Executive Director, Application Development – Telematics (P&C Insurance Technology)
Why USAA?
At USAA, our mission is to empower our members to achieve financial security through highly competitive products, exceptional service and trusted advice. We seek to be the #1 choice for the military community and their families.
Embrace a fulfilling career at USAA, where our core values - honesty, integrity, loyalty and service - define how we treat each other and our members. Be part of what truly makes us special and impactful.
We are proud to support active-duty military spouses. USAA roles may offer remote or hybrid flexibility for active-duty military spouses consistent with applicable policy and business needs.
The Opportunity
This is far more than an application development leadership role. It is an opportunity to help shape the future of how USAA understands risk, serves members, and competes in an increasingly data-driven insurance marketplace.
As Executive Director, Application Development - Telematics, you will report directly to the AVP of P&C Policy Core Systems and Technical Services and lead a growing organization of approximately 45 employees and 50 contractor resources responsible for one of USAA's most strategically important and rapidly evolving technology capabilities. Reporting to Aaron Bend, AVP of Policy Core Systems and Technical Services, you will own the technology strategy, architecture, engineering delivery, and future evolution of USAA's telematics ecosystem, helping transform vast amounts of driving behavior, connected vehicle, mobile application, and sensor data into actionable insights that improve pricing accuracy, claims outcomes, risk segmentation, fraud detection, member experiences, and overall business performance.
The timing of this opportunity is particularly compelling. Telematics has evolved from a niche capability into a foundational component of USAA's Personal Auto business. Today, telematics data influences pricing decisions on more than half of USAA's quoted and issued auto insurance policies, and the organization continues to invest aggressively in expanding telematics-driven capabilities across pricing, underwriting, claims, and member engagement. Through strategic partnerships with telematics providers, automotive OEMs, and leading technology partners, USAA is accelerating its ability to leverage real-time data to create a more personalized, proactive, and intelligent insurance experience.
The Executive Director will play a central role in advancing cloud-native technologies, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and advanced analytics to unlock new sources of business value from telematics data. The role will help expand the use of telematics beyond pricing and underwriting into areas such as claims automation, crash detection, first-notice-of-loss acceleration, risk prevention, and member engagement, while also supporting the long-term evolution of USAA's telematics platform and data ecosystem.
Looking ahead, this position offers the opportunity to influence how USAA evolves beyond traditional telematics into a broader connected ecosystem. As connected vehicles, smart devices, sensors, and Internet of Things technologies continue to reshape the industry, USAA is exploring new ways to leverage data to improve member outcomes across both Auto and Property insurance, including Connected Home capabilities designed to proactively help members prevent losses before they occur.
For accomplished technology leaders from leading insurers, telematics providers, connected vehicle platforms, mobility technology companies, or other data-driven organizations, this represents a rare opportunity to move beyond managing an established program and help define the future direction of an increasingly strategic enterprise capability. The successful candidate will influence multi-year business and technology roadmaps, partner directly with senior leaders across technology and the business, and help determine how telematics, artificial intelligence, and emerging data ecosystems shape the future of insurance at USAA.
Few opportunities offer this combination of strategic visibility, technical complexity, business impact, and innovation. The work spans cloud modernization, AI, machine learning, mobile technologies, data engineering, vehicle integrations, digital experiences, pricing, underwriting, claims, and connected-device ecosystems, all within an organization making significant long-term investments in these capabilities.
For executives who are already successful and not actively considering a career move, this opportunity offers something increasingly rare: the chance to build and scale a transformative capability at an organization where telematics is already influencing core business decisions and is expected to play an even larger role in the future. The leader selected for this role will have a unique opportunity to help define how USAA leverages connected data, advanced analytics, and emerging technologies to better serve millions of members and strengthen its competitive position for years to come.
Executive Directors in Application Development plan, coordinate, and supervise all activities related to the design, development, and implementation and maintenance of the organization's applications development and analysis function. These leaders also manage multiple development teams often supporting one or more lines of business or business functional areas. Additionally, these leaders work closely with clients in order to map and support their operational needs. These leaders are also responsible for developing, distributing, supporting, enforcing, and integrating best practices and technology standards across the organization, including ensuring all Information Technology General Controls, processes and procedures are followed as applicable and appropriate.
Location
USAA offers a flexible work environment that requires an individual to be in the office 4 days per week. This position can be based in one of the following locations: Plano, TX (preference) or San Antonio, TX. Relocation assistanceis available for this position.
What You'll Do
Perform workload management and prioritization duties in support of operations for the functional area assigned.
Apply subject-matter-expert functional knowledge to lead subordinate workers in producing work deliverables in support of departmental initiatives.
Develop functional policies, procedures and guidelines.
Identify opportunities and facilitates major improvements to processes and systems.
Ensure that the assigned application group develops processes and tools that contribute to the company business objectives.
Ensure that all application processes developed internally or by external service providers are conducted in line with corporate social responsibility, environmental and technical policies and applicable standards and legislation.
Oversee the assessment of the technical and business fitness of the application portfolio and their associated costs and risks In partnership with CTO, Infrastructure and IT Security, and ensure that the organization's applications are effectively secured and that risks are mitigated and comply with legal and corporate privacy and confidentiality rules.
Establish management routines to ensure appropriate oversight of the organization's software development and maintenance activities.
Serve as financial steward for the organization and manage relationships with major vendors and service providers to ensure they cost-effectively meet the needs of the organization.
Evaluate and select third party vendors to provide value added services.
Facilitate the contracting process through the Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) enterprise process.
Responsible for contract company/service performance providing timely feedback to ensure the best value for USAA.
Collaborate with CTO to ensure that solutions are consistent with technology standards.
Work across IT and business partners to reduce technical debt.
Collaborate with other leaders and/or stakeholders and develop an application development strategy that aligns with business strategy, adds value and is within budget constraints.
Responsible for team's adherence to SDLC and applicable controls.
Work to ensure teams have appropriate, development plans consistent with domain of expertise.
Mentor across the technical community.
Provide oversight to the engagement with the business DPO and ensure deliverables adhere to Agile practices / methodologies.
Ensure risks associated with business activities are effectively identified, measured, monitored, and controlled in accordance with risk and compliance policies and procedures.
What You Have
Bachelors degree in Computer Science, I.S., or related field; OR 4 years of relevant education and/or experience.
10 years of experience of general IT management competencies.
4 years of people leadership experience in building, managing and/or developing high-performing teams required.
Strong technical background of web-based application architecture, system and database architecture, security application integration and object-oriented languages in a large enterprise environment.
Experience in all stages of the SDLC: requirements gathering, design, development, testing, and implementation.
Demonstrated ability to communicate technical information to a non-technical audience.
Experience collaborating with resources and stakeholders, influencing decisions and managing work to achieve strategic goals.
Experienced in vendor contract management and management of distributed development teams and resources.
Financial acumen involving budgets, forecasting, and executing on the budgets for applicable technology support function.
Understanding of relevant industry frameworks (e.g., COBIT, ITIL, SAFe, etc.)
Understanding of Legislative and Regulatory Compliance Requirements.
Experience overseeing the technology life cycle from requirements analysis, feasibility estimates, design, code, documentation, testing, implementation, and support.
Technical knowledge and understanding of technical domains that reside within Infrastructure Services, Security, Data or Application Development.
Experience conducting cost benefit analyses and leveraging results to drive technology support solutions.
Demonstrated thought leadership in embedding intuitive story telling of technology support functions including concise presentation of complex technical details.
Experience and ability to drive a culture of quality and personal accountability through technology support teams.
What Sets You Apart
5+ years of experience in behavior and usage-based insurance technology or telematics programs.
3+ years of experience modernizing legacy insurance systems to public cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, GCP, Azure).
Domain experience with usage-based and behavior-based insurance, personal lines insurance, and personal lines claims.
Experience leading the technical strategy and delivery of telematics solutions for P&C, maintaining and building relationships with ecosystem partners, and translating telematic data into higher value using AI.
Experience partnering with business stakeholders in building multi-year roadmaps across P&C functional areas to advance the telematics architecture that supports multi-product capabilities.
Experience scaling data platforms that ingest massive telematics streams (e.g., Mobile app data, IoT device data, OEM vehicle data) and using near real-time data for multiple insurance use cases.
Experience building mobile app experiences tailored to telematic insurance programs.
Experience partnering with key industry telematic suppliers (e.g., CMT, Arity, Okto) or vehicle OEMs.
Experience using machine learning or advanced models to turn telematics data into risk scoring, analytical insights, pricing segmentation, claims detection, or customer engagement tools.
Experience leading the technical strategy to deliver telematic solutions at top insurance carriers.
Visa Sponsorship
USAA does not provide visa sponsorship for this position. Please do not apply for this position if at any time (now or in the future) you will need immigration support (i.e., H-1B, TN, STEM OPT Training Plans, etc.).
Compensation
The salary range for this position is $195,230 to $351,410.
Compensation: USAA has an effective process for assessing market data and establishing ranges to ensure we remain competitive. You are paid within the salary range based on your experience and market data of the position.
Employees may be eligible for pay incentives based on overall corporate and individual performance and at the discretion of the USAA Board of Directors.
The above description reflects the details considered necessary to describe the principal functions of the job and should not be construed as a detailed description of all the work requirements that may be performed in the job.
Long Term Incentive Plan: Cash payment for Executive level roles only, representing a cash payment which is both time and performance based.
Benefits: At USAA our employees enjoy best-in-class benefits to support their physical, financial, and emotional wellness. These benefits include comprehensive medical, dental and vision plans, 401(k), pension, life insurance, parental benefits, adoption assistance, paid time off program with paid holidays plus 16 paid volunteer hours, and various wellness programs. Additionally, our career path planning and continuing education assists employees with their professional goals.
For more details on our outstanding benefits, visit our benefits page on USAAjobs.com.
Applications for this position are accepted on an ongoing basis, this posting will remain open until the position is filled. Thus, interested candidates are encouraged to apply the same day they view this posting.
USAA is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.