Applications Development Manager

APPLICATIONS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER

DIRECT HIRE | PERMANENT OPPORTUNITY

HYBRID ROLE

$160,000 $180,000 + FULL BENEFITS

LOCATION: MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL

We are seeking an Applications Development Manager who can lead a talented technical team, bring structure and accountability to the development lifecycle, and serve as a trusted technology partner to business and executive stakeholders.

Excellent communication and relationship-building skills are essential.

Reporting to the Vice President, Insurance Platform Delivery, this leader will oversee the development, support, maintenance, modernization, and continuous improvement of critical business applications, including a key life insurance policy administration platform.

• Direct-hire, permanent position with a well-established organization
• $150,000 $170,000 base salary + comprehensive benefits
• Lead and develop an experienced Applications Development team
• Influence technology strategy, architecture, governance, and delivery
• Drive modernization of software development and DevOps practices
• Work closely with business leaders and technology stakeholders
• Own critical application delivery and production support
• Make a meaningful impact on process, technology, and organizational transformation

• Lead, coach, mentor, and develop the Applications Development team while creating a culture of accountability, collaboration, innovation, and high performance.
• Participate in hiring, performance management, professional development, succession planning, and resource planning.
• Establish clear expectations, priorities, and performance metrics for the team.

• Oversee the complete software development lifecycle, from architecture and solution design through development, testing, deployment, production support, and continuous improvement.
• Establish and enforce development standards, governance, documentation, source control, testing, quality assurance, and release-management practices.
• Lead software architecture, design reviews, and code reviews, ensuring solutions meet business, technical, security, performance, and scalability requirements.
• Provide technical direction across application development, database development, integration, and data migration.

• Manage configuration and controlled changes for the organization's life insurance policy administration system.
• Oversee product configuration, business rules, workflows, calculations, forms, version control, testing, and controlled environment promotion.
• Support policy administration conversions and other strategic application initiatives.

• Develop and manage CI/CD pipelines and DevOps processes designed to improve software quality, delivery speed, reliability, and efficiency.
• Identify opportunities to modernize development practices, technology, processes, and tools.
• Establish metrics around quality, productivity, capacity, performance, delivery, and continuous improvement.

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• 10+ years of progressive software development and technology leadership experience.
• Proven experience leading technical teams and providing hands-on technical guidance.
• Strong software and database development background, including the ability to conduct architecture, design, and code reviews.
• Strong experience with the Microsoft technology stack, including:
  • C#
  • .NET
  • Visual Studio
  • Azure DevOps
  • Microsoft Azure
  • Web technologies
  • SQL Server
• Demonstrated experience establishing and managing software development frameworks, governance, source control, documentation, testing, and CI/CD processes.
• Strong understanding of the complete software development lifecycle.
• Experience managing configuration for a life insurance or annuity policy administration system, including product configuration, business rules, workflows, calculations, forms, testing, and controlled environment promotion.

• Experience within life insurance, annuities, financial services, or another highly regulated industry
• Agile software development experience
• Experience leading application modernization or technology transformation initiatives
• Experience managing CI/CD and DevOps transformation

If you're a technology leader who combines technical credibility, strong leadership, business acumen, and exceptional communication skills, we'd like to hear from you.