AVP of Application Development
Role Context
- Senior leadership role within a multi-line insurance company, reporting directly to me
- Directly manages the Guidewire and P&C legacy application development team
- Additionally leads through managers who support the following business lines and functions:
- Life and Retirement
- BCG
- Supplemental and Group
- Distribution and Corporate Back Office
- Responsible for a large, complex development organization (30+ developers) consisting of both individual contributors and development managers across all of these areas
- Expected to operate as a bold change agent who is unafraid to challenge the status quo and drive meaningful transformation across a diverse, multi-line portfolio
Technical & Architecture Skills
- Deep expertise in modern application architecture, cloud platforms, and software engineering best practices
- Proven track record of leading large-scale legacy modernization initiatives and reducing technical debt in complex, regulated environments
- Hands-on experience with Guidewire or comparable P&C insurance platforms is strongly preferred
- Hands-on experience designing and delivering AI-powered applications — not just AI awareness, but actual build experience
- Familiarity with insurance systems and data (policy, claims, billing) across both P&C and Life lines is a strong plus
- Experience with finance and commissions systems and processes is a nice-to-have, given the breadth of business lines supported
Team Leadership & People Management
- Demonstrated experience leading 30+ person development organizations with a mix of ICs and engineering managers
- Skilled at developing managers — coaching, holding accountable, and elevating leadership capability across the team
- Able to attract, retain, and grow top technical talent in a competitive market
- Comfortable navigating organizational complexity and managing through ambiguity across multiple business lines with distinct priorities
Strategic Thinking & Roadmap Ownership
- Ability to translate business goals into a clear, prioritized application development roadmap across a multi-line portfolio
- Experience leading multi-year modernization programs with measurable outcomes
- Balances long-term platform thinking with near-term delivery commitments
- Has a point of view on where AI fits into the development strategy and can build a credible path to adoption
Stakeholder & Executive Communication
- Credible and confident communicator with senior business and technology stakeholders across multiple business units
- Able to make the case for investment in modernization and AI in business value terms, not just technical terms
- Builds trust across the organization by delivering on commitments and communicating transparently when things change
- Skilled at managing competing priorities and expectations across diverse business line partners
AI, Modern Tooling & Low-Code Platforms
- Has hands-on experience building and shipping AI-powered applications — not just theoretical knowledge
- Understands AI tooling, frameworks, and integration patterns relevant to enterprise development, including generative AI, large language models, and AI-assisted development tools
- Familiar with and able to evaluate modern low-code/no-code platforms (such as Microsoft Power Platform, OutSystems, Mendix, or similar) and knows when they are the right fit vs. custom development
- Actively leverages modern developer productivity tools — including AI coding assistants, CI/CD automation, and cloud-native development platforms — to accelerate delivery and reduce toil
- Can lead a team toward responsible, practical AI and low-code adoption that delivers real business outcomes without creating new technical debt
- Able to assess vendor solutions and build vs. buy vs. configure tradeoffs across traditional, AI, and low-code options
Pay Range:
- $146,500.00 - $208,750.00
Salary is commensurate to experience, location, etc.
Horace Mann was founded in 1945 by two Springfield, Illinois, teachers who saw a need for quality, affordable auto insurance for teachers. Since then, we’ve broadened our mission to helping all educators protect what they have today and prepare for a successful tomorrow. And with our broadened mission has come corporate growth: We serve more than 4,100 school districts nationwide, we’re publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange (symbol: HMN) and we have more than $12 billion in assets.
We’re motivated by the fact that educators take care of our children’s future, and we believe they deserve someone to look after theirs. We help educators identify their financial goals and develop plans to achieve them. This includes insurance to protect what they have today and financial products to help them prepare for their future. Our tailored offerings include special rates and benefits for educators.
EOE/Minorities/Females/Veterans/Disabled. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status
For applicants that are California residents, please review our California Consumer Privacy Notice
All applicants should review our Horace Mann Privacy Policy
Skills Required
- Deep expertise in modern application architecture, cloud platforms, and software engineering best practices
- Proven track record leading large-scale legacy modernization initiatives and reducing technical debt in regulated environments
- Hands-on experience designing and delivering AI-powered applications (actual build experience)
- Hands-on experience with Guidewire or comparable P&C insurance platforms
- Demonstrated experience leading 30+ person development organizations including individual contributors and managers
- Skilled at developing and coaching engineering managers and elevating leadership capability
- Ability to translate business goals into a prioritized application development roadmap across multiple lines
- Experience leading multi-year modernization programs with measurable outcomes
- Understanding of AI tooling, frameworks, generative AI, and large language model integration patterns
- Familiarity with low-code/no-code platforms (Microsoft Power Platform, OutSystems, Mendix) and evaluation experience
- Experience leveraging modern developer productivity tools including AI coding assistants, CI/CD automation, and cloud-native platforms
- Familiarity with insurance systems and data (policy, claims, billing) across P&C and Life lines
- Experience with finance and commissions systems and processes
What We Do
Horace Mann was founded in 1945 by two educators in Springfield, Ill., who believed teachers deserved affordable auto insurance. Originally called the Illinois Education Association Mutual Insurance Company, our name was changed to honor the father of the American public education system, Horace Mann. We are proud to share his name. At Horace Mann, the hard work, commitment and dedication of our employees are the foundation of our success. And today we are the largest, national multiline insurance company dedicated to serving America’s educators and their families. Our purpose is to provide lifelong financial well-being for educators and their families through personalized service, advice, and a full range of tailored insurance and financial products. Through our professional agents and their staff, we offer insurance and financial products to the educational community across the United States.
