AVP Information Technology
AVP of Application Development
Role Context
- Senior leadership role within a multi-line insurance company, reporting directly to me
- Directly manages the Guidewire and P&C legacy application development team
- Additionally leads through managers who support the following business lines and functions:
- Life and Retirement
- BCG
- Supplemental and Group
- Distribution and Corporate Back Office
- Responsible for a large, complex development organization (30+ developers) consisting of both individual contributors and development managers across all of these areas
- Expected to operate as a bold change agent who is unafraid to challenge the status quo and drive meaningful transformation across a diverse, multi-line portfolio
Technical & Architecture Skills
- Deep expertise in modern application architecture, cloud platforms, and software engineering best practices
- Proven track record of leading large-scale legacy modernization initiatives and reducing technical debt in complex, regulated environments
- Hands-on experience with Guidewire or comparable P&C insurance platforms is strongly preferred
- Hands-on experience designing and delivering AI-powered applications — not just AI awareness, but actual build experience
- Familiarity with insurance systems and data (policy, claims, billing) across both P&C and Life lines is a strong plus
- Experience with finance and commissions systems and processes is a nice-to-have, given the breadth of business lines supported
Team Leadership & People Management
- Demonstrated experience leading 30+ person development organizations with a mix of ICs and engineering managers
- Skilled at developing managers — coaching, holding accountable, and elevating leadership capability across the team
- Able to attract, retain, and grow top technical talent in a competitive market
- Comfortable navigating organizational complexity and managing through ambiguity across multiple business lines with distinct priorities
Strategic Thinking & Roadmap Ownership
- Ability to translate business goals into a clear, prioritized application development roadmap across a multi-line portfolio
- Experience leading multi-year modernization programs with measurable outcomes
- Balances long-term platform thinking with near-term delivery commitments
- Has a point of view on where AI fits into the development strategy and can build a credible path to adoption
Stakeholder & Executive Communication
- Credible and confident communicator with senior business and technology stakeholders across multiple business units
- Able to make the case for investment in modernization and AI in business value terms, not just technical terms
- Builds trust across the organization by delivering on commitments and communicating transparently when things change
- Skilled at managing competing priorities and expectations across diverse business line partners
AI, Modern Tooling & Low-Code Platforms
- Has hands-on experience building and shipping AI-powered applications — not just theoretical knowledge
- Understands AI tooling, frameworks, and integration patterns relevant to enterprise development, including generative AI, large language models, and AI-assisted development tools
- Familiar with and able to evaluate modern low-code/no-code platforms (such as Microsoft Power Platform, OutSystems, Mendix, or similar) and knows when they are the right fit vs. custom development
- Actively leverages modern developer productivity tools — including AI coding assistants, CI/CD automation, and cloud-native development platforms — to accelerate delivery and reduce toil
- Can lead a team toward responsible, practical AI and low-code adoption that delivers real business outcomes without creating new technical debt
- Able to assess vendor solutions and build vs. buy vs. configure tradeoffs across traditional, AI, and low-code options
Pay Range:
- $146,500.00 - $208,750.00
Salary is co