Our client is a National Insurance Group in the Chicago-Midway area, and they are looking for an experienced Applications Manager (development experience not required) to strategically lead the planning, evaluation, integration, and deployment of all internal and external applications. This on-site resource will report directly to the CIO and have high visibility within the organization. The best person for this role is an experienced people manager who has worked their way up in the ranks within a mid-sized organization.
About the role:
This person will lead the team in a technical transformation, including but not limited to; evaluating existing systems and suggesting application improvements, leading initiatives pertaining to new development, introducing, and deploying new applications, manage support and maintenance of legacy systems as well as the development and integration of new systems utilizing the latest cloud and virtualization technology.
- Lead cross-functional teams involved in the analysis, design, and development of large-scale applications, which may include both projects and programs.
- Take ownership of client and vendor relationships to negotiate and improve support services and external consulting agreements.
- Ensure projects are completed within the committed time and budget and are integrated with other software applications.
- Explore new technologies, incorporate improvements across the organization working closely with IT and business leadership.
- Identify and maintain success criteria with business partners.
- Project management and delivery of work requests and projects within committed budget, schedule, and quality for individual projects while also meeting overall department performance goals.
- Monitor progress of deliverables from internal and external service providers
- Research product and project pricing; provide cost estimates and business case updates.
- Ensure technology solutions comply with architectural standards.
- Maintain performance of any application issues in accordance with agreed SLA.
- Identify, prioritize, allocate resources, track, and provide status reporting of work assignments, projects, programs.
- Build and maintain strong business relationships with both senior and operating level business leaders.
Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree (Computer Science, Engineering, or Information Systems – preferred)
- Experience managing a team of 10-20 IT professionals, either as direct reports or outsourced teams.
- 5+ years of applications management experience in an IT or leadership related role.
- Must have experience working within a mixed technical environment
- Experience in application development and managing multiple major project delivery of med-large scale projects/programs.
- Experience implementing policy and claims management systems such as Guidewire, Duck Creek, Majesco or other well-known insurance industry platforms.
- Experience working with multiple technical platforms, operating systems, databases, and development languages.
- Experience in insurance industry is a bonus