Sr Director Core Insurance Platform

Established in 2021,   Independence Pet Holdings   is a corporate holding company that manages a diverse and broad portfolio of modern pet health brands and services, including insurance, pet education, lost recovery services, and more throughout North America. We believe pet insurance is more than a financial product and build solutions to simplify the pet parenting journey and help improve the well-being of pets. As a leading authority in the pet category, we operate with a full stack of resources, capital, and services to support pet parents. Our multi-brand and omni-channel approach include our own insurance carrier, insurance brands and partner brands.  Role Overview: The Sr. Director of Core Insurance Platform is accountable for the enterprise ownership, strategic direction, and long-term evolution of the company’s core insurance platform, including enabling revenue growth, product expansion, and operational efficiency across the enterprise. The role ensures core insurance capabilities enable business growth, regulatory compliance, and platform sustainability, while leading IT engineering, integrations, and platform operations for EIS. The Sr. Director ensures the platform is secure, scalable, high-performing, and aligned with enterprise architecture standards. This role defines and drives a multi-year (3-5 year) platform strategy aligned to business and technology objectives. This position partners closely with Business Product Owners, Architecture, Digital Engineering, Data Platforms, Security, and Infrastructure to deliver reliable core-system capabilities that support business growth and regulatory compliance. Key Responsibilities: EIS Platform Technology Ownership Own the enterprise technical strategy, implementation, operation, and lifecycle of the EIS platform, ensuring core insurance capabilities scale across brands and enable long-term business growth, product innovation, and improved operational efficiency (Policy Administration, Billing & Payments, Claims Management, Product and Rules Configuration) Ensure platform availability, performance, resiliency, and security. Act as the enterprise decision authority for core insurance platform architecture, configuration standards, and customization tradeoffs. Own platform-level technical strategy and ensure alignment with enterprise architecture and business priorities Architecture & Engineering Leadership Lead the technical application architecture and implementation patterns for EIS within a cloud-based, API-driven ecosystem. Enforce configuration-first and upgrade-safe design principles. Co-define and govern EIS’s role within IPH’s enterprise architecture, ensuring alignment with long-term business, data, and platform strategies Drive architectural decisions and tradeoffs balancing scalability, speed, cost, and regulatory risk. Ensure EIS upgrades, patches, and migrations are executed safely and predictably. Delivery & Technical Execution Provide leadership oversight and technical direction for core-system delivery supporting new product launches, regulatory initiatives, and major platform enhancements. New product implementations and rating changes Enhancements to policy, billing, and claims workflows Regulatory, compliance, and audit-driven changes Accountable for platform delivery outcomes including speed-to-market, release reliability, quality, regulatory readiness, and operational stability. Establish and govern testing automation, performance testing, and UAT standards. Ensure CI/CD pipelines and controlled deployment practices are implemented at scale for core systems. Establish delivery governance and decision frameworks that ensure predictable outcomes across multiple teams and vendors. Integration & Platform Ecosystem Own technical integrations between EIS and: (Web and mobile digital platforms o CRM platforms (e.g., Dynamics 365), Payments (e.g., Stripe or equivalent) o Pricing/rating engines (e.g., Earnix), Document generation, imaging, and data/analytics platforms Ensure integrations meet reliability, security, and observability standards. Team & Vendor Leadership Lead system integrators and contract delivery pods through clear technical direction, delivery governance, and performance accountability. Own EIS vendor strategy, performance, and governance, ensuring value realization, alignment to business outcomes, and architectural compliance. Set and enforce engineering standards across onshore/offshore teams. Drive improved delivery predictability, quality, and platform reliability. Leads through a combination of internal engineering leaders and external partners, supporting a multi-layered delivery organization. Operations, Risk & Governance Own core-platform risk management for EIS, including technology, security, regulatory, and operational risk. Ensure EIS platform compliance with: Security and data privacy requirements and SOX, audit, and regulatory controls Own incident management, root cause analysis, and production stability for EIS. Define, review, and act on platform health KPIs with executive stakeholders (uptime, defect leakage, performance, release success). Participate in architecture review boards and IT governance forums. Leadership & Collaboration Serve as the IT counterpart to business and product leadership for all EIS matters. Translate business requirements into technical solutions and delivery plans. Influence executive and senior business leadership decisions by clearly communicating risks, constraints, and architectural tradeoffs. Represent the Core Insurance Platform in enterprise architecture, risk, and planning forums. Enable business agility by providing stable, extensible core platform capabilities. Required Qualifications 15+ years in IT delivery for insurance platforms (P&C preferred; Pet Insurance a plus). 5+ years in senior technology leadership roles with enterprise-scale accountability. Hands-on leadership ex