Director of Enterprise Applications

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey empowers our members to achieve their best health.  For over 90 years, we have been New Jersey’s health solutions leader driving innovations that improve health care quality, affordability, and member experience.  Our members are our neighbors, our friends, and our families.  It is this understanding that drives us to better serve and care for the 3.5 million people who place their trust in us. We pride ourselves on our best-in-class employees and strive to maintain an innovative and inclusive environment that allows them to thrive. When our employees bring their best and succeed, the Company succeeds. 

About the Role

The Director of Enterprise Applications, in partnership with business customers and corporate leaders, creates technology and digital strategy for multiple business application (software) products ensuring integration with Horizon’s overall strategic plan. Maintains, plans and implements major modifications to a technology portfolio up to approximately 150 applications in pursuit of IT and business goals. Accountable for exemplary quality, performance, and availability service levels. Directs and oversees the software development lifecycle for new and existing in-house and vendor off-the-shelf application assets.

What You'll Do

People Leader

• Accountable for workforce strategy ensuring the necessary balance of internal and external technology talent, in terms of budget and skill, to appropriately meet customer demands.
• Large team management and engagement including; interviewing and hiring, training and skills development, performance management, communication, and overall compliance with Horizon regulatory requirements, policies, and procedures
• Transformational leader able to guide teams through culture transition
• Manage multiple application teams up to approximately 350 full time equivalents; both Horizon employees and on/offshore contingent resources

Customer Liaison and Strategic Driver

• Establish and maintain effective partnerships with business customers to create technology and digital roadmaps aligned with corporate strategy.
• Serve as a strategic technology liaison to business customers.
• Implement and maintain cohesive and transparent demand management practices across multiple product teams.
• Leverage customer survey, satisfaction, and feedback data to identify opportunities for systemic improvements and continuous enhancement of the customer experience.
• Partner with business and technology stakeholders to advance omnichannel strategies and deliver consistent customer experiences across portals, mobile applications, IVR, and other customer touchpoints.

Application Development and Software Lifecycle Management – In house development and vendor off-the-shelf software implementation and integration

• Ensure software development best practices and quality standards are embedded throughout all lifecycle phases, including software architecture, engineering, integration, testing, acceptance, and implementation.
• Align with Horizon’s SDLC methodology and provide transformational leadership as the organization advances Agile ways of working.
• Provide leadership and oversight of Agile delivery practices across application teams, leveraging frameworks such as Scrum, Kanban, and SAFe, including PI Planning, sprint planning, daily stand-ups, reviews, and retrospectives.
• Oversee the design, development, implementation, and integration of complex customer service applications, including CRM and IVR solutions with multiple integration points.
• Champion DevOps practices, including CI/CD pipelines, automated builds, testing, and deployment within cloud environments.
• Establish and oversee close alignment with the business to ensure functional and nonfunctional requirements are identified and met and delivery commitments are upheld.
• Partner with EBTS Directors across IT, Infrastructure & Operations, and Information Security to align on and implement divisional goals.
• Ensure best-practice artifacts are developed, maintained, and readily available.

Application Portfolio Management and Service Level Availability

• Ensure technology roadmaps are created, managed, and implemented for the entirety of the application product line(s) within span of control

• Align team members to enterprise, information security, and data governance standards on architecture
• Maintain 24x7x365 production support and agreed upon service levels for performance, availability, and quality

Vendor and Contract Management

• Develop and maintain a vendor strategy supportive of budgeted demand that aligns to the EBTS workforce strategy
• Partner with corporate Legal and Procurement experts to ensure favorable terms and thorough vendor contracts
• Manage effective vendor relationships, overseeing resource numbers/skill mix for capacity services relationships and delivery metrics for fixed priced contracts
• Ensure month over month vendor adherence to contractual SLAs, contract terms, and quality of delivery
• Uphold controls over the processes and transactions under areas of responsibility including the completeness and accuracy of financial information, business transactions, compliance with applicable laws and regulations, and the effectiveness and efficiency of operations

Administrative, Fiscal and Budget Management

• Monthly and yearly management of budgets over approximately $5M
• Direct strategies that increase efficiency and throughput while maintaining cost and quality
• Assure timely adherence to EBTS and Horizon’s administrative and compliance policies

What You Bring

Education: 

• High School Diploma/GED required
• Bachelor degree preferred or relevant experience in lieu of degree

Work Experience:

• Ten to fifteen years professional experience in information systems delivery
• Requires a minimum of six years of managerial experience, specifically supervising a technology staff

Additional Licensing, Certifications, Registrations:

The following are preferred but not required:

• Lean Six Sigma
• Project Management
• Agile/Scaled Agile training and related certifications

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Software development lifecycle expertise.
• Experience in software engineering, application development, integration, and maintenance.
• Proven ability to deliver high-quality software products and applications on time and within budget.
• Successful management of complex technology programs and projects.
• Demonstrated ability to effectively lead large, diverse technology teams.
• Strong organizational, analytical, and problem-solving skills.
• Deep knowledge of Agile frameworks, including Scrum, Kanban, and SAFe, and experience leading Agile delivery at scale.
• Demonstrated experience with complex customer service technology ecosystems, including CRM, IVR, portals, mobile applications, APIs, and integrated backend systems.
• Experience with web and mobile application architecture and deployment across iOS, Android, and responsive web platforms strongly preferred.
• Experience designing and implementing customer-facing portals that provide intuitive, responsive experiences strongly preferred.
• Knowledge of customer experience measurement and the use of survey and feedback data to drive technology and process improvements.
• Familiarity with UX design and guided support tools to enhance customer journeys and reduce friction strongly preferred.
• Knowledge of omnichannel strategies and technologies supporting consistent experiences across digital and assisted customer channels.
• Familiarity with DevOps practices, including CI/CD pipelines, automated builds, testing, and cloud deployment.

Why Horizon?

At Horizon, you’ll do meaningful work that directly improves lives—while being supported by a mission‑driven organization that values expertise, collaboration, and growth.  We believe that when our people thrive, our communities do too.  If you are passionate about making an impact, we’d love to hear from you!

Salary Range:

$170,200 - $236,775

​This compensation range is specific to the job level and takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions, including but not limited to: education, experience, licensure, certifications, geographic location, and internal equity.  This range has been created in good faith based on information known to Horizon at the time of posting.  Compensation decisions are dependent on the circumstances of each case. Horizon also provides a comprehensive compensation and benefits package which includes:

• Comprehensive health benefits (Medical/Dental/Vision)

• Retirement Plans

• Generous PTO

• Incentive Plans

• Wellness Programs

• Paid Volunteer Time Off

• Tuition Reimbursement

Disclaimer:

Horizon BCBSNJ employees must live in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut or Delaware. This job summary has been designed to indicate the general nature and level of work performed by colleagues within this classification. It is not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities, and qualifications required of colleagues assigned to this job.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, protected veteran status or status as an individual with a disability and any other protected class as required by federal, state or local law.  Horizon will consider reasonable accommodation requests as part of the recruiting and hiring process.