Director of Solution Architecture & Integration Services

Serve as a member of the FBL IT Leadership Team to direct, plan and manage enterprise solution architecture technology, policies, processes and people to provide modern business solutions that deliver a high level of productivity, profitability, and customer satisfaction. Establish strong business and technical partnerships to ensure technical solutions and strategies align with business objectives and vision across the portfolio of IT work. Drive adoption of industry best practices, leading teams focused on application development, integration, automation, systems analysis, feasibility studies, design of new technology and revision of existing systems.

Who We Are: At Farm Bureau Financial Services, our client/members can feel confident knowing their family, home, cars and other property are protected. We value a culture where integrity, teamwork, passion, service, leadership and accountability are at the heart of every decision we make and every action we take. We’re proud of our more than 80-year commitment to protecting the livelihoods and futures of our client/members and creating an atmosphere where our employees thrive.

What You’ll Do: The Solution Architecture & Integrations Services Director is accountable for holistically leading and supporting enterprise architecture activities that guide the development and management of an organizational portfolio of solutions. Their functional areas provide and manage application integration standards across the organization that leverage framework(s), technical architecture, data and processes which enable seamless integrations that deliver digital capabilities for client\members, agents, and employees.

Daily Responsibilities Include:

• Collaborate with business partners and their teams responding to and resolving customer service requests according to FBL Financial Group, Inc., policies in a prompt, efficient and courteous manner for external customers, departmental staff, and other FBL personnel at all times.
• Provide leadership, vision and oversight to establish and support development of enterprise architectures that align with architectural governance and standards to ensure that solutions meet business needs that are modern, reliable, flexible and scalable; considering short and long-term goals.
• Define and lead our application and system integration goals and objectives, ensuring application programming interfaces enable the delivery of a seamless digital experience for client\members, agents, and employees.
• Partner with delivery team leaders to design, develop and maintain efficient and high-quality integrations connecting data, applications and third parties that support business processes, customer needs, and architecture standards. Accountable for monitoring and analyzing existing integrations to improve performance and efficiency.
• Initiate and collaborate closely with business partners and IT teams to evaluate requests for new systems, applications, product standards and services, helping understand business drivers and capabilities (future and current state) to determine the corresponding enterprise solution designs, integrations and robust architectural runway that can support business requirements throughout the product lifecycle.
• Responsible for the development, documentation and adherence of principles, guidelines, standards, best practices and patterns to ensure solution decisions and integrations are aligned with the enterprise's future-state architecture vision to optimize efficiencies, and deliver data driven integrations.

Required Skills, Experience & Qualifications:

• College degree (Computer Science or software engineering preferred) or equivalent plus 10 years progressive relevant experience required.
• Ten or more years of experience executing technology strategies; experience in enterprise level architecture and security, network management, application development, integration platforms Microservices, API frameworks, security, required (ie REST, GraphQL).and delivering results within a complex matrix environment required.
• Experience with diverse set of core processing platform technologies across on-premise, SaaS, and Cloud environments
• Eight or more years of people leadership experience in building, managing and/or developing high performing teams required.
• Business acumen in the areas of business operations, industry practices and emerging trends required.
• Knowledge of future trends in the IT industry as well as the insurance and financial industry.
• Must understand the inter-relationship between business and technology needs.
• Experience collaborating with key resources and stakeholders, influencing decisions and managing work to achieve goals required.
• Excellent analytical/conceptual thinking skills, technical systems knowledge, and problem-solving skills are required.
• Experience with agile principles and development methodologies and managing agile teams.
• Must have or attain a strong understanding of all entities of the FBL Financial Group.

What We Offer You: When you’re on our team, you get more than a great paycheck. You’ll hear about career development and educational opportunities. We offer an enhanced 401K with a match, low-cost health, dental, and vision benefits, and life and disability insurance options. We also offer paid time off, including holidays and volunteer time, and teams who know how to have fun. Add to that an onsite wellness facility with fitness classes and programs, a daycare center, a cafeteria, and for many positions, even consideration for a hybrid work arrangement. Farm Bureau....where the grass really IS greener!

Work Authorization/Sponsorship: At this time, we are not considering candidates that need any type of immigration sponsorship now or in the future, such as additional or permanent work authorization. Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time, permanent basis. We are not able to sponsor now or in the future, or take over sponsorship of, an employment visa or work authorization for this role. For example, we are not considering candidates with OPT status.