Job Summary
 

Individual contributor provides highest level of expertise for development, specification and communication of the company's technology architecture plan, the infrastructure components required to support it, and in the integration of corporate and business area architectures. Leads multiple projects for the area.  Develops innovative and effective solutions for the most diverse and most complex business problems. 

The Architecture Consulting Director will be closely aligned to the Underwriting business units to help advance business capabilities across the policy and underwriting lifecycle – submission intake, risk assessment, rating pricing, bind, issue, endorse and renew – as well as insurance product development.  

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

1. Act as principal designer for corporate systems’ architecture including application, data, and infrastructure architectures.
2. Responsible for developing, recommending and executing strategic and tactical business and technology roadmaps in conjunction with business partners and strategy teams; describing the evolution of enterprise portfolios from current state to future state.
3. Strong business knowledge and acumen.
4. Responsible for defining and documenting conceptual architecture; capture and document non-functional (architectural) requirements; and defining technical requirements to initiate requests for proposals (RFPs) with external software/technology vendors or service providers.
5. Provide integrated systems planning and recommend new or different technologies which will enhance current systems and support overall corporate and business goals.
6. Research and evaluate new and/or alternative solutions and technologies to enhance operational effectiveness, reduce costs and/or system risks and increase speed to market
7. Provide technical consultation to business partners and IT management to ensure development of efficient application systems utilizing established standards, procedures and methodologies.
8. Proactively monitor strategic direction of vendors/software products, technology and market trends, and determine potential impact and value to the enterprise.
9. Lead and facilitate architecture governance and review processes.

May perform additional duties as assigned.

Reporting Relationship

Typically Director or above

Skills Knowledge and Abilities

1. Expert knowledge of design and implementation of enterprise workflow systems, distributed architecture, intranet/internet architecture, and communication architectures.
2. Experience designing technology solutions for policy administration, agent-facing portal, UW workbench, risk analysis and pricing, underwriting file capabilities is preferred. Experience with commercial-off-the-shelf or SaaS policy administration systems (e.g. Guidewire, DuckCreek, Majesco), document production or rating engine software is preferred. 
3. A senior level knowledge of the system development life cycle, and system and application program development technological alternatives and architecture methodologies for multi-platform environments.
4. Must be competent to work at the highest technical level of all phases of system architecture design using state of the art rules-based architecture, object oriented component analysis and development and proficiency in web-based systems architecture, service-based architecture and enterprise application architecture. Strong knowledge of contemporary technology and business trends that allows architecture to solve problems in a creative and cost effective manner.
5. This role will be aligned with a business domain, so deep knowledge of insurance (e.g. UW, Claim, Reinsurance, Risk Management) or corporate (e.g. HR, Finance) functions is necessary. 
6. Excellent communication and interpersonal and consultative skills to work effectively with vendors, clients, peers, and IT management and staff.
7. Must be able to clearly communicate complex technical and business concepts both to business partners and team members.
8. Strong analytical and problem solving skills.
9. Working knowledge of systems architectural concepts and frameworks like TOGAF preferred.
10. Experience developing 3-5 year roadmaps outlining the evolution of the enterprise application portfolios from current to future state.

Education and Experience

- Bachelor's or above degree in Computer Science, or related discipline, or equivalent experience.

· Experience developing 3-5 year roadmaps outlining the evolution of the enterprise application portfolios from current to future state.