Executive Director, Guidewire Policy Modernization and Core Insurance Platforms

Why USAA?

At USAA, our mission is to empower our members to achieve financial security through highly competitive products, exceptional service and trusted advice. We seek to be the #1 choice for the military community and their families.

Embrace a fulfilling career at USAA, where our core values – honesty, integrity, loyalty and service – define how we treat each other and our members. Be part of what truly makes us special and impactful.

We are proud to support active-duty military spouses. USAA roles may offer remote or hybrid flexibility for active-duty military spouses consistent with applicable policy and business needs.

The Opportunity

As the Executive Director, Guidewire, Policy Modernization and Core Insurance Platforms you will be responsible for planning, coordinate, and supervise all activities related to the design, development, and implementation and maintenance of the organization's applications development and analysis function. You will be managing multiple development teams often supporting one or more lines of business or business functional areas. Works closely with clients in order to map and support their operational needs. Responsible for developing, distributing, supporting, enforcing, and integrating best practices and technology standards across the organization, including ensuring all Information Technology General Controls, Processes and Procedures are followed as applicable and appropriate.

We offer a flexible work environment that requires an individual to be in the San Antonio TX or Plano TX office 4 days per week, 1 day flexible.

What You Will Do:

• Performs workload management and prioritization duties in support of operations for the functional area assigned.

• Applies subject-matter-expert functional knowledge to lead subordinate workers in producing work deliverables in support of departmental initiatives.

• Develops functional policies, procedures, and guidelines.

• Identifies opportunities and facilitates major improvements to processes and systems.

• Ensures that the assigned application group develops processes and tools that contribute to the company business objectives.

• Ensures that all application processes developed internally or by external service providers are conducted in line with corporate social responsibility, environmental and technical policies and applicable standards and legislation.

• Oversees the assessment of the technical and business fitness of the application portfolio and their associated costs and risks 

• In partnership with CTO, Infrastructure and IT Security, ensures that the organization's applications are effectively secured and that risks are mitigated and comply with legal and corporate privacy and confidentiality rules.

• Establishes management routines to ensure appropriate oversight of the organization’s software development and maintenance activities.

• Serves as financial steward for the organization and manages relationships with major vendors and service providers to ensure they cost-effectively meet the needs of the organization.

• Evaluates and selects third party vendors to provide value added services. Facilitates the contracting process through the Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) enterprise process.

• Responsible for contract company/service performance providing timely feedback to ensure the best value for USAA.

• Collaborates with CTO to ensure that solutions are consistent with technology standards.

• Works across IT and business partners to reduce technical debt. 

• Collaborates with other leaders and/or stakeholders and develop an application development strategy that aligns with business strategy, adds value and is within budget constraints. 

• Responsible for team’s adherence to SDLC and applicable controls.

• Works to ensure teams have appropriate, development plans consistent with domain of expertise.

• Mentors across the technical community.

• Provides oversight to the engagement with the business DPO and ensures deliverables adhere to Agile practices/methodologies.

• Ensures risks associated with business activities are effectively identified, measured, monitored, and controlled in accordance with risk and compliance policies and procedures.

Minimum Education:

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, computer information systems, or related field of study; OR 4 years of related experience (in addition to the minimum years of experience required) may be substituted in lieu of degree.

Minimum Experience:

• 10 years of experience of general IT management competencies.

• 4 years of people leadership experience in building, managing, and/or developing high-performing teams required.

• Strong technical background of web-based application architecture, system and database architecture, security application integration, and object-oriented languages in a large enterprise environment.

• Extensive experience in all stages of the software development life cycle: requirements gathering, design, development, testing, and implementation.

• Demonstrated ability to communicate technical information to a non-technical audience.

• Experience collaborating with key resources and stakeholders, influencing decisions, and managing work to achieve strategic goals required.

• Demonstrated experience in vendor contract management and management of distributed development teams and resources.

• Demonstrated financial acumen involving budgets, forecasting, and executing on the budgets for applicable technology support function.

• Understanding of relevant industry frameworks, i.e., COBIT, ITIL, SAFe, etc.

• Understanding of Legislative and Regulatory Compliance Requirements.

• Experience overseeing the technology life cycle from requirements analysis, feasibility estimates, design, code, documentation, testing, implementation, and support.

• Technical knowledge and understanding of technical domains that reside within Infrastructure Services, Security, Data or Application Development.

• Experience conducting cost benefit analyses and leveraging results to drive technology support solutions.

• Demonstrated thought leadership in embedding intuitive story telling of technology support functions including concise presentation of complex technical details.

• Experience and ability to drive a culture of quality and personal accountability through technology support teams.

What Sets You Apart:

• Oversee all Guidewire PolicyCenter, Guidewire ContactManager, Earnix/Pricing, and Policy Modernization Operations and Maintenance teams within the Policy Modernization organization, while building successor-ready leaders who can step into broader ED scope and key direct-report roles within 3-5 years. Other Vendor Platforms experience will be considered. 

• Serve as the primary engineering counterpart to the business AVP of Pricing and Documents demonstrating executive presence to challenge assumptions, align trade-offs, and drive timely cross-functional decisions on pricing and underwriting priorities.

• Deliver capabilities required to support Policy Modernization state rollout roadmaps for the Auto, Property, and Umbrella product lines, with clear ownership of delivery predictability, quality, and operational readiness.

• Sustain and extend the success of Guidewire and Policy Modernization Operations and Maintenance by leading production support including upgrades, release and deployment management, incident management, defect remediation, vulnerability remediation, and proactive monitoring so IT remains first-to-know for unhealthy systems, services, and APIs.

• Lead and coordinate the pricing modernization agenda, delivering measurable improvements in data quality, data recency, validation automation, cycle time, and pricing execution reliability.

• Champion and drive improvements to Earnix through adoption of native capabilities, dashboards, and workflows, and manage retirement of high-risk UDA-dependent workflows to re-design the pricing data and tooling ecosystem in alignment with the Pricing Factory vision

Compensation range: The salary range for this position is: $195,230 - $351,410.

USAA does not provide visa sponsorship for this role. Please do not apply for this role if at any time (now or in the future) you will need immigration support (i.e., H-1B, TN, STEM OPT Training Plans, etc.).

Compensation: USAA has an effective process for assessing market data and establishing ranges to ensure we remain competitive. You are paid within the salary range based on your experience and market data of the position.

Employees may be eligible for pay incentives based on overall corporate and individual performance and at the discretion of the USAA Board of Directors.

The above description reflects the details considered necessary to describe the principal functions of the job and should not be construed as a detailed description of all the work requirements that may be performed in the job.

Long Term Incentive Plan: Cash payment for Executive level roles only, representing a cash payment which is both time and performance based.

Benefits: At USAA our employees enjoy best-in-class benefits to support their physical, financial, and emotional wellness. These benefits include comprehensive medical, dental and vision plans, 401(k), pension, life insurance, parental benefits, adoption assistance, paid time off program with paid holidays plus 16 paid volunteer hours, and various wellness programs. Additionally, our career path planning and continuing education assists employees with their professional goals.

For more details on our outstanding benefits, visit our benefits page on USAAjobs.com.

Applications for this position are accepted on an ongoing basis, this posting will remain open until the position is filled. Thus, interested candidates are encouraged to apply the same day they view this posting.

USAA is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.