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 commensurate to experience, location, etc.