Job Description:

Job Summary: The AVP of Enterprise Architecture plays a critical role in shaping the technological and architectural direction of the organization. This position requires a visionary leader with a deep understanding of technology, architecture principles, and industry trends. The AVP of architecture will collaborate closely with executive leadership, engineering teams, and other stakeholders to develop and implement strategies that drive innovation, scalability, and efficiency across the organization's technology landscape.

Responsibilities:

• Leadership: Provide strategic leadership and direction for the Application Development, SRE, Infrastructure, AI, and QA team.
• Team Management: Oversee a team of architectures, ensuring they are motivated, aligned with company goals, and delivering high-quality work.
• Project Management: Manage the development lifecycle of applications, from conception to deployment, ensuring projects are completed on time and within budget.
• Technology Strategy: Develop and implement technology strategies aligned with the company's objectives, ensuring the effective use of technology to drive innovation and competitive advantage.
• Collaboration: Work closely with other departments, such as product management, IT operations, and business stakeholders, to understand requirements and deliver solutions that meet business needs.
• Quality Assurance: Establish and enforce coding standards, best practices, and quality assurance processes to ensure the reliability, security, and scalability of applications.
• Resource Allocation: Manage resource allocation, including budgeting, staffing, and vendor relationships, to optimize the efficiency and effectiveness of the application development team.
• Risk Management: Identify and mitigate risks related to application development projects, such as technical challenges, resource constraints, and changes in business requirements.
• Continuous Improvement: Promote a culture of continuous improvement within the application development team, fostering innovation, learning, and professional development.
• Compliance: Ensure compliance with relevant regulations, standards, and industry best practices, such as data privacy regulations and cybersecurity standards.
• Standardizations: Define standards frameworks and solutions, within best practices, for the development’s teams to follow. Establish and maintain software development lifecycle best practices, frameworks, and processes, such as Agile, Scrum, DevOps and SecOps.
• Release Planning: Coordinate release planning activities with stakeholders from development, QA, product management, and IT operations to ensure alignment with business objectives and release schedules.
• Vendor Management: Manage relationships with third-party vendors and service providers, including cloud providers, data centers, and infrastructure vendors, to ensure service level agreements (SLAs) are met and issues are resolved promptly.
• Release Coordination: Manage the end-to-end release process, including scheduling, coordinating, and communicating release activities and milestones to stakeholders.
• Change Management: Facilitate the change management process, including assessing the impact of proposed changes, coordinating change approvals, and ensuring adherence to change management policies and procedures.
• Compliance: Collaborate with compliance and governance teams on applicable standards and policies, ensuring all deliverables are observable and adhere to those policies.

Minimum Qualifications: To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the minimum knowledge, skill, and/or ability required.

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in computer science, Engineering, or related field. Advanced degree or relevant certifications (e.g., TOGAF, AWS Certified Solutions Architect) preferred.

• 15+ years of experience in software architecture, enterprise architecture, and technical leadership roles.
• Deep technical expertise in software architecture, cloud computing, microservices, API design, data architecture, and other relevant domains.
• Proven track record of defining and implementing architectural strategies that drive business value and innovation.
• Deep expertise in architecture frameworks, design patterns, cloud computing, microservices, APIs, and other relevant technologies.
• Proven knowledge of a broad spectrum of platforms, technologies, and design principles including Python, Java, .Net, Unit Testing (TDD, Mockito, JUnit), SQL (PostgreSQL, MongoDB, MySQL), Angular/React, Apache/NGINX Configuration, Linux, GIT management and configuration, Jenkins CI, Container deployments (Kubernetes),  React/Redux, JVM profiling, Containerization, OAuth, JWT, AWS, GCP, and Azure.
• Demonstrated leadership capabilities, including the ability to inspire and motivate teams, drive change, and foster a culture of excellence and innovation.

Competencies:

• Customer Service: Exceptional attitude and a passion for providing outstanding service to internal customers.
• Attention to Detail:  Thoroughness in accomplishing a task through concern for all the areas involved, no matter how small. Monitors and checks work or information and plans and organizes time and resources efficiently
• Analytical Skills: Collects and researches data; Designs workflows and procedures; Identifies data relationships and dependencies.
• Communications: Exhibits good listening and comprehension. Expresses ideas and thoughts in verbal and written form. Keeps others adequately informed. Selects and uses appropriate communication methods. 
• Managing People: Develops subordinates’ skills and encourages growth; provides direction and guidance; reacts well under pressure; motivates others to perform well and exhibits confidence in self and others.
• Problem Solving: Ability to solve issues efficiently and quickly. 
• Relationship Management: Manages interactions to service and support to the organization; establishes credibility with all interactions.
• Teamwork: Contributes to building a positive team spirit. Exhibits objectivity and openness to others' views.

Base Salary Range - $245,000-265,000

For over 175 years, Penn Mutual has empowered individuals, families and businesses on the journey to achieve their financial goals. Through our partnership with Financial Professionals across the U.S., we help instill the confidence and reliability that comes from a stronger financial future. Penn Mutual and its affiliates offer a comprehensive suite of competitive products and services to meet the unique needs of Financial Professionals and their clients, including life insurance, annuities, wealth management and institutional asset management. To learn more, including current financial strength ratings, visit www.pennmutual.com.

Penn Mutual is committed to Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO). We provide employment and advancement opportunities to all qualified applicants and associates, according to applicable laws. This is reflected in our practices for hiring, placement, promotion, transfer, demotion, layoff, termination, recruitment, compensation, selection or training, and all other terms and conditions of employment. All employment-related decisions and practices are free from unlawful discrimination. This includes: race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry, citizenship age, gender (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, domestic partnership or civil union status, marital status, genetic information, disability, religious observance or practice, liability, veteran status or any other classification protected under applicable law.