At Northwestern Mutual, our long-standing commitment to financial strength and client-first outcomes is paired with continued investment in technology to deliver a seamless, end-to-end experience for both advisors and clients.
About The Job
This Senior Director of Engineering role will lead our Illustrations and Digital Application teams-critical components of the risk purchase journey. The Illustrations team is focused on delivering an exceptional experience that clearly demonstrates the value and flexibility of Northwestern Mutual products, strengthens the trusted advisor-client relationship, and supports effective financial planning.
The Digital Application team is responsible for modernizing and sustaining our digital application platforms across Life, Disability Income, Annuities, and Long-Term Care-enabling efficient, scalable, and intuitive workflows for the field.
What You'll Do
- Demonstrates technical expertise and leadership.
- Leads the strategy and development of high impact solutions in the enterprise.
- Leads talent strategy and development for division, including building AI fluency and upskilling teams to effectively leverage emerging technologies.
- Organizes talent and manage budgets for optimal results.
- Establishes business aligned goals and lead the division to meet goals.
- Delivers operational excellence through the development of organizational strategies, engineering processes, and product quality standards.
- Collaborates with the business to understand business needs, strategy, customer needs and market trends.
- Acts as ambassador and representative for Northwestern Mutual's technology organization in community and technology events.
What You'll Bring To The Role
- Bachelor's Degree or equivalent experience.
- 9-14 years professional experience required.
- 3-7+ years of experience leading engineering teams including:
- Leading through multiple engineering teams and their respective leads.
- Growing engineering skill sets in others.
- Demonstrated ability to thoughtfully drive the adoption of AI within engineering teams, identifying high-value use cases, enabling team capability, and ensuring responsible, scalable implementation aligned to business outcomes.
- Developing future engineering leaders.
- Providing direct feedback and performance reviews.
- Creating tech strategy and growing business relationships.
- Deep technical knowledge and broad understanding of the business.
- Ability to successfully communicate to both technical and non-technical audiences in varying forms and all levels of detail.
- Solid understanding of design patterns and architecture.
- Ability to influence teams, technology or business leaders on impactful issues and decisions.
Skills You'll Have
Talent Development
Coaching & Mentoring
Adaptive Communication
Cross Functional Partnering
Change Management
Compensation Range:
Pay Range - Start:
$196,000.00
Pay Range - End:
$294,000.00
Geographic Specific Pay Structure:
Structure 110:
$215,600.00 USD - $323,400.00 USD
Structure 115:
$225,440.00 USD - $338,160.00 USD
We believe in fairness and transparency. It's why we share the salary range for most of our roles. However, final salaries are based on a number of factors, including the skills and experience of the candidate; the current market; location of the candidate; and other factors uncovered in the hiring process. The standard pay structure is listed but if you're living in California, New York City or other eligible location, geographic specific pay structures, compensation and benefits could be applicable, click here to learn more.
Grow your career with a best-in-class company that puts our clients' interests at the center of all we do. Get started now!
Northwestern Mutual is an equal opportunity employer that welcomes talented individuals of all backgrounds. We are committed to creating and maintaining an environment in which each employee can contribute creative ideas, seek challenges, assume leadership and continue to focus on meeting and exceeding business and personal objectives.
Skills
Engineering Practices, Software Development, Systems Architecture Design, Technical Solution Development, Technical Communication, Technical Design Documentation, Programming Languages, Cloud Technology, Production Monitoring, Containerization, Deployment Strategies, Data Solutions, Continuous Integrations, Continuous Learning, Technology Strategy Development, System Architecture, Root Cause Analysis, Agile Methodology, Cross-Functional Partnerships, Automation Processes, Resource Management
FIND YOUR FUTURE
We're excited about the potential people bring to Northwestern Mutual. You can grow your career here while enjoying first-class perks, benefits, and our commitment to a culture of belonging.
- Flexible work schedules
- Concierge service
- Comprehensive benefits
- Employee resource groups
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience
- 9-14 years professional experience
- 3-7+ years leading engineering teams
- Experience leading multiple engineering teams and their leads
- Experience growing engineering skill sets in others and developing future engineering leaders
- Demonstrated ability to drive AI adoption within engineering teams
- Experience providing direct feedback and performing performance reviews
- Experience creating technical strategy and growing business relationships
- Deep technical knowledge and broad business understanding
- Ability to communicate to technical and non-technical audiences
- Solid understanding of design patterns and architecture
- Ability to influence teams, technology, or business leaders
- Familiarity with cloud technologies, containerization, CI/CD, production monitoring, deployment strategies, and data solutions
- Experience with agile methodology and engineering practices
What the Team is Saying
Northwestern Mutual Compensation & Benefits Highlights
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Retirement Support — The package includes both a 401(k) and a company‑funded cash balance pension with automatic company contributions and disclosed vesting. This dual‑plan structure and cash‑balance credits strengthen long‑term savings support.
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Parental & Family Support — Paid parental leave, caregiving leave, and adoption/surrogacy assistance are explicitly provided for eligible employees. Fertility and family‑building resources are also highlighted as part of the offering.
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Healthcare Strength — Medical, dental, and vision coverage are paired with mental‑health resources and access to on‑site health centers in key locations. Fitness centers and reimbursements extend health and wellness support beyond core insurance.
Northwestern Mutual Insights
What We Do
You’ll Like It Here At Northwestern Mutual, we believe that our lives and our work matter. And that doing what’s right is good for everyone. We follow through by designing tech that improves the community and cultivating creative ways to make finance accessible anywhere. These guiding principles have allowed our company to grow for more than 160 years. Here, you’ll be with a team who emphasizes integrity and prioritizes security to design experiences that better everyone. You’ll work in cross functional teams to create optimal solutions that are rooted in innovative strategy and thoughtful execution. And you’re provided development tools and opportunities to become a leader all with the support of a collaborative team. You’ll be surrounded in a culture that values innovation and works to always evolve to stay ahead of trends and client needs. We are intentional in seeking out team members who will challenge us. Our employees choose us for the career opportunities, commitment to philanthropy and desire to have a meaningful impact in the lives of our clients. You have career passions and goals. We have ambition and opportunity for you to grow your future in tech. Discover today: https://careers.northwesternmutual.com/
Why Work With Us
We invest in our people. We know careers are about choices, so we provide intentional opportunity. Here you can build creative ways to make finance accessible anywhere and revolutionize traditional processes. As a mutual company, our focus is our people — whether professional development or investments in the community.
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Northwestern Mutual Teams
Northwestern Mutual Offices
Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
We offer a flexible, hybrid approach for our employees . Teams are in the office a few days a week and work from home the others.
