Chief Technology Officer

StevenDouglas has been retained to identify a Chief Technology Officer for a Miami, FL-based company that is a leader in the specialty insurance industry.

Founded in 2019, this company focuses on high-growth industries often overlooked by traditional insurers, including AI, crypto, fintech, space, and cannabis. As the world's leading insurance provider to the crypto sector, the company holds a license allowing it to accept premiums, pay claims, and build reserves in both fiat and cryptocurrency. The company's expertise in emerging risks, regulatory compliance, and personalized service enables the delivery of bespoke insurance products and risk management services. Its client-centric approach positions it as a key player in the specialty insurance market for innovative and evolving sectors.

This year, the company plans to expand into multiple new jurisdictions, leverage technology to drive transformational growth, and once again double in size. It's an exceptional time for a technology leader to join the company and have the opportunity to drive exponential impact.

Location: This position is based in Miami Beach (US HQ) with regular travel to Bermuda (Global HQ) and occasional travel to international office locations, including Dubai, London, Switzerland, and other destinations.

Opportunity Summary:

• As the Chief Technology Officer, you will lead the strategy and delivery of cutting-edge technology solutions, driving innovation and operational excellence.
• Your responsibilities include overseeing platform development, data analytics, and global IT infrastructure across multiple locations.
• By leveraging data effectively, you will enhance underwriting processes, improve business operations, and support strategic decision-making. You will build and lead high-performing teams, ensuring efficient and cost-effective technology delivery.
• Additionally, you will oversee strategic vendor relationships and assess build vs. buy options.
• Working closely with key internal stakeholders, including the CEO, CFO, COO, and Head of Underwriting, you will align technology initiatives with business objectives and act as a business enabler.
• This is an opportunity to shape the future of a pioneering insurer that thrives on innovative and outside-the-box thinking in a rapidly evolving industry.

Ideal Candidate Profile & Experiences:

• Technology Leadership and Innovation: Proven experience in a senior technology leadership role, preferably as a CTO, CIO, SVP or Head of Technology with a strong track record of driving technological transformation and fostering a culture of innovation within an organization. Track record of leveraging cutting-edge technologies to differentiate in the competitive insurance market, driving innovation in product offerings and customer experience.
• Insurance Industry Experience: 10+ years of technology leadership experience with a minimum of 5 years' experience in the insurance industry. Exposure to financial and insurance systems, including underwriting, policy processing, billing, claims, and statistical data requirements, with knowledge of specialty insurance business and processes.
• Platform Expertise: Expertise in platform implementation and integration. CRM system deployment, customization, and Salesforce app integration experience is critical. Experience with insurance-specific systems such as policy administration and underwriting software preferred.
• Data Team Management Experience: Building and leading data teams focused on advanced analytics, data dashboards, and observability. Experience enabling data architecture to enable data and reporting-focused team leveraging reporting infrastructure such as Power BI.
• Global IT Infrastructure Management: Demonstrated experience in managing global IT infrastructure across multiple international locations, ensuring robust cybersecurity measures, and optimizing resource allocation with a focus on uptime. Ensure employee hardware, software, and IT policies are reliably deployed directly or through effective vendor management.
• Project and Vendor Management: Proven experience leading the successful design, development, delivery, support, and maintenance of large-scale, high-performing, technically complex insurance applications. Demonstrated track record in selecting, managing, and directing complex vendor relationships.
• Workflow Automation and AI enablement experience: Experience identifying, prioritizing, and automating legacy manual workflows to enable a step-function increase in workflow output. Specific experience deploying automated workflows across SharePoint, Office 365, Microsoft Flow, Power Automate, Salesforce, and other systems preferred. Experience directly or with specialized vendors deploying cutting edge Artificial intelligence tools that can multiply business impact across underwriting, unstructured file data, client engagement, claims and other areas also preferred.

Key Responsibilities:

Technology Strategy & Roadmap Development:

• Define the Vision: Establish a clear technology vision aligned with the company's evolving business objectives.
• Strategic Planning: Develop a comprehensive technology roadmap that outlines key initiatives, timelines, and resource requirements, with scalability, security, and reliability of technology platforms in mind.
• Innovation: Stay abreast of industry trends and emerging technologies to drive continuous innovation.

Platform Development and Integration:

• Policy Administration System: Lead the architecture, design, and development of a Policy Administration System to manage policy lifecycle, underwriting, and claims processing.
• Integration: Ensure seamless integration with existing enterprise systems such as CRM (Salesforce), billing, and claims management, maintaining data integrity and security.
• Enhanced Salesforce Customization: Extend Salesforce capabilities with custom applications and integrations tailored to the specific needs of insurance operations, such as lead management, policy lifecycle management, and customer service automation.
• Blockchain Infrastructure: Execute buildout of on-chain solutions and smart contract systems to enable the company to transact insurance programmatically.
• Workflow Automation: Identify and drive company-wide workflow automation initiatives leveraging new and existing tools and resources.
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) enablement: Identify and drive opportunities across all business units to leverage AI tools to improve efficiency.
• Product Management: Collect business requirements to make buy vs build system implementation decisions and deploy new systems as required (e.g. policy administration, claims and finance integrations).

Data Analytics and Reporting:

• Data Team Formation: Assemble a data team responsible for data engineering, analytics, and business intelligence.
• Data Collection & Management: Develop and maintain data infrastructure to collect, store, and organize large volumes of structured and unstructured data from various sources. Ensure data quality, consistency, and security across all data systems.
• Data Analysis & Insights: Analyze data to identify trends, patterns, and insights that can inform business strategies and decision-making processes. Develop predictive models to assess risk, forecast future trends, and optimize pricing strategies.
• Dashboards and Reporting: Create dashboards and reports to visualize key metrics and performance indicators for stakeholders.
• Data Observability: Implement tools and practices for data quality, monitoring, and observability to ensure accurate and reliable data.
• Underwriting Support: Provide data-driven insights to support the underwriting process, including risk assessment and evaluation of policy applications, and develop and maintain underwriting models to improve accuracy and efficiency.

IT Infrastructure Management:

• Global IT Infrastructure: Oversee the global IT infrastructure, ensuring robust and secure systems across various locations (e.g., Miami, Bermuda, Dubai, London, Switzerland, Malta).
• Hardware and Software Management: Manage the procurement, deployment, and maintenance of hardware and software assets.
• Network and Connectivity: Ensure fast, reliable and secure network connectivity across all offices and remote workers.
• Technology Support: Establish robust IT support and service management processes to ensure high availability and performance of technology systems.

Vendor Management and Outsourcing:

• Build vs. Buy Analysis: Evaluate technology solutions to determine whether to build in-house or outsource, focusing on cost, efficiency, and speed to market.
• Vendor Relationships: Manage relationships with technology vendors and service providers to ensure quality, reliability, uptime & performance.

Team Leadership and Development:

• Recruitment: Hire key technology leaders and build high-performing teams to execute the technology strategy.
• Leadership: Provide leadership, mentorship, and career development opportunities for the technology team.
• Culture: Foster a culture of innovation, collaboration, and continuous improvement within the technology organization.

Operational Excellence:

• Process Optimization: Identify and implement process improvements to enhance operational efficiency and effectiveness.
• Continuous Improvement: Drive continuous improvement initiatives to optimize technology operations and support business growth.