At American Equity we offer leading annuity products that help empower our clients to fulfill their needs and wants in retirement. Our success comes from hiring high-energy individuals who embody the beliefs that drive our unique culture. We currently fund over half a million retirements nationwide, headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa, for over thirty years with satellite offices in Charlotte, NC and New York, NY.
GENERAL PURPOSE OF THE JOB:
The Solution Architect Lead, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) is responsible for observability, infrastructure and security architecture and technology strategy in the areas of cloud strategy, product and technology roadmaps, documentation/domain modelling, tool/vendor selection, and system reliability. The incumbent establishes and owns architecture solutioning across the horizontal disciplines of IT to bring relevant, innovative, and new technology to the company; ensures existing systems and technology continues viability; and creates and drives standard, reusable, and consistent approaches to IT processes, specifically SDLC and monitoring/support. The incumbent collaborates with internal and external partners to ensure technology decisions and blueprints align with the overall Enterprise Architecture Framework and works with other department architects to ensure alignment to meet team, department, and company goals. The Solution Architect partners and works closely with key strategic vendors, service providers as well as Application Architects to plan, design &/or challenge the site reliability engineering/application performance monitoring architecture approaches that support cross-functional business needs and align with longer term best practice standards and viable technology roadmaps. Individuals within this role specialize in SRE/APM disciplines area of application solutions.
**Position sits in Des Moines and will work an onsite schedule**
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
- Develops, maintains, documents, and governs on-prem and cloud system architectures for the technology portfolio and infrastructure domain in support of business functions.
- Enforces enterprise standards and policies in-line with Enterprise Architecture and system development lifecycle (SDLC) standards and strategies, and responsible for implementation and standardization for the IT discipline.
- Facilitates discovery of internal and external customers’ critical business issues and requirements.
- Oversees the ongoing optimization and evaluation of current and future cloud systems and services including AI capabilities, the creation and maintenance of technology roadmaps, as well as ensuring the viability and longevity of existing systems and processes.
- Drives cloud technology innovation, maturation/readiness and leverage into IT investments.
- Provides technology leadership, mentoring, training, and proof-of-concept development for adoption of observability and security technology, as it relates to high-performing development teams.
- Partners with IT Leaders on business case development with careful consideration of migrating from current or legacy solutions and approaches.
- Ensures cloud applications supporting American Equity are compliant, and technically resilient enough to meet established requirements.
- Conducts research and development around new technology concepts or implementations.
- Makes recommendations on technology strategies while considering various options and business needs.
- Provides advanced architecture and engineering support to automate and administer American Equity's SRE/APM strategy into all enterprise information systems.
- Drives planning and execution of SRE/APM roadmaps and technology enhancements.
- Creates and maintains standards surrounding documentation related to SRE/APM processes, procedure and infrastructure.
- Assesses current applications and architecture to ensure current implementations align with industry guidelines, best practices and management approved standards.
- Develops plans for implementing management directives in most secure manners with least disruption.
- Assists various IT departments with design, implementation and troubleshooting of SRE/APM technologies. Provide standards and best practice guidance and requirements to technology teams when no solution is currently available.
- Performs other duties as assigned.
SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES:
Direct Reports: 0
General Description of Indirect Reports (2 and 3-downs): 0
EDUCATION AND/OR EXPERIENCE:
Bachelor’s degree in information technology or related field of study; plus five (5) years of information technology experience working with cloud solutions; or equivalent combination of education and experience.
CERTIFICATES, LICENSES, PROFESSIONAL DESIGNATIONS: N/A
KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES:
- Proficient in the use of Microsoft applications and a variety of software.
- Experience with developer tools and observability platform, preferred DataDog.
- Strong customer service orientation.
- Effective verbal and written communication skills.
- Ability to work cooperatively and successfully with co-employees, customers, and other outside third parties.
- Ability to successfully handle pressure and meet deadlines in a fast-paced work environment.
- Ability to analyze and apply principles of logical thinking to a wide range of intellectual and practical problems.
- Ability to make decisions and recommendations on technology strategies while considering various options and business needs.
- Ability to apply advanced mathematical concepts and mathematical applications to tasks.
____
This description covers the major purpose and essential functions of the job. It is not intended to give all details or a step-by-step account of the way each task is to be performed. Employees may receive other job related instructions and be required to perform other job related work requested by their manager. All requirements are subject to possible modification to provide reasonable accommodation to qualified individuals with disabilities.
#LI-PL1
At American Equity, our core values—Empowered, Passion, Integrity, and Caring—are more than words. They guide how we support one another and how we serve our clients every day. To learn more about American Equity, our culture, and our values, visit the Careers site.
Iowa Best Companies to Work for 2025 | Top Workplaces
For more information about how your information is processed, please click on the Privacy tab at the bottom of the page and then click on the Applicant Privacy Policy.
Top Skills
What We Do
American Equity* Fixed Index Annuities * Retirement Planning * Customer Service
An American-owned and operated company headquartered in the heart of the Midwest, American Equity Investment Life Insurance Company® is a leader in the fixed indexed annuities marketplace. American Equity’s growth and success is attributed to our dedication to excellent customer service and emphasis on building customer relationships.
“The One Who Works for You!®” serves as the foundation for the way American Equity does business and values its more than 500 employees. Guided by our Principles of Excellence, we do more than sell retirement annuity products -- we are dedicated to fostering opportunity and innovation to meet the ever-changing needs and goals of retirement.
"It's About the People" is the American Equity story and the legacy of our founder David J. Noble. This commitment to excellence includes our employees, agents, partners, and contract owners. We thank you for entrusting us with the things that matter most.
When your retirement begins, you want to ensure you can enjoy it, which is why it’s important to have reliable support that can help fund every day of your golden years. After all, your life of hard work has earned you the retirement you planned for. These are the guiding principles that define everything we do. American Equity is the one who works for you.
