Director, Solutions Architect - Excess & Surplus

Nationwide•Columbus, OH

8d•$149,000 - $262,000•Hybrid

About The Position

This role is the Director, Solutions Architect for the Excess, Surplus & Specialty (ES&S) Business Solution Area within P&C Technology. You will own end-to-end technology strategy and the evolution of the ES&S application suite — Policy Admin, Claims, Workflow/Document Management, Data, and Integrations — directing a ~$40M annual build portfolio and a distributed team across Columbus, Scottsdale, and Des Moines. ES&S is one of Nationwide's fastest-evolving business units, giving you architectural reach across a diverse specialty portfolio. The suite is coming off major inflection points — 100% policy-admin modernization, a new consumer-facing platform with APIs across 29 states, and a Salesforce Financial Services Cloud implementation enabling an Insurance Agent 360 view. Agentic AI and spec-driven engineering are already in motion, with clear runway to shape where AI is applied next across underwriting, claims, and operations.

Requirements

Strong IT architecture skills, with a track record leading architecture teams across large, complex portfolios.
Experience delivering third-party package software and integrating vendor platforms into a coherent suite.
P&C insurance experience — technology and business acumen.
Ability to develop and communicate strategic roadmaps to business and technology executives, with investment-planning fluency across a multi-tens-of-millions portfolio.
Passion for people leadership, and strong command and communication skills in a broad, complex, ambiguous space.
Undergraduate studies in computer science, management information systems, or a related field is preferred.
More than ten years of experience in a Technology.
Shown strength in multiple architectural domains and various technologies.
Awareness of and experience with Web and Cloud technologies.
Five years leading planning and roadmap development and four years of management experience is preferred.
Superb communication and facilitation skills.
Ability to make decisions and recommendations on technology strategies while considering various options and business needs.
Aptitude to influence, build relationships, negotiate and set priorities needed.
Strong executive presence.

Nice To Haves

Excess & Surplus or Specialty experience is a strong plus.
Insurance/financial services industry knowledge a plus.
Technology certifications or designation are not required but encouraged.

Responsibilities

End-to-end accountability for the ES&S application suite, balancing technology currency, risk, and delivery capacity.
Strategic vision, multi-year roadmaps, and the annual planning cycle — with board-ready updates to Business Presidents, PMO, and technology leadership.
IT investment planning across the build-and-run portfolio, driving build-vs-buy-vs-retire decisions through ROI and business case analysis.
Manage a team of Product Architects and Application Suite Tech Leads, plus strategic vendor and MSP relationships from POC through production.
Ensure secure-by-design, BC/DR, and regulatory reporting integrity (NAIC, claims data, loss-run) across the portfolio.
Responsible for the management of associates including but not limited to performance management, salary planning, training, development, workforce planning, hiring, and disciplinary actions; and attracts, hires, engages and develops the team through impactful recruitment, coaching and feedback.
Leads the development and maintenance of technology strategies, blueprints and application roadmaps for a product domain, a business solution area or business/technology roadmaps for a given infrastructure domain.
Identifies technical risk, currency and depth of product/applications supporting a business solution area or leads the technologies supporting a given infrastructure domain.
Oversees the delivery of programs and projects driven by the solution area, product domain or infrastructure domain.
Implements reusable technology solutions that uses shared assets.
Harvests intellectual capital that contributes to increased delivery capabilities.
Leads technical quality through architecture and design reviews.
Top specialist in the generation of new solutions and designs in support of the needs of the product domain, business area or infrastructure domain.
Assists business solution area leadership team with estimating costs and technical resource planning for new solutions, technology upgrades and maintenance of product/application platforms.
Establishes building codes and guardrails for the business solution area and carries out compliance with technology and architecture standards.
Active profession participant through communities of practice, industry involvement and/or standards organizations.
May perform other responsibilities as assigned.