Application Engineering Director

Application Engineering Director

Serve as a member of the FBL Financial Group, Inc. IT Leadership Team to lead, plan and manage technology platforms, applications, processes, and people to enable the growth, efficiency, and financial goals for Farm Bureau.  Strategically partner with senior business leaders, Innovation team, and technology teams to ensure technology solutions and strategies align with business objectives and vision. Drive adoption of industry best practices, leading teams focused on selection of strategic technology providers, application development and integration, streamlining existing technology platforms and large-scale initiatives.

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 Application Engineering Director in this role is responsible for ensuring technology solutions and services deliver on the current and future needs of business partners. This involves understanding of the Financial Services business operations and acumen to continually learn as our internal operations, customers, distribution channel, and team member needs evolve. 

This leader will ensure IT solutions are aligned with the enterprise strategic target architecture and meet our company's vision for digital business transformation. The position includes a major focus on people development and building of high-performance teams to position our business and technology operations for the future.

Daily Responsibilities Include:

         Collaborate closely with business partners to know and understand the operations while serving as a strategic advisor to enable key goals and objectives.

         Effectively align technology and process solutions with strategic business goals, enterprise target architecture and digital roadmap to advance the needs of our business and technology operations.

         Identify opportunities for the transformation of business operating models and technology solutions to position our companies for future success.

         Lead and facilitate key decision making for streamlining our business and technology application environment while developing a common, consistent, and service oriented integration approach.

         Lead and develop team members with a focus on internal talent development and partnering with HR to help build our internal and external resource pipeline.

         Provide leadership as IT sponsor for initiatives with accountabilities for project deliverables, cost estimates, and timelines, while ensuring implementations are high quality, on time and within budget.

Required Skills, Experience & Qualifications:

         College degree (Computer Science, Information Systems, Software Engineering preferred) or equivalent plus 10 years progressive relevant experience required.

         Experience managing a core processing platform, front and back-end web development, integration and digital platforms, leading major initiatives, and vendor management. 

         8 or more years of people leadership experience in building, managing and/or developing high performing teams required.

         Strong 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, and emerging industry trends.

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

         Excellent analytical/conceptual thinking skills, technical systems knowledge, and problem-solving skills are required.

         Excellent organizational and human relations skills required.

         Must have or attain a strong understanding of all entities of the FBL Financial Group, Inc.

         Experience leading teams during digital transformations and managing resourcing models preferred.

         Excellent oral and written communication skills are required.

         Some travel is required.

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: Currently, 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.