Director, Digital Architecture & Platforms

Definity includes some of Canada’s most long-standing and innovative insurance brands, including Economical Insurance, Sonnet Insurance, Family Insurance Solutions, and Petline Insurance. With strong roots that date back to 1871, we’ve grown to become a digital leader in the insurance industry. We’re proud to help our clients and communities adapt and thrive in a world of constant change.

Our promise to you: It’s better here. Why? Because we CARE, and we provide an employee experience that’s collaborative, ambitious, rewarding, and empowering.

Our ambition is to be one of Canada’s leading and most innovative P&C insurers. Come be a part of our journey, and love what you do.

Definity offers a flexible, hybrid work experience where employees work from the office and virtually depending on the type of work they are doing and who they are working with. Leaders partner with their teams to find the right balance of on-site and remote work that best meets the needs of their teams, colleagues, brokers and customers, while ensuring collaboration, teamwork and accountability for goals.

What can you expect in this role?

As the Director, Digital Architecture & Platforms, you will partner with business leaders to reimagine what digital insurance is and, through the efforts of your team of architects and developers, bring those desired experiences to life through:

• This role can be based out of our Kitchener or Toronto location
• Engaging regularly with senior and executive leadership in advocating, informing,and influencing our evolving digital strategy
• Sharing in-depth knowledge of digital technologies to support creation of modernized platforms and products that align with Definity’s strategy
• Leading contributions to the body of standards and governance of Definity’s digital ecosystem such as inner- sourcing of shared frameworks, design systems,and microservices design
• Operationalizing and supporting Definity’s digital ecosystem leadership ambition through the adoption of leading agile, SRE (Site Reliability Engineering), and observability practices
• Mentoring peers and developers in a full stack digital development, with an exceptional ability to problem solve, troubleshoot, and evolve your skillset astechnology and business needs evolve
• Leading a team of talented team of Web and mobile developers focused on deep collaboration with product owners, architects, and business leaders to deliver the future of digital insurance

What do you bring to the role?

• Demonstrated experience implementing the production-level solution in a medium to large enterprise
• Demonstrated advanced technical expertise in the following technologies:
• University Degree in computer science, information systems, or a related discipline
• Understanding and the ability to teach good design and architecture principlesand non-functional requirements
• 7+ years of digital design and development experience
• 5+ years in a leadership role in software delivery/engineering

Must haves:

• Store databases (Redis, DynamoDB)
• NodeJS and supporting frameworks
• Relational databases (Oracle/MySQL/PostgreSQL) and key/value
• Angular, React, HTML5, and CSS3

Other expertise which will be an asset:

• Bootstrap as a core web framework
• Microservices architecture and frameworks such as Spring Boot
• AWS or Azure cloud-native application development and SDLC
• REST API Development

A good understanding of:

• Design-driven architecture
• Atlassian toolset including Bitbucket, JIRA, and Confluence
• SRE (Site Reliability Engineering) concepts
• ELK/AppDynamics for monitoring and logging
• Code testability, build pipelines, docker and CI/CD systems

Leadership skills:

• Identify and scope technical priorities and collaborate with product owners on shaping requirements in the product backlog
• Promote quality in all aspects of the team’s technical deliverables
• Act as a technology lead and mentor for engineers\developers in the team

We also take potential into consideration. If you don’t have this exact experience, but you know you have what it takes, be sure to give us more insight through your application and cover letter.

Go ahead and expect a lot — you deserve it, and we’ve got it:

• Educational resources, tuition assistance, and paid time off to study for exams
• Paid volunteer days and company matching on charitable donations
• Wellness and recognition programs
• Pension and savings programs, with company-matched RRSP contributions
• Company share ownership program
• Focus on inclusion with employee groups, support for gender affirmation surgery, access to BIPOC counsellors, access to programs for working parents
• Hybrid work schedule for most roles
• Discounts on products and services

Our inclusive work environment welcomes diversity and supports accessibility. If you require accommodation at any time during the recruitment process, please let us know by contacting: [email protected]

Background checks

This role requires successful clearance of a background check (including criminal checks and leadership references).