Job Description

Software Systems Development Manager

SUMMARY:   Responsible for managing a product delivery team that develops, enhances, and supports portions of the benefits and claims systems/subsystems used by the Operations Center in support of the Employee Health Benefits Program and specifically our customers at the Association and the various plans around the country. The incumbent must have significant years of experience in the healthcare industry, especially in the payer space, and have the requisite number of years leading or guiding technology efforts and be adept at resource management.

PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTABILITIES: Under the general supervision and guidance of the Director, Product and Delivery, the managers accountabilities include, but are not limited to, the following:

1.  As part of the management team of the Claims Line of Business, manages the delivery team responsible for developing, enhancing, and supporting portions of the claims and benefits applications/products for the national Employee health insurance Program, allowing the Associations Program and other plans around the country to maintain a competitive edge in the marketplace. Leads the development of business solutions using architecture-driven development efforts and integrating applications leveraging reusable components and services.  Incumbent may be called upon to lead design efforts if necessary or provide oversight and/or guidance to the design process.

2.  Manages and guides the Defect Triage process used across various teams in the Claims Line of Business to review and assign out system defects and inquiries from the plans to the appropriate product delivery team be it your own or teams belonging to colleagues.  Recommend to leadership process improvements to the defect management/triage process as appropriate for smoother handling and faster turnaround of said defects and plan inquiries.

3.  Participates in strategic planning exercises with senior management and helps create multi-year roadmaps for the evolution of selected applications. The incumbent is accountable for design decisions for their applications which support the strategic direction of the organization and near-term needs of our customers around the country.  The incumbent manages activities associated with multi-platform integration of their applications with new technologies and outside vendors.  Maintains and even improves the quality of the various software releases by ensuring standard development and testing practices are adhered to. Manages staffing requirements within the team to ensure that each project and release is adequately staffed so the divisions strategic objectives can be met.  While this is not a Production Support specific role, the Manager will ensure all applications under the teams purview are production ready and will meet or exceed all application service level requirements.

4.  Enforces continuous process improvement practices using concepts such as service-oriented architecture, DevOps, component and service reuse, and knowledge management.  Stays current on recent developments in healthcare payer information technology, application architecture and design, development methodologies, specifically Agile and the use of Scrum and Kanban, and industry best practices to continue to evolve the organizations development expertise in order to better support our customers current and future needs.

5.  Leading, coaching, and mentoring your team is critical to the success of the role.  Employee performance management is taken very seriously, and the staff will look to you for guidance and assistance in achieving their stated goals and objectives.   Incumbent must therefore also ensure staff has development plans in place and are offered training opportunities and given the tools to do their jobs well. 

6. Manages the baseline/operating budget for their organization and justifies any variances from budget.  Incumbent will also regularly interact with Project and Program Managers to effectively manage teams resources assigned to their projects.  Resource allocations and forecasts become a critical yet routine part of the day to day work of the incumbent.

 7. Has direct interaction and communication with customers and strategic partners to help set strategy for future implementations, manage resolution of production problems when necessary as part of a multi-tier support structure, and provide consulting services related to systems and processes. Communicates with Directors, Vice Presidents and other corporate management to help plan and implement Division Strategic Objectives. The manager also communicates with other IT and client personnel. 

Even though this is not a production support role, given the importance of the systems being supported, this position is subject to being "on call" for emergency situations requiring immediate resolution when the Tier 2 Production Support team needs assistance from the Delivery organization.

QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS:

Required:  This position requires a bachelors degree in Computer Science, Information systems or related field or equivalent work experience. Must have a minimum of 10 years healthcare industry experience preferably within the health plan/payer space.  Must have 7+ years of technical experience in architecture, systems analysis, programming and/or application development, design and integration. Must have relevant architecture experience and/or experience with legacy system integrations. Experience developing business solutions for large scale transaction systems using an architecture-driven development approach and integrating applications leveraging reusable components and services. Incumbent should have a minimum of 5 years experience leading and mentoring highly skilled technical professionals and can lead design efforts if necessary.  Experience in creating multi-year application roadmaps and presenting to senior management and customers for approval and funding would also be helpful.

The key technologies used by the Delivery organization and the associated technical skills used by the staff are listed below;

IBM z/OS

Unix/Linux

WebSphere Application Server

WebSphere Portal Server

WebSphere Portlet Factory

Cloudera Kafka

PEGA Rules Process Commander (PRPC) and Workflow (Version 8)

DataPower Enterprise Service Bus

Java (version 9)

J2EE JSP, EJB, MDB, DAO, JDO, SDO, JDBC

SOA Java Web Services and DataPower Web Services, SOAP, WSDL, WS-*

Java Frameworks Angular, Struts and Spring

JavaScript

Scripting Python, Perl, Ant

Databases DB2, DB2 UDB, SQLServer

COBOL/CICS

IBM JCL

Abilities/Skills: Strong technical management, service-oriented architecture concepts, and system design skills. Prior experience with technologies or systems related to the departments core activities. Experience working in an agile framework is critical as the organization is undergoing a major agile transformation using Jira as the main tool for managing the work. Proven ability to budget, organize and manage technical teams made up of employees and contractors. Must be able to set priorities and multi-task between many simultaneous strategic projects and day-to-day production and maintenance related activities. Must be able to coach, develop, and motivate employees.

Must have excellent written and verbal communication, interpersonal, analytical, and problem-solving skills. Must have the ability to consult with external customers and manage customer relationships and expectations.  Experience with systems implementation projects, preferably in all phases of the systems development life cycle, using the agile methodology in an efficient and effective manner.  Experience in collaborative team leadership.