AVP, Engineering & QA

Crum & Forster Company Overview

Travel Insured International is a leading travel insurance provider with more than 30 years in business. As a key component of our Specialty Business Unit, within the Accident & Health division, TII provides travel protection plans to help each individual travel confidently. Travel Insured International is proud to offer products to consumers and to agency partners of all sizes. We're committed to providing dependable coverage, great value, and end-to-end satisfaction for all customers.

Job Description

The AVP, Engineering & Quality Assurance is the engineering leader accountable for the people, delivery, and operational excellence of TII's software development and quality assurance teams. Whereas the Principal Solution & Software Engineering Architect defines architectural standards and modern engineering patterns, the AVP leads the teams, Agile Release Trains, and run-time operations that transform those standards into delivered, reliable, and scaled outcomes.

Reporting to the VP, Digital Transformation, the AVP leads engineering/quality assurance leads and delivery teams; owns hiring, performance, and career development; is accountable for delivery predictability, quality, and service reliability; and drives the operational adoption of AI-assisted engineering across the organization. This is a hands-on leadership role that balances people leadership, delivery accountability, and technical credibility—translating strategy into execution that supports TII's $2.5B growth target and expansion into new distribution channels.

What you will do

• Engineering Leadership & Talent Development
• Lead, hire, and develop engineering managers, software engineers, and QA, building a high-performing, engaged organization.
• Own performance management, coaching, career development, and technical leadership development across the teams.
• Drive organizational design and workforce planning to scale engineering capacity with business growth.
• Establish succession plans and a strong technical leadership bench.
• Software Delivery & Agile Execution
• Own end-to-end software delivery accountability—SDLC, Agile practices, and release management across the Agile Release Trains.
• Ensure delivery predictability, development velocity, and on-time/on-scope outcomes.
• Drive the operational adoption and scaling of the standards, patterns, and accelerators defined by the Principal Architect.
• Partner with Product Ownership and RTEs to align capacity, prioritization, and commitments.
• Hands on tactical engineering leader
• AI-Enabled Engineering
• Operationalize AI-assisted engineering practices (GitHub Copilot, Azure OpenAI, AI-assisted testing) across teams, translating the Architect's guardrails into day-to-day team practice.
• Champion responsible AI adoption—balancing productivity gains with quality, security, IP, and compliance.
• Measure and improve engineering productivity and quality using data (DORA metrics, cycle time, defect rates, AI-adoption metrics).
• Engineering Excellence & Quality
• Embed DevSecOps, CI/CD, test automation, and secure-by-design practices as team norms.
• Drive code quality, engineering discipline, and continuous improvement.
• Ensure engineering practices align to the architectural standards and Azure Well-Architected principles set by the Architect.
• Operational Excellence & Reliability
• Own run-time operational accountability—incident response, service reliability, availability, capacity planning, disaster recovery, and business continuity.
• Establish on-call, monitoring, and observability practices that keep services resilient and always-on.
• Lead post-incident reviews and drive systemic reliability improvements.
• Stakeholder Leadership & Strategy
• Serve as a leadership-team member with executive visibility, reporting on delivery, reliability, talent, and AI-adoption progress.
• Partner with the VP of Digital Transformation on engineering strategy, budget, and investment priorities.
• Collaborate closely with the Principal Architect, Product, QA, and Platform Engineering to align strategy, standards, and execution.
• Own the engineering budget and vendor/tooling decisions within the function.
• Acts as an engineering thought leader, bringing forward industry best practices, emerging technologies, and innovative approaches that improve delivery effectiveness, engineering excellence, and business outcomes.
• Other duties as assigned

What YOU will bring to C&F

• Proven leadership abilities and change management skills
• Ability to seamlessly operate in both strategic and tactical capacities
• Ability to motivate, prioritize, and lead multiple projects simultaneously
• Excellent problem-solving and analytical skills with attention to detail
• Proven results leading AI-Enabled Engineering Adoption
• Effective Strategic Partnership & Influence
• Outcome & Metrics Orientation

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field—or equivalent experience. Master's degree in a related field preferred.
• 12 years in software engineering, with 3-5+ years leading engineering teams and managers.
• Proven track record owning software delivery and operational reliability in a scaled-agile / Agile Release Train environment.
• Hands-on background in the Microsoft/Azure stack: .NET Core, ASP.NET Core, EF Core; React/Angular/TypeScript; REST/GraphQL; SQL/NoSQL; Azure; CI/CD DevOps.
• Demonstrated success building, scaling, and developing high-performing engineering organizations.
• Experience driving adoption of modern engineering and AI-assisted practices at team scale.
• Proven people-leadership experience, including hiring, performance management, and org design.
• Demonstrated accountability for delivery predictability and service reliability.
• SAFe (SPC/RTE) certification; Microsoft Azure certifications preferred.
• Experience operationalizing AI-assisted engineering tools (GitHub Copilot, Azure OpenAI, GitHub Advanced Security) preferred.
• Experience in insurance, travel, or other regulated industries preferred.

What C&F will bring to you

What C&F will bring to YOU

• Competitive compensation package
• Generous 401K employer match
• Employee Stock Purchase plan with employer matching
• Generous Paid Time Off
• Excellent benefits that go beyond health, dental & vision. Our programs are focused on your whole family’s wellness including your physical, mental and financial wellbeing
• A core C&F tenant is owning your career development so we provide a wealth of ways for you to keep learning, including tuition reimbursement, industry related certifications and professional training to keep you progressing on your chosen path
• A dynamic, ambitious, fun and exciting work environment
• We believe you do well by doing good and want to encourage a spirit of social and community responsibility, matching donation program, volunteer opportunities, and an employee driven corporate giving program that lets you participate and support your community

At C&F you will BELONG

We value inclusivity and diversity. We are committed to equal employment opportunity and welcome everyone regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. If you require a special accommodation, please let us know.

For California Residents Only

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Crum & Forster is committed to ensuring a workplace free from discriminatory pay disparities and complying with applicable pay equity laws. Salary ranges are available for all positions at this location, taking into account roles with a comparable level of responsibility and impact in the relevant labor market and these salary ranges are regularly reviewed and adjusted in accordance with prevailing market conditions. The annualized base pay for the advertised position, located in the specified area, ranges from a minimum of $141,500 to a maximum of $218,500. The actual compensation is determined by various factors, including but not limited to the market pay for the jobs at each level, the responsibilities and skills required for each job, and the employee’s contribution (performance) in that role. To be considered within market range, a salary is at or above the minimum of the range. You may also have the opportunity to participate in discretionary equity (stock) based compensation and/or performance-based variable pay programs.