or financial services experience.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to strategic, operational, and divisional goals as a member of the management team.
• Track team delivery, provide project updates, and alert management to deviations that may affect delivery.
• Conduct employee performance appraisals and administer disciplinary action; initiate discussions about raises, bonuses, and promotions.
• Recruit, develop, retain, and organize managed staff, including offshore resources, within corporate budget and policy requirements.
• Set team operating standards and ensure essential procedures are followed.
• Train, coach, and mentor employees, and identify and measure team health indicators.
• Keep teams focused on priorities, milestones, and deliverables; track and report key metrics and status to senior management.
• Represent the engineering team to business stakeholders, customers, and internal delivery teams.
• Lead the design, development, and delivery of full-stack application components—including user interfaces, APIs and services, business logic, and data persistence—using the Microsoft technology stack.
• Own team engineering practices, including CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, code quality standards, environment and release management, and production support.
• Partner with product owners and business partners to translate business needs into software and develop the team’s understanding of the supported insurance processes.
• Ensure reliable integration with surrounding systems, including billing, claims, document generation, and enterprise reporting.
• Manage one or more assigned teams and balance workload and priorities across them.
• Participate in production support escalation, including occasional late evenings and weekends as needed.

Benefits

• Multiple health, dental, and vision insurance plan options for full-time employees.
• Optional life, disability, and AD&D insurance.
• 401(k) with employer match contributions.
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan.
• PTO, corporate holidays, and floating holidays.
• Parental leave.
• May be eligible to participate in the Company’s annual incentive plan.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director