{"schemaVersion":"jobsearcher.job.v1","id":"cfefa77c1c401f5c8eb25f6b","url":"https://jobsearcher.com/jobs/cfefa77c1c401f5c8eb25f6b","canonicalUrl":"https://jobsearcher.com/jobs/cfefa77c1c401f5c8eb25f6b","title":"Dir Solution Development","description":"Job Summary\n\nHorace Mann is seeking an experienced and strategic Director Solution Development to lead the software engineering and support team within IT.\n\nThis leader will play a pivotal role in ensuring the stability, efficiency, and continuous improvement of digital platforms, balancing business priorities while driving technical excellence. The ideal candidate will possess a strong technical background, deep understanding of business needs, and exceptional decision-making skills to evaluate and prioritize requests that maximize business value. The candidate will lead the team's adoption of agentic AI-assisted development to enhance productivity and creativity.\n\nThis role requires someone who is highly organized, confident in making firm prioritization decisions, and skilled in communicating trade-offs to stakeholders. The director must be able to navigate competing demands, align technology work with strategic goals, and create a structured approach to digital system support and incremental enhancements.\n\nKey Responsibilities:\n\nStrategic Prioritization & Business Alignment\n\nEvaluate and prioritize incoming requests based on business impact, urgency, and technical feasibility.\nSet clear expectations with stakeholders, ensuring alignment with organizational goals.\nCommunicate trade-offs transparently, advocating for business value over reactive task execution.\nDevelop a structured framework for prioritization that ensures mission-critical support needs are met while also advancing small enhancements that drive continuous improvement.\n\nLeadership & Team Management\n\nLead, mentor, and empower a high-performing team responsible for support, defect resolution, and small system enhancements.\nEnsure cross-team collaboration, fostering a shared understanding of priorities, dependencies, and technical solutions.\nCreate and uphold accountability structures to ensure work is completed efficiently and with high quality.\nDrive a culture of ownership, problem-solving, and continuous learning.\nChampion and personally drive the team's use of agentic AI tools to boost team creativity, efficiency, and skill development.\n\nOperational Excellence & Process Improvement\n\nEstablish and refine processes for managing digital defects, incidents, and enhancement requests, ensuring smooth workflows and minimal disruption.\nImprove and implement best practices for ticketing, resolution timelines, and stakeholder communication.\nAnalyze trends in defects and enhancement requests to identify opportunities for proactive improvements and efficiency gains.\nDrive continuous innovation by incorporating emerging trends and tools, including agentic AI, into project workflows.\n\nTechnical & Business Understanding\n\nServe as the bridge between technology teams and business stakeholders, ensuring both sides understand priorities, constraints, and impacts.\nMaintain a strong technical grasp of digital systems, workflows, and potential challenges, ensuring informed decision-making.\nProvide guidance on best practices for system stability, scalability, and continuous improvement.\n\nStakeholder Communication & Expectation Management\n\nSet firm but fair expectations with business stakeholders, ensuring they understand how and why prioritization decisions are made.\nProvide regular updates on progress, challenges, and key outcomes related to support and enhancements.\nCommunicate realistic timelines, risks, and trade-offs when managing requests.\n\nQualifications:\n\nEducation\n\nBachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Business Administration, or a related field.\n\nExperience\n\n6+ years of experience in IT leadership, with a focus on managing digital operations, technical support, and system enhancements.\nProven track record of making strategic prioritization decisions that drive business value.\nStrong background in technical support, bug resolution, and application enhancement.\nExperience implementing agentic AI development tools (e.g., Claude Code, Codex) and driving team-wide adoption in engineering workflows.\n\nSkills & Competencies:\n\nTechnical & Business Expertise\n\nStrong understanding of digital applications, software development lifecycles, and IT support models.\nAbility to translate business needs into technical priorities and vice versa.\nFamiliarity with modern ticketing systems (e.g., ServiceNow, Jira, Azure DevOps) and IT service management best practices.\nHands-on proficiency with agentic AI coding tools such as Claude Code or Codex — not just chat-based AI assistants — to enhance development workflows.\nFluency in prompt and context engineering — structuring instructions, memory, and tool access so an agent behaves reliably — and experience building reusable tooling (custom skills or commands, hooks, MCP integrations) around agentic coding assistants, not just ad hoc prompting.\nUnderstanding of the cost and reliability tradeoffs of agentic workflows at team scale — token usage, model selection, and when a task needs a human in the loop versus full autonomy.\n\nDecision-Making & Prioritization\n\nAbility to assess competing priorities and make firm, strategic decisions.\nSkilled in identifying high-impact improvements while maintaining system stability.\nExperience in building structured prioritization frameworks for IT support and enhancement requests.\n\nLeadership & Communication\n\nStrong people leadership skills, with the ability to motivate and guide teams in a fast-paced environment.\nAbility to set clear expectations and communicate priorities firmly yet diplomatically to stakeholders.\nExperience in negotiating and influencing senior leaders on digital priorities and trade-offs.\nInsists on verifying AI-generated work against real evidence — tests passing, logs, the actual deployed state — rather than accepting confident-sounding output at face value.\n\nPreferred Qualifications:\n\nExperience leading IT support and continuous improvement teams in a large enterprise environment.\nFamiliarity with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure), ITIL frameworks, and Agile methodologies.\nStrong understanding of metrics-driven decision-making and process optimization.\nLean Six Sigma Black Belt certification (or equivalent process-improvement credential) preferred.\n\nSalary Range: $105,200 - $147,950\n\nSalary is commensurate to experience, location, etc.\n\nHorace Mann was founded in 1945 by two Springfield, Illinois, teachers who saw a need for quality, affordable auto insurance for teachers. Since then, we've broadened our mission to helping all educators protect what they have today and prepare for a successful tomorrow. And with our broadened mission has come corporate growth: We serve more than 4,100 school districts nationwide, we're publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange (symbol: HMN) and we have more than $12 billion in assets.\n\nWe're motivated by the fact that educators take care of our children's future, and we believe they deserve someone to look after theirs. We help educators identify their financial goals and develop plans to achieve them. This includes insurance to protect what they have today and financial products to help them prepare for their future. Our tailored offerings include special rates and benefits for educators.\n\nEOE/Minorities/Females/Veterans/Disabled. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status\n\nFor applicants that are California residents, please review our California Consumer Privacy Notice\n\nAll applicants should review our Horace Mann Privacy Policy","company":"Horace Mann","rawCompany":"horace mann","city":"Myrtle Point","state":"OR","isRemote":false,"isActive":false,"createdAt":"2026-09-28T11:32:19.004Z","occupations":[{"code":"11-3021.00","title":"Computer and Information Systems Managers","slug":"computer-and-information-systems-managers"},{"code":"15-1299.09","title":"Information Technology Project Managers","slug":"information-technology-project-managers"},{"code":"11-9041.00","title":"Architectural and Engineering Managers","slug":"architectural-and-engineering-managers"}],"industries":[{"code":"541511","title":"Custom Computer Programming Services","slug":"custom-computer-programming-services"},{"code":"541512","title":"Computer Systems Design Services","slug":"computer-systems-design-services"},{"code":"513210","title":"Software Publishers","slug":"software-publishers"}],"jobPosting":{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"JobPosting","title":"Dir Solution Development","description":"Job Summary\n\nHorace Mann is seeking an experienced and strategic Director Solution Development to lead the software engineering and support team within IT.\n\nThis leader will play a pivotal role in ensuring the stability, efficiency, and continuous improvement of digital platforms, balancing business priorities while driving technical excellence. The ideal candidate will possess a strong technical background, deep understanding of business needs, and exceptional decision-making skills to evaluate and prioritize requests that maximize business value. The candidate will lead the team's adoption of agentic AI-assisted development to enhance productivity and creativity.\n\nThis role requires someone who is highly organized, confident in making firm prioritization decisions, and skilled in communicating trade-offs to stakeholders. The director must be able to navigate competing demands, align technology work with strategic goals, and create a structured approach to digital system support and incremental enhancements.\n\nKey Responsibilities:\n\nStrategic Prioritization & Business Alignment\n\nEvaluate and prioritize incoming requests based on business impact, urgency, and technical feasibility.\nSet clear expectations with stakeholders, ensuring alignment with organizational goals.\nCommunicate trade-offs transparently, advocating for business value over reactive task execution.\nDevelop a structured framework for prioritization that ensures mission-critical support needs are met while also advancing small enhancements that drive continuous improvement.\n\nLeadership & Team Management\n\nLead, mentor, and empower a high-performing team responsible for support, defect resolution, and small system enhancements.\nEnsure cross-team collaboration, fostering a shared understanding of priorities, dependencies, and technical solutions.\nCreate and uphold accountability structures to ensure work is completed efficiently and with high quality.\nDrive a culture of ownership, problem-solving, and continuous learning.\nChampion and personally drive the team's use of agentic AI tools to boost team creativity, efficiency, and skill development.\n\nOperational Excellence & Process Improvement\n\nEstablish and refine processes for managing digital defects, incidents, and enhancement requests, ensuring smooth workflows and minimal disruption.\nImprove and implement best practices for ticketing, resolution timelines, and stakeholder communication.\nAnalyze trends in defects and enhancement requests to identify opportunities for proactive improvements and efficiency gains.\nDrive continuous innovation by incorporating emerging trends and tools, including agentic AI, into project workflows.\n\nTechnical & Business Understanding\n\nServe as the bridge between technology teams and business stakeholders, ensuring both sides understand priorities, constraints, and impacts.\nMaintain a strong technical grasp of digital systems, workflows, and potential challenges, ensuring informed decision-making.\nProvide guidance on best practices for system stability, scalability, and continuous improvement.\n\nStakeholder Communication & Expectation Management\n\nSet firm but fair expectations with business stakeholders, ensuring they understand how and why prioritization decisions are made.\nProvide regular updates on progress, challenges, and key outcomes related to support and enhancements.\nCommunicate realistic timelines, risks, and trade-offs when managing requests.\n\nQualifications:\n\nEducation\n\nBachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Business Administration, or a related field.\n\nExperience\n\n6+ years of experience in IT leadership, with a focus on managing digital operations, technical support, and system enhancements.\nProven track record of making strategic prioritization decisions that drive business value.\nStrong background in technical support, bug resolution, and application enhancement.\nExperience implementing agentic AI development tools (e.g., Claude Code, Codex) and driving team-wide adoption in engineering workflows.\n\nSkills & Competencies:\n\nTechnical & Business Expertise\n\nStrong understanding of digital applications, software development lifecycles, and IT support models.\nAbility to translate business needs into technical priorities and vice versa.\nFamiliarity with modern ticketing systems (e.g., ServiceNow, Jira, Azure DevOps) and IT service management best practices.\nHands-on proficiency with agentic AI coding tools such as Claude Code or Codex — not just chat-based AI assistants — to enhance development workflows.\nFluency in prompt and context engineering — structuring instructions, memory, and tool access so an agent behaves reliably — and experience building reusable tooling (custom skills or commands, hooks, MCP integrations) around agentic coding assistants, not just ad hoc prompting.\nUnderstanding of the cost and reliability tradeoffs of agentic workflows at team scale — token usage, model selection, and when a task needs a human in the loop versus full autonomy.\n\nDecision-Making & Prioritization\n\nAbility to assess competing priorities and make firm, strategic decisions.\nSkilled in identifying high-impact improvements while maintaining system stability.\nExperience in building structured prioritization frameworks for IT support and enhancement requests.\n\nLeadership & Communication\n\nStrong people leadership skills, with the ability to motivate and guide teams in a fast-paced environment.\nAbility to set clear expectations and communicate priorities firmly yet diplomatically to stakeholders.\nExperience in negotiating and influencing senior leaders on digital priorities and trade-offs.\nInsists on verifying AI-generated work against real evidence — tests passing, logs, the actual deployed state — rather than accepting confident-sounding output at face value.\n\nPreferred Qualifications:\n\nExperience leading IT support and continuous improvement teams in a large enterprise environment.\nFamiliarity with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure), ITIL frameworks, and Agile methodologies.\nStrong understanding of metrics-driven decision-making and process optimization.\nLean Six Sigma Black Belt certification (or equivalent process-improvement credential) preferred.\n\nSalary Range: $105,200 - $147,950\n\nSalary is commensurate to experience, location, etc.\n\nHorace Mann was founded in 1945 by two Springfield, Illinois, teachers who saw a need for quality, affordable auto insurance for teachers. Since then, we've broadened our mission to helping all educators protect what they have today and prepare for a successful tomorrow. And with our broadened mission has come corporate growth: We serve more than 4,100 school districts nationwide, we're publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange (symbol: HMN) and we have more than $12 billion in assets.\n\nWe're motivated by the fact that educators take care of our children's future, and we believe they deserve someone to look after theirs. We help educators identify their financial goals and develop plans to achieve them. This includes insurance to protect what they have today and financial products to help them prepare for their future. Our tailored offerings include special rates and benefits for educators.\n\nEOE/Minorities/Females/Veterans/Disabled. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status\n\nFor applicants that are California residents, please review our California Consumer Privacy Notice\n\nAll applicants should review our Horace Mann Privacy Policy","datePosted":"2026-09-28T11:32:19.004Z","dateModified":"2026-09-28T11:32:19.004Z","hiringOrganization":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Horace Mann","sameAs":"https://jobsearcher.com"},"jobLocation":{"@type":"Place","address":{"@type":"PostalAddress","addressLocality":"Myrtle Point","addressRegion":"OR","addressCountry":"US"}},"identifier":{"@type":"PropertyValue","name":"JobSearcher","value":"cfefa77c1c401f5c8eb25f6b"},"url":"https://jobsearcher.com/jobs/cfefa77c1c401f5c8eb25f6b"}}