Director, Information Technology - API Development

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.

The Opportunity

We are seeking a highly motivated and experienced IT Director to lead an API team within our Member Data Engineering organization. In this critical role, you will be responsible for the strategic direction, delivery, and ongoing support of key customer APIs, including those for customer phone numbers, email addresses, contact consent, and privacy preferences. These APIs are essential and must be highly available to enable effective customer communication and engagement. You will oversee the management, integration, and quality of the data leveraged by the APIs. Leading a team of talented engineers, you will ensure the reliability, scalability, and security of these services, and partner with teams in Product, CTO, and Information Governance to deliver outcomes. The ideal candidate will possess a strong technical background, exceptional leadership skills, and a proven track record of successfully managing development and support in a fast-paced environment.

We offer a flexible work environment that requires an individual to be in the office 4 days per week. This position can be based out of either our Phoenix, AZ or San Antonio, TX offices. Relocation assistance is not available for this position.

What you'll do:

• Responsible for developing, maintaining, testing, and monitoring an internal control environment, including preventative and detective controls, to effectively manage risks.
• Builds and oversees a team of employees for assigned technology support area through ongoing execution of recruiting, development, retention, coaching and support, performance management, and managerial activities.
• Oversees efforts in establishing documentation standards and quality assurance methodologies for technology support functions and ensure adherence to standards across teams.
• Accountable for the identification, research, and analysis of end to end business, processes, and technology support opportunities.
• Develops and oversees metrics for technology support capabilities and/or processes (KPIs, KRIs, etc.).
• Creates a multi-year plan to operationalize a technology support strategy, with key milestones, deliverables, and realization targets.
• Oversees the creation and execution of departmental budgets and forecasts for applicable technology support function.
• Oversees the availability management of technology solutions / domains by applying strong change and incident management practices.
• Works across multiple functional areas and influences future business strategy to be able to best utilize available technology support functions as well as future ones.
• Stays abreast of industry trends and understands the direction of applicable technology support capabilities and ensures technology environment is agile enough to change quickly to support.
• Builds successful stakeholder relationships with other IT and business leaders by developing a clear understanding of business needs, acting as a trusted advisor, and ensuring cost-effective delivery of technology support services to meet those needs.
• Participates in the development of 3rd Party vendors strategy and provides oversight to ensure achievement of technology support objectives
• May provide oversight of vendor management activities including service agreements, staff augmentation and technology contracts.
• Ensures risks associated with business activities are effectively identified, measured, monitored, and controlled in accordance with risk and compliance policies and procedures.

What you have:

• Bachelor's degree; OR 4 years of related experience (in addition to the minimum years of experience required) may be substituted in lieu of degree.
• 8 years of experience in a technology function to include 3 years leadership experience, demonstrated in either a supervisor or individual contributor role, of IT Professionals in a Software Development/Engineering or Infrastructure environment.
• 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, 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.
• Previous experience managing multiple tasks and responsibilities in high-pressure environments; excelling at pinpointing and resolving problems in early stages to avoid cost/time expenses.
• Experience and ability to drive a culture of quality and personal accountability through technology support teams.
• Demonstrated experience in vendor contract management and management of distributed development teams and resources.
• Demonstrated financial acumen involving budgets, forecasting, and executing on the budgets for applicable technology support function.
• Advanced facilitation, collaboration and consensus building skills, with experience in presenting to cross-functional teams and Senior/Executive leaders.
• Experience in inspiring, leading, and defining vision, strategy and organizational change.
• Demonstrated experience in explaining complex technology decisions to both technical and nontechnical audiences at all levels in the organization.
• Demonstrated ability to influence change at the executive level and team level.
• Understanding of relevant industry frameworks, i.e. COBIT, ITIL, SAFe, etc.
• Understanding of Legislative and Regulatory Compliance Requirements.

What sets you apart:

• Experience leading teams that deliver and support enterprise APIs, with a strong understanding of RESTful API design principles.
• Experience in applying site reliability engineering (SRE) principles to ensure the high availability and performance of APIs.
• Experience managing vendor relationships.
• Experience in database technologies relevant to API development, to include managing data quality.
• Demonstrated ability to build and mentor high-performing engineering teams in an Agile development environment.
• US military experience through military service or a military spouse/domestic partner

Compensation range: The salary range for this position is: $143,320 - $257,970.

USAA does not provide visa sponsorship for this role. Please do not apply for this role 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: 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. The actual salary for this role may vary by location.

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.

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.