Director, Software Development Engineering

Berkley Technology Services (BTS) is the dynamic technology solution provider for W. R. Berkley Corporation, a Fortune 500 commercial lines insurance company. With key locations in Urbandale, IA and Wilmington, DE, BTS delivers innovative, customer‑focused IT solutions to more than 60 operating units worldwide. The organization emphasizes collaboration, consulting, and proactive planning for “What’s Next,” fostering a culture of innovation, entrepreneurship, and employee growth.

Responsibilities

• Provide leadership and direction for all aspects of development, implementation, integration, and support decisions affecting applications or systems.
• Direct project planning and execution; develop strategies for creating and integrating new applications.
• Collaborate with departments to determine technology needs and design solutions.
• Create, review, and implement multi‑year strategies for individual teams, systems, or projects.
• Provide direction to team leads and other personnel, both direct and indirect.
• Oversee team performance, ensure process compliance, and guide work toward objectives across one or more teams.
• Focus on employee talent management and performance management to increase associate and team lead value.
• Closely manage and monitor project and resource costs within the area of responsibility.
• Spend 50 % or less of time within directly managed teams and peer technical groups.
• Implement and monitor critical health metrics for operational and continuous‑improvement processes.
• Develop new ideas to optimize processes and improve operations, resulting in increased ROI.
• Serve as the primary interaction point with company presidents, VPs, or PMs at operating units.
• Travel approximately 10‑30 % of the time.

Qualifications

• At least 5 years of experience in the field or a related area, with multiple years of proven leadership experience.
• Ability to be portable across numerous roles within BTS at a similar leadership level.
• Demonstrated operational experience with a DevOps or operational framework (e.g., Agile, ITSM, ITIL, adoption frameworks, ALM, and software development practices).
• Capability to operate and guide teams through various frameworks, measuring personnel performance throughout.
• Proven ability to meet key accountabilities or quickly learn/perform them.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills; ability to interact seamlessly with technical and business stakeholders at all corporate levels.
• Software Development Life Cycle experience; understanding of Agile SDLC preferred.
• 3 + years of P&C insurance industry knowledge preferred (not required).
• 5‑8 + years of front‑end development experience required.
• Demonstrated experience with ReactJS required; additional proficiency with NodeJS and/or Next.js preferred; AngularJS will be considered.
• At least 5 years of supervisory and/or team‑lead experience.
• Proven experience working within agile and/or scaled agile frameworks (SAFe).
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Information Systems, or a related discipline; equivalent experience or alternative qualifications will be considered.

Behavioral Core Competencies

• Flexibility
• Customer Service Oriented & Operational Effectiveness
• Personal Ownership
• Quick Decision Making
• Team Builder
• Transformational Leadership