AddressSalary: Up to £85,000 depending on experience plus an excellent benefits package
Location: UK (Remote or Hybrid)
The opportunity:
The role of the Senior Guidewire Technical Lead exists to technically lead, manage, and mentor a team of developers who develop and test software within the Zurich Guidewire Team (ZGT).
The role promotes technical excellence within the ZGT team by applying and promoting Guidewire best practices and ensuring that solutions are designed, developed and unit-tested by internal standards and industry best practices.
The Zurich Guidewire Technical Lead must be hands-on technically and able to lead and mentor the team to deliver effective and efficient software solutions to stakeholders.
Key tasks will be to structure, manage, review and develop software solutions to high-performing technical standards and adhere to Guidewire (GW) best practices.
This is a senior role responsible for creating a cohesive team that can deliver effective and efficient deliverables across the Global Zurich landscape, whilst supporting the ZGT strategy and ensuring best practices for processes and procedures.
Many of our employees work flexibly in various ways, including part-time, flexible hours, job share, an element of working from home or compressed hours. This is because we want the best people for our roles, and we recognise that sometimes those people aren’t available full-time. Please talk to us at the interview about the flexibility you may need.
What will you be doing?
As a Senior Guidewire Technical Lead, you will be leading and managing a team developing solutions for various GW-related projects.
Your main responsibilities will involve:
- In partnership with Zurich’s Group Claims organisation, responsible for driving the development of the Guidewire ecosystems across Zurich.
- Accelerate Guidewire ecosystems that foster innovation, collaboration and reuse across the various countries and functions that use the system.
- Leverage technology at a global level to drive operational efficiencies in the claims handling process, better outcomes, and an improved client experience.
- Work with all Guidewire Business Units (BUs) to understand opportunities & remediate pain points.
- Work with the ZGT Product Owner, Product Manager and ZGT Architects to prioritise the backlog and pipeline of work for the ZGT, including new Cloud capabilities & ensuring Guidewire’s offering meets Zurich’s requirements.
- Proactively identify and encourage the sharing of solutions across countries to help drive innovation in a faster & more efficiency manner.
- Bring technical skills to the fore, developing more junior development staff.
- Develop greater consistency in the use of our systems, foster the awareness of and actively drive the reuse of existing global solution capabilities and in partnership with GTO (Group Technology Office) functions drive the development and implementation of new global solution capabilities.
- Support the wider environment (e.g. Claims Data and Analytics team) in the capture of data to support our data and analytics capabilities and share with business partners.
What are we looking for?
Mandatory Technical and Delivery skills and experience
- Minimum of 2 years’ proven experience of leading, managing, coaching, mentoring and developing a team of Software Developers, with a track record of improving development practices.
- Minimum of 5 years’ proven commercial software development experience relating to some of the following tools and technologies:
- Java 8 (or higher) Programming (essential)
- Web Services (SOAP and RESTful)
- SQL queries and database access tools.
- XML technologies (XSD, XPath, XQuery, XSL, and XSLT).
- Relational databases
- Version control systems
- Web technologies (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, JQuery, JSON)
- Full stack development experience covering front end, back end, microservices as well as data management.
- Commercial experience with one or more of the following tools and technologies:
- Linux tools and CLI
- Distributed source code management tools - ideally Git and Bitbucket.
- CI tools such as Jenkins
- Atlassian Suite E.g. Jira
- Test automation tools such as SOAPUI and Selenium IDE/WebDriver
- Python
- OpenText WEM/Portal/Process Suite/StreamServe products
- Strong knowledge of software architecture and design patterns.
- Experience in estimation, code review and mentoring skills.
- Keen attention to detail with strong problem-solving skills, coupled with an inquiring mind and the ability to learn quickly.
- Ability to drive innovation and change across teams through collaborative working and effective influencing skills.
- Experience with agile software development methodologies such as Scrum. Knowledge of the AGILE methodology/Scaled Agile Framework, and SDLC processes would be preferable.
- Excellent stakeholder management.
- Experience in the Insurance or Financial Services Sector.
- Strong communication skills both written and verbal, to liaise with clients to interpret their issues into technical solutions.
- Education to degree standard or equivalent experience (Computer Sciences discipline).
Behavioural competencies/leadership qualities
- Collaborative Technical Team leader, adept at enabling structure and clear direction to the team
- Self-starter with stakeholder/relationship and influencing skills
- Positive, can-do attitude with the ability to encourage and motivate fellow team members.
- Deliver quality solutions by adopting methodologies and best practice
- Logical thinker with strong problem-solving skills
- Experience of working to and delivering to deadlines
- Builds and maintains effective relationships with colleagues and customers; is respected and trusted
- Flexible in working under changing and different work settings
- Convey a strong sense of urgency and drive issues to closure
Desirable but not essential
- Experience of working on Guidewire implementations/new products from scratch
- Hands-on experience using Gosu
- Experience with Claims / Underwriting disciplines
- Leadership experience providing services across multiple projects / multiple business units
- Ability to think outside of the box and be innovative by keeping abreast of new trends, identifying opportunities to bring in change for business benefit
- Global, critical, innovative thinking with good presentation skills
As an inclusive employer, we want to ensure that all candidates feel comfortable and can perform at their best during the interview. You’ll have the opportunity to let us know of any reasonable adjustment or practical support needed when you apply.
Who we are:
At Zurich we aspire to be one of the most responsible and impactful businesses in the world and the best global insurer. Together we’re creating a brighter future for our customers, our people and our planet.
With over 55,000 employees in more than 170 countries, you’ll feel the support of being part of a strong and stable company who are a long-standing player in the insurance industry.
We’ve made a promise to each other and every employee; to focus on sustainable impact, to care about each other’s wellbeing, to use our diverse expertise to be curious and optimistic and to develop the skills needed for our future.
If you're interested in working in a dynamic and challenging environment for a company that recognises and rewards your creativity, initiatives and contributions - then Zurich could be just the place for you. Be part of something great.
Our Culture:
At Zurich, our sense of community is strong and we’re particularly passionate about diversity and inclusion, which we’ve won numerous awards for. We want our people to bring the whole of themselves to work and ensure everybody is made to feel welcome, regardless of their background, beliefs or culture. We want our employees to reflect the diversity of our customers, and so are committed to treating all of our applicants fairly and with respect, irrespective of their actual or assumed background, disability or any other protected characteristic.
We’ve an environment that places a real importance on our people’s wellbeing from a physical, mental, social and financial perspective. We work with our wellbeing partners and industry experts to provide the best advice and access to a wealth of lifestyle support. We’re also committed to continuous improvement, and we offer access to a comprehensive range of training and development opportunities.
We’re passionate about supporting employees to help others by getting involved in volunteering, charitable and community activity. Our charitable arm, Zurich Community Trust, is one of the longest-established corporate trusts in the UK. In that time, we’ve awarded grants and volunteered time to deserving causes in the UK valued at over £90 million.
So make a difference. Be challenged. Be inspired. Be supported, Love what you do. Work for us.#LI-Hybrid
