The Role
The DevOps Leader will oversee a team, drive the adoption of DevOps practices, manage CI/CD pipelines, and ensure compliance in a corporate insurance environment.
Summary Generated by Built In
The work we do has an impact on millions of lives, and you can be a part of it.
We help protect our customers against life’s uncertainties. Regardless of where you work within the company, you’ll be helping provide protection and peace of mind when our customers need it most.
We are looking for a strategic DevOps leader who combines deep technical expertise with proven leadership skills. You may oversee a limited number of engineers to support the enterprise adoption and maturity, establish best practices for CI/CD, infrastructure automation, and site reliability, while fostering a culture of collaboration.
The DevOps Leader will foster collaboration primarily between development, operations, security, and business teams to deliver high-quality applications while meeting stringent regulatory and operational requirements of the insurance industry.
The DevOps Leader will drive the adoption and optimization of DevOps practices to enable efficient, scalable, and reliable software delivery in a corporate insurance environment.
This role focuses on (but not limited to) leveraging Microsoft development environments, GitHub, and Azure to streamline CI/CD pipelines and ensure seamless integration with SAP financial systems. This will extend to other significant platforms, core policy systems, and other custom developed applications as an overall roadmap of maturity for DevOps.
Key Responsibilities
- Team Leadership & Management: Build, mentor, and lead a team of 3-5 DevOps engineers and SREs. Develop career growth plans and provide technical coaching to team members. Foster cross-functional collaboration between development, QA, security, and operations teams. Establish team goals, metrics, and performance standards aligned with business objectives.
- DevOps Strategy: Develop and execute a DevOps strategy tailored to the insurance industry, aligning with business goals and regulatory requirements. Define and develop the DevOps roadmap supporting business growth. Drive cloud migration strategies and collaborate on hybrid infrastructure decisions. Establish standards for infrastructure as code, configuration management, and deployment automation. Partner with engineering leadership to align DevOps initiatives with product development priorities. Evaluate and implement new technologies, tools, and methodologies
- CI/CD Pipeline Management: Design and manage CI/CD pipelines using Azure DevOps and GitHub Actions to enable automated, reliable, and rapid software deployments.
- Process Improvement & Culture: Champion DevOps culture transformation across the engineering organization. Implement metrics-driven approaches to measure and improve deployment frequency, lead time, and system reliability. Lead post-incident reviews and drive continuous improvement initiatives. Establish documentation standards and knowledge sharing practices
- Azure Infrastructure: Plan, architect and manage cloud infrastructure on Microsoft Azure, ensuring scalability, high availability, and cost optimization for insurance applications. This will be in collaboration with infrastructure and security.
- SAP Integration: Collaborate with finance teams to ensure seamless integration of DevOps pipelines with SAP financial systems (e.g., SAP S/4HANA, SAP FICO) for transaction processing and reporting. The could really be any platform but specific experience would be good
- Automation: Automate infrastructure provisioning, configuration, and deployment using Azure Resource Manager (ARM), Bicep, or Terraform, integrated with GitHub repositories.
- Collaboration: Facilitate cross-functional collaboration between development, operations, actuarial, underwriting, claims, and finance teams to streamline workflows and ensure alignment with insurance business needs.
- Toolchain Leadership: Oversee the implementation and management of Microsoft-centric DevOps tools (e.g., Azure DevOps, GitHub, Azure Monitor) and integrate with SAP and other enterprise systems.
- Regulatory Compliance: Ensure DevOps processes comply with insurance regulations (e.g., NAIC, GDPR, HIPAA, SOC 2) through automated compliance checks and audit-ready documentation.
- Monitoring & Observability: Implement monitoring solutions using Azure Monitor, Application Insights, or Log Analytics to ensure system performance, uptime, and rapid incident resolution.
- Incident Management: Lead incident response for production issues, conduct root cause analyses, and implement preventive measures to minimize disruptions to insurance operations.
- Team Leadership: Mentor and guide DevOps engineers and cross-functional teams, fostering a culture of automation, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
- Innovation: Stay current with Azure and GitHub advancements (e.g., Azure Arc, GitHub Copilot) and insurance industry trends to enhance operational efficiency and support digital transformation.
Qualifications/Technical Skills
- Education:
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field (Master’s preferred).
- Experience:
- 7+ years in software development, IT operations, or DevOps, with 3+ years in a leadership role.
- 2+ years in the insurance industry or a similarly regulated sector is preferred.
- Hands-on experience with Microsoft Azure, Azure DevOps, and GitHub in enterprise environments.
- Familiarity with SAP financial systems (e.g., SAP S/4HANA, SAP FICO) and their integration with DevOps workflows desired but not required
- Technical Skills:
- Expertise in Azure DevOps for CI/CD pipeline management and GitHub Actions for workflow automation.
- Proficiency in Microsoft Azure services (e.g., Azure App Services, Azure Kubernetes Service, Azure Functions, Azure Blob Storage).
- Experience with infrastructure-as-code tools (e.g., Azure ARM, Bicep, Terraform) integrated with GitHub repositories.
- Knowledge of containerization and orchestration (e.g., Docker, Azure Kubernetes Service).
- Familiarity with SAP integration patterns (e.g., SAP BTP, OData, or API-based integrations) for financial workflows.
- Proficiency in monitoring tools (e.g., Azure Monitor, Application Insights, Log Analytics).
- Scripting skills (e.g., PowerShell, Python, Bash, YAML) for automation and integration tasks.
- Certifications (preferred):
- Microsoft Certified: Azure DevOps Engineer Expert, Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect, Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA), or SAP-related certifications (e.g., SAP Certified Technology Associate).
- Soft Skills:
- Strong leadership, communication, and stakeholder management skills; ability to navigate corporate environments and align technical solutions with insurance business objectives.
- Key Competencies
- Deep understanding of DevOps principles, with expertise in Azure and GitHub ecosystems.
- Ability to balance speed, reliability, and compliance in the regulated insurance industry.
- Strong problem-solving skills to address integration challenges with SAP and legacy systems.
- Collaborative mindset to bridge technical teams with actuarial, underwriting, and finance stakeholders.
- Work Environment
- Primarily office-based in a corporate setting, with hybrid or remote options depending on company policy.
- May require on-call availability for critical system incidents or deployments, especially for SAP financial processes or customer-facing insurance applications.
- Collaboration with global teams may involve occasional travel or off-hours coordination.
- Additional Notes
- Must demonstrate an understanding of insurance-specific challenges, such as claims processing, policy management, and financial reconciliation with SAP systems.
- Experience with legacy insurance systems (e.g., mainframes, Guidewire) and their integration into modern Azure-based DevOps pipelines is a plus.
- Familiarity with data privacy and security requirements for handling sensitive customer data in the insurance sector is essential.
Employee Benefits:
We aim to protect the wellbeing of our employees and their families with a broad benefits offering. In addition to offering comprehensive health, dental and vision insurance, we support emotional wellbeing through mental health benefits and an employee assistance program. Work/life balance is important and Protective offers a variety of paid time away benefits (e.g., paid time off, paid parental leave, short-term disability, and a cultural observance day). The financial health of our employees is just as important as physical and emotional health. Some of the financial wellbeing benefits include contributions to healthcare accounts, a pension plan, and a 401(k) plan with Company matching. All employees are encouraged to protect their overall wellbeing by engaging in ProHealth Rewards, Protective’s platform to improve wellbeing while earning cash rewards.
Eligibility for certain benefits may vary by position in accordance with the terms of the Company’s benefit plans.
Accommodations for Applicants with a Disability:
If you require an accommodation to complete the application and recruitment process due to a disability, please email [email protected]. This information will be held in confidence and used only to determine an appropriate accommodation for the application and recruitment process.
Please note that the above email is solely for individuals with disabilities requesting an accommodation. General employment questions should not be sent through this process.
We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer committed to being inclusive and attracting, retaining, and growing an inclusive workforce.
Top Skills
Application Insights
Azure Devops
Azure Kubernetes Service
Azure Monitor
Azure Resource Manager
Bicep
Docker
Git
Log Analytics
Azure
Sap Fico
Sap S/4Hana
Terraform
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The Company
What We Do
Protective Life Corporation (Protective) provides financial services through the production, distribution and administration of insurance and investment products throughout the United States. Protective traces its roots to its flagship company founded in 1907, Protective Life Insurance Company. Throughout its more than 110-year history, Protective’s growth and success can be largely attributed to its ongoing commitment to serving people and doing the right thing — for its employees, distributors and, most importantly, its customers. Protective’s home office is located in Birmingham, Alabama, and its 3,000+ employees work across the United States. As of June 30, 2020, Protective had assets of approximately $123 billion. Protective Life Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of Dai-ichi Life Holdings,
