Infrastructure Architect - Western National Insurance Group / Umialik Insurance Company : Job Details

Job Type Full-time Description Who are we? Western National Insurance Group is a private mutual insurance company with over 120 years of experience serving customers' property-and-casualty insurance needs in the Midwestern, Northwestern, and Southwestern United States. Known as The Relationship Company®, we define success as a measure of the relationships we've built over time. In everything that we do, we know that delivering a friendly and helpful interaction makes for a better experience for everyone involved. That's the power of nice . At Western National, nice is something we work to bring to every person and organization with whom we partner and serve. Does this opportunity interest you? Western National is seeking an Infrastructure Architect to join our team! The individual in this role will join our team and provide technical leadership, standards, and blueprints for Infrastructure platforms and services. This position will help to design and build fit-for-purpose, cost-effective, and robust infrastructure technology solutions. This role will support the delivery of business and IT programs and projects to meet business and non-functional requirements. What are the responsibilities and opportunities of this role?

• Drives the definition of infrastructure architecture and roadmap including

- Architecture vision, principles, standards (including standard products and platforms), and policies. - Target state blueprints and roadmaps for infrastructure architecture strategy. - Maintains and facilitates the process for infrastructure lifecycle management.

• Defines and champions the use of the infrastructure standards, procedures, and best practices within the team.
• Works closely with enterprise architects to align the infrastructure strategy with the enterprise architecture (all technology domains), information security, and business strategies.
• Contributes to the advancement of holistic enterprise monitoring and ITSM capabilities.
• Socializes and secures support for infrastructure architecture strategy and roadmap from key stakeholders.
• Ensures the infrastructure team fully understands, follows, and champions the technology standards and patterns as defined within Enterprise Architecture.
• Leads analysis of the current IT environment to detect critical deficiencies and recommend solutions for improvement.
• Monitors and ensures compliance with corporate control standards for quality and security.
• Participates in relevant solution design review activities to ensure alignment of infrastructure architecture, infrastructure strategies, and architecture principles.
• Supports infrastructure and solution architects and technical teams in identifying and assessing options.
• Leads analysis of technology industry and market trends to determine their potential impact on the infrastructure architecture.
• Provides technical leadership and escalation support for the resolution of defects, incidents, and problems during the testing, implementation, and transition phases of the programs and projects.
• Proactively draws out all types of requirements on the IT infrastructure from stakeholders by using a variety of elicitation techniques such as interviewing, modeling, and surveying.
• Critically evaluates information gathered from multiple sources, reconciles conflicts, decomposes high-level information into details, and distinguishes user requests from the underlying business problems.
• Provides technical advice to colleagues on the use of IT infrastructure and integration of various business applications onto the Western National infrastructure.

Requirements What are the must-have qualifications for a candidate?

• Specialist-level experience working in a complex infrastructure strategy and architecture design environment.
• Proven technical management and specialist experience working in a complex IT infrastructure environment
• Professional competency in at least three technical specializations, with a broad understanding of other current and emerging technologies, such as storage, network, telecom, and server.
• Demonstrated experience designing cloud solutions in AWS.
• Bachelor's degree in computer science, information systems, or related discipline preferred, or experience in lieu of degree.

What will our ideal candidate have?

• Minimum 10 years of IT experience with at least eight years in infrastructure strategy and architecture design.
• Experience building and maintaining relationships at a senior level and having the ability to influence at all levels.
• Ability to listen and articulate ideas verbally and in written form to a broad range of audiences.
• Ability to ask probing questions and deliver presentations.
• Ability to focus on the business / end user's or customer's needs and sets expectations and understands end user behavior.
• Ability to focus and drive engineering teams to deliver upon architecture vision.
• Well-developed analytical, problem-solving, decision-making, and critical thinking skills that leverage both logic and creativity.
• Strong troubleshooting and root cause analysis skills.
• TOGAF certification is preferred.

Compensation overview The targeted hiring range for this role is $126,090 - $154,110, annually. However, the base pay offered may vary depending on the job-related knowledge, skills, credentials, and experience of each candidate as well as other factors such as the scope and location of the role. Candidates looking for compensation outside of the posted range are encouraged to apply and will be considered based on their individual qualifications and / or may be considered for other positions. Culture and Total Rewards Western National has long been known as The Relationship Company® and caring for our employees is part of that relationship commitment. We value connectiveness, empowerment, and accountability, and we believe that our employees are our biggest asset. Currently ranked as the 41st largest private company by revenue in Minnesota (Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal), Western National has earned accolades year-over-year as an employer of choice and garnered multiple awards for wellness in the workplace. Western National has also been named a Top Workplace by the Star Tribune for the past four consecutive years. In addition, the Group is consistently recognized as a Ward's 50 property-and-casualty insurance company for its outstanding financial results. Western National offers full-time employees a significant Total Rewards Package, including:

• Medical insurance plan options and other standard employee benefits, including dental insurance, vision benefits, life insurance, disability insurance, and more!
• Health Savings Accounts (HSA) and Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA)
• 401(k) Plan (participants are eligible for 100% matching on the first 6% of their contributions)
• Wellbeing Program, including onsite fitness studio
• Paid Time Off - including holiday, vacation, and volunteer
• 100% company-paid tuition reimbursement for approved job-relevant coursework and access to The Institutes (Risk and insurance education)
• Paid parental leave
• Bonus opportunities

Western National believes in supporting balance between work and life by providing a flexible work environment, which includes a variety of hybrid and remote work arrangements designed to balance individual, job, department, and company needs. Applicants must be authorized to work for any employer in the U.S. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment Visa at this time. Western National provides employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws. Salary Description $126,090 - $154,110