Technology Manager

COUNTRY Financial • Minneapolis, MN

23h • Hybrid

About The Position

Experience more with a career at COUNTRY Financial! We’re excited you’re interested in a career at COUNTRY as we strive toward our vision - to enrich lives in the communities we serve. Our footprint spans coast to coast. But more important than where we operate, is the people who do the work. Apply today to help our organization grow and make a difference for our clients. About the role COUNTRY Financial is actively seeking a highly motivated Technology Manager who will be responsible for managing the development and operations of our mission critical system. The individual must be a self-starter and have experience leading large-scale projects and managing cross-functional teams. The Manager will lead teams responsible for developing and releasing new functionalities and improvements to the new Commercial Policy Administration System. You will lead a team of software developers, analysts and testers to implement the new system enhancements and improvements using Guidewire and Jutro Digital platform. You will support the business user’s needs and ensure the new system is designed for use and effortless experience for Clients, Reps and Underwriters. The ideal candidate will have a deep understanding of Client-Server technologies and building solutions for Digital users and Underwriters. If you are interested in transforming and enhancing a new application for Commercial and Agribusiness, this is a great opportunity to join as a leading member of the team while we expand our team in this space. What you will be doing? • Work with your Director to address project dependencies, negotiate and estimate incremental delivery dates for milestones with the stakeholder community, vendor services teams, partner tech teams and deliver program digital capabilities on time. • Manage intake process from identification of business issues to define scope, solutions, development and implementation. • Oversee release management activities for planned or emergency releases and guide the team on a daily basis. • Facilitate resolution to critical production issues which impact business and own collaboration with partner teams and business teams during critical events. • Identify and raise appropriate project risks, in addition to presenting detailed and implementable solutions or alternatives. • Understand how requirements and design choices may impact systems across multiple areas and collaborate with Solution Architects in reviewing design patterns and solutions on need basis. • Report on your team’s progress for project and other key metrics, in addition to presenting detailed and implementable ideas for areas to further improve or influence delivery. • Identify where technical or analytical skills gaps put future team deliverables at risk and craft a plan to remediate the risks. • Administer coaching plan(s) and Performance Improvement Plan(s). • Develop the team budget and be accountable for reporting on results achieved at regular intervals. How does this role make an impact? - Provides leadership by communicating job expectations; planning, monitoring, and appraising job results; coaching, counseling, and disciplining employees; initiating, coordinating, and enforcing systems, policies, and procedures. - Sustains information systems results by defining, delivering, and supporting information systems; auditing application of systems. - Assesses information systems results by auditing application of systems. - Enhances information systems results by identifying information systems technology opportunities and developing application strategies. - Safeguards assets by planning and implementing disaster recovery and back-up procedures and information security and control structures. - Accomplishes financial objectives by determining service level required; preparing an annual budget; scheduling expenditures; analyzing variances; initiating corrective action. - Maintains professional and technical knowledge by attending educational workshops; reviewing professional publications; establishing personal networks; benchmarking state-of-the-art practices; participating in professional societies. - Manages the implementation and maintenance of disaster recovery plans and activities in assigned areas. Maintains current contact information for all employees in applicable areas and communicates with non-recovery employees during a disaster.

Requirements

• Typically requires 8+ years of relevant experience or a combination of related experience, education and training, including management experience.
• Proven experience in developing and implementing Client Server systems with service-oriented architecture.
• Reputation as someone who engages with team members effectively.
• Constructing, interpreting, and applying metrics to your work and decision making, able to use those metrics to identify correlation between drivers and results, and using that information to drive prioritization and action.
• Initiative and creativity in solving problems and driving innovation through others.
• Ability to balance multiple assignments distributed across multiple teams and dependency areas.
• Ensure team’s blockers are resolved in a timely manner.
• Clearly able to see how projects interrelate and have a strategic impact.
• Excellent verbal/written communication skills, with the ability to effectively communicate to both Senior Leadership and Highly Technical personnel.
• Excellent problem-solving skills, proactive, and ability to thrice in an ambiguous environment.
• Working experience with modern agile development methodologies and practices.

Nice To Haves

• 10+ years of leadership experience in implementing large scale projects across multiple disciplines and multiple scrum teams preferred.
• 5+ years of hands-on development and solutions engineering experience preferred.
• Experience with SAFe is preferred.

Responsibilities

• Work with your Director to address project dependencies, negotiate and estimate incremental delivery dates for milestones with the stakeholder community, vendor services teams, partner tech teams and deliver program digital capabilities on time.
• Manage intake process from identification of business issues to define scope, solutions, development and implementation.
• Oversee release management activities for planned or emergency releases and guide the team on a daily basis.
• Facilitate resolution to critical production issues which impact business and own collaboration with partner teams and business teams during critical events.
• Identify and raise appropriate project risks, in addition to presenting detailed and implementable solutions or alternatives.
• Understand how requirements and design choices may impact systems across multiple areas and collaborate with Solution Architects in reviewing design patterns and solutions on need basis.
• Report on your team’s progress for project and other key metrics, in addition to presenting detailed and implementable ideas for areas to further improve or influence delivery.
• Identify where technical or analytical skills gaps put future team deliverables at risk and craft a plan to remediate the risks.
• Administer coaching plan(s) and Performance Improvement Plan(s).
• Develop the team budget and be accountable for reporting on results achieved at regular intervals.
• Provides leadership by communicating job expectations; planning, monitoring, and appraising job results; coaching, counseling, and disciplining employees; initiating, coordinating, and enforcing systems, policies, and procedures.
• Sustains information systems results by defining, delivering, and supporting information systems; auditing application of systems.
• Assesses information systems results by auditing application of systems.
• Enhances information systems results by identifying information systems technology opportunities and developing application strategies.
• Safeguards assets by planning and implementing disaster recovery and back-up procedures and information security and control structures.
• Accomplishes financial objectives by determining service level required; preparing an annual budget; scheduling expenditures; analyzing variances; initiating corrective action.
• Maintains professional and technical knowledge by attending educational workshops; reviewing professional publications; establishing personal networks; benchmarking state-of-the-art practices; participating in professional societies.
• Manages the implementation and maintenance of disaster recovery plans and activities in assigned areas. Maintains current contact information for all employees in applicable areas and communicates with non-recovery employees during a disaster.

Benefits

• insurance benefits (medical, dental, vision, disability, and life)
• 401(k) with company match
• Paid time off, parental leave, paid company holidays and paid time off to volunteer in your community
• Tuition assistance and industry education certificates and designations
• Employee resource groups to connect with your peers.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager
• Education Level: No Education Listed