Company Information
Solid reputation, passionate people and endless opportunities. That's Travelers. Our superior financial strength and consistent record of strong operating returns mean security for our customers - and opportunities for our employees. You will find Travelers to be full of energy and a workplace in which you truly can make a difference.

Job Summary
The Travelers Business Insurance Architecture group is looking for a Sr. Director of Architecture - Analytics to work within the Business Insurance Analytics Value Stream.
The Solution Architect is focused on the architecture vision and roadmap for the suite of capabilities within a given Business Insurance solution train. Although this role is accountable to Business Insurance Architecture, the incumbent will be specifically dedicated to Analytics VS, the area responsible for the data warehouse and business intelligence solutions within the Business Insurance division of Travelers. This is a highly visible role for a thought leader in Business Insurance, helping to align business strategy with a suite of capabilities.
The primary duty of this role is to provide architectural guidance, technological recommendations and transition strategies that support the development and implementation of new applications within the Data Solution Train. This role is also responsible for the continued maturity of the architecture practice within the solution train. Visibility and interaction with senior-level audience and participation with architecture governance are also associated with this role.

Primary Job Duties & Responsibilities

• Focus on delivering the architecture vision and roadmap for the suite of capabilities within the solution train.
• Accountable for all architecture decisions made within the solution train.
• Provide architectural strategic thinking, solutions and roadmaps while driving architectural recommendations to completion.
• Focus on meeting the needs of the portfolio while demonstrating accountability to Business Insurance Architecture.
• Provide software architecture leadership to the organization. Take a lead role in the continued rollout and maturity of the architecture practice within the Analytics VS.
• Maintain a plan to address significant architecture gaps between current and target state.
• Lead reuse, buy and build decisions.
• Manage the work of a small team of individual contributor system architects/modelers.
• Ensure architectural compliance of solutions and introduce recommendations for changes to reference models when needed.
• Work within the Analytics VS to develop, communicate and mentor others on design and implementation standards, guidelines and best practices.
• Collaborate with business leaders to determine how to best use technology to enable growth and success.
• Participate in developing architecture resource strategy, operating model and resource plans to ensure effective and sustainable architecture function, as well as effective resource coverage to support all Business Insurance portfolios and functions.
• Participate in defining and driving the development of the architecture competencies, processes and practices across Business Insurance.
• Participate in cross-organizational performance reviews of employees who perform project architecture work.
• Contribute to the growth of the Business Insurance architecture practice through mentoring candidates in project teams.

In addition to working with individual projects, the Solution Architect will work on several initiatives managed by the Business Insurance Architecture Technology VS. The incumbent may participate in developing the strategy and tactics for the renovation and replacement of legacy software components as Travelers transitions to a service- and process-oriented architecture. This role will work with colleagues to establish and maintain methods and best practices for software architecture, to extend and refine Travelers' reference models, and to keep current on standards, techniques, tools and enabling technologies.

**Position can be in either St Paul, MN, Hartford, CT or Hunt Valley, MD**

Minimum Qualifications
High School diploma or equivalent required. 6 years of experience in enterprise, application, and/or information architecture required. 3 years of experience managing others and/or technical teams.

Education, Work Experience & Knowledge
Qualified candidates will have the following skills and experience:

• Minimum of 12 years work experience in enterprise, application, and information architecture design
• Minimum of 7 years work experience in application development
• 4-year degree in a related field (or equivalent experience)
• Strong technical skills in ODS, data warehouse and business intelligence
• Minimum of 3 years of experience in people, product and/or project management
• Experience working in a matrix organization.
• Experience working with a structured architecture process
• TOGAF (or similar) certification preferred
• Subject matter expertise is requested in the following areas: enterprise architecture and architecture planning; architecture repository (architecturally significant assets and major interrelationships); data warehouse; business intelligence tools; middleware technologies (mainly ETL and also including ESB and messaging); service-oriented architecture; application integration; development platforms (.NET, J2EE, Node); and modeling languages (ERD, UML, etc.)
• Strong familiarity with Hadoop, Spark, and AWS platforms desirable

OTHER:
Technical Knowledge
The Solution Architect should have at least 15 years of experience delivering large, enterprise systems, particularly when some or all of it involved data warehouse and business intelligence. Other qualifications include:

• Experience in SOA, microservices, NoSQL, and/or XML
• Solid working knowledge of capabilities and direction of technology coupled with an in-depth knowledge of the technology required and the needs of business environment necessary to support assigned projects

Job Specific & Technical Skills & Competencies
The Solution Architect must openly debate and defend solution recommendations on component coupling and cohesion, interface design, component models, implementation technologies, and architectural reference models and patterns. Other qualifications include:

• Demonstrates sound analytical and diagnostic skills dealing with issues that are not readily defined and/or conflict with available information
• Understands where to obtain information needed to make the appropriate decisions.
• Demonstrates ability to break down a problem to manageable pieces and implement effective, timely solutions
• Identifies the problem versus the symptom
• Manages problems that require involvement of others to solve
• Reaches sound decisions quickly
• Carefully evaluates alternative risks and solutions before acting
• Optimizes the use of all available resources
• Develops solutions to meet business needs that reflect a clear understanding of the objectives, practices and procedures of the corporation, department and business unit

Team Orientation
This role maintains partnerships across the organization, and can influence senior management, peers and staff through an inclusive style and recognition of their abilities to achieve results. Other qualifications include:

• Recognition that the success of the team is above personal interest
• Ability to establish effective, cross-functional relationships with members of other business, IT and leadership teams

Self-Management
This role manages functional objectives and priorities supporting multiple assigned business units. Responsibilities are assigned with a great amount of latitude for setting priorities and decision-making using generally accepted guidelines. Results are reviewed with next level manager for clarification according to predefined objectives.
Commitment to Quality Result
The Solution Architect creates an atmosphere where business partners' issues are dealt with professionally and in a timely manner. This role suggests solutions that make sense and are in line with future technology direction. Other qualifications include:

• Communicates openly and effectively in a manner consistent with the audience
• Demonstrates an adaptive style that is flexible and effective in gaining cooperation of others
• Anticipates and responds to management requests for information with timely, accurate findings
• Advocates for the business, contributes opinions and influences others' opinions through excellent verbal and written communication

Communication
This role collaborates with IT and business leaders to determine how to best use technology to enable growth and success. Other qualifications include:

• Works across multiple projects and systems to develop, communicate and mentor others on design and implementation standards, guidelines and best practices
• Communicates within peer groups and several levels above
• Influences senior members of both IT and business leadership teams
• Communicates effectively through both verbal and written formats
• Able to read an audience and adjusts style to the audience's reactions

Identify and Manage Architecture Risks
This role demonstrates the ability to see through a complex problem to find what parts of the problem pose the most architecture risk. Once risks are identified, this role demonstrates the ability to determine solutions and/or mitigation plans for those risks.


Preferred Qualifications
Stakeholder Management
This role must develop a good understanding of the most important stakeholders and record this analysis for reference and refresh during the project. The incumbent must be able to win support from senior leaders regarding the architecture concepts being promoted.
Planning and Project Management
This role develops operational plans and provides resource estimation for task planning. Proposes action plans that are timely, realistic and positive. Sets appropriate goals for projects and monitors progress against the plan.
Financial Awareness
This role understands and has input to the budget process and is responsible for cost-effective expense control of assigned projects. Has responsibility for important and confidential information.

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement
Travelers is an equal opportunity employer.