Manager, IT Application Development – AAA Life Insurance Company

Manager, IT Application Development
1883-418

The AAA Life Insurance IT Development Manager serves as an information technology expert and inter-departmental liaison between the business units, information technology, and external vendors regarding all aspects of the life insurance process. This role has direct management responsibility for a group of IT associates based on line of business focus and technology platforms, and provides direction, leadership, and guidance to assigned associates.

They will have a strong understanding of the Company’s business functions and work processes in order to guide and support the business partner’s system requirements. Builds strong relationships with key business partners and works with business partners to interpret short-term and long-term goals and prepare them for delivery.

This role provides functional or technical expertise to assist team members during the development, enhancement, testing, validation, and/or maintenance of systems to satisfy business needs. Implements specific processes and standards to ensure team members are working effectively. Ensures the core values and operating principles of the organization are applied at all times.

• Leadership
• Lead a team or teams of IT professionals within one or more functional or technical areas of expertise.
• Provide technical or functional leadership to team members to ensure successful completion of both technical and business objectives.
• Consistently function as a positive role model, strong coach, and change agent.
• Motivate, inspire, energize, and help associates overcome barriers.

• Staff Development
• Develop and coach assigned personnel toward the achievement of career goals and plans while meeting the objectives of the Company.
• Select, align, acquire and train associate resources with the goal of building a versatile and flexible team.
• Complete annual, periodic evaluations and career development. Ensure all associates have annual goals and training plans.
• Provide technical guidance, counseling, and training to staff as necessary. Identify opportunities to improve team performance and effectiveness. May assist in the coaching of systems methodology tools and techniques.
• Researches, analyzes and makes recommendations to upper management on appropriate positions and strategies relative to corporate goals and strategic initiatives.

• Technology
• Fully responsible for one or more technology platforms supporting specific lines of business: manage development teams delivering major/minor functionality enhancements, daily application support, plus occasional platform/technology upgrades. Work with business partners to understand the business roadmap and anticipate the appropriate level of IT development support.
• Ensures consistent adoption of tools, standards, and processes
• Promotes common methodologies and knowledge-sharing across functional teams
• Participate in and manage the efforts to implement and improve standards, policies, and procedures within the department.
• Participate in the development and/or selection of technical solutions as required. Manage technical change within the IT organization.
• Reviews publications, networks with industry professionals, and participates in industry organizations to provide direction to IT associates.
• Ensures that resources are available with skills necessary to accomplish project tasks on current and future projects.
• May assist in the development and maintenance of department and IT project budgets including capital, expense, and staffing.
• Make technical decisions in a timely manner and with quality results.
• Maintain an expertise in a broad range of technologies with an emphasis in a specific hardware, software, operating systems, or technical support processes.
• Resolve operational and technical support problems in an effective and efficient manner.
• Proactively optimize performance and ensure that systems are running efficiently.
• Maintain a high level of knowledge and expertise relative to AAA Life and its processes.

• Business Partner Relationships (Business Advocate)
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• Maintain communication flow upstream and downstream within the department, with the business units, and within the company.
• Build and maintain effective relationships with business partners (Executives, Directors, and functional managers).
• Exhibit effective technical skills and understanding to conceptually discuss technologies required that meet customer requirements.
• Provide input and make recommendations to upper management for resources, budget and projects. Ability to develop sound business cases.
• Acts as a liaison between the IT Application Development team and other IT Support or Operational initiatives, or between IT and business-only projects.
• May formalize and negotiate supplier contracts and priorities.
• Represents the department on various inter-departmental projects.
• Responsible for maintaining compliance with all laws and regulations that govern the business processes in the department.

• Problem Solving and Analysis – Able to model systematic approach to problem solving; seek information and perspectives from both inside and outside the team to better understand and solve problems; involve others in solving problems that affect them; coach others to routinely anticipate and prevent avoidable problems; coach others on how to analyze data and evaluate alternatives to solve problems.
• Planning and Organizing – Able to help others prioritize their work and manage their time effectively; hold others accountable for creating adequately detailed project plans; coach others to follow up and monitor projects and help them see the benefits of doing so; plan ahead to make sure critical resources are lined up; set and stick to an agenda in meetings to avoid wasted time.
• Strategic Alignment – Able to keep team focused on key objectives that drive company performance and competitive advantage; clarify vision, mission, values, and long-term goals for others; think beyond the “day to day” to take a longer term view of the business; coordinate cross-functional activities to assure strategic alignment with organizational objectives; anticipate and plan for future business developments.
• Decisiveness and Judgment – Able to consider both the short- and long-term impact of decisions; plan for how the consequences of decisions affect the team; coach others to make effective decisions; hold others accountable for making sound decisions; make and act on decisions even if they are unpopular.
• Develops People – Provides positive coaching. Actively engages staff in challenging assignments. Holds self and others to high standards. Identifies and hires high potential. Takes action on non-performers.
• Technical Skills – Holds self and others to high standards. Strives to stay ahead of technical expertise, is proactive and inspires others to stay current in areas of technical expertise.
• Decisiveness and Judgment – Able to consider both the short- and long-term impact of decisions; plan for how the consequences of decisions affect the team; coach others to make effective decisions; hold others accountable for making sound decisions; make and act on decisions even if they are unpopular.
• Continuous Quality and Performance Improvement – Able to encourage team members to share ideas that lead to improvement; minimize barriers to accomplishing the team’s work; hold others accountable for identifying and removing obstacles that negatively affect quality; monitor the group’s processes for quality and efficiency issues that become targets for improvement; establish measures/benchmarks to track individual and/or team performance.
• Gets Results – Able to promote a sense of urgency in the team for reaching goals; build team’s commitment to objectives; constructively deal with performance problems on a timely basis; take focused action to eliminate barriers that may affect team performance; hold others accountable for achieving results.
• Open Communication – Able to give clear, understandable instructions to others; coach others in effective communication and listening skills; help others present their message effectively; initiate difficult or uncomfortable communications with others rather than avoiding them; encourage and facilitate candid and open communication within the team.

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Business Administration, a related field or equivalent experience.

• 3 years of previous formal management experience
• Leadership and decision making skills
• Excellent knowledge of technologies, utilities, software programming languages, hardware, software platforms, support software, and/or testing tools available to effectively manage the technical environment
• Strong interpersonal communication skills and problem solving skills
• Excellent presentation and meeting facilitation skills
• Strong negotiation skills
• Self-starter/self-motivated, capable of staying on track and pursuing solutions without supervision
• Ability to prepare and present technical information in business terms
• Ability to work under pressure, meet deadlines, and handle multiple projects simultaneously

PM21

Livonia, United States

Full-Time/Regular