AVP, Infrastructure Operations Management

About IT

Innovation and technology are essential to our success at RenaissanceRe. We believe in strong business and IT alignment, working closely together to develop leading capabilities to support our globally integrated operating model.  This joined-up thinking and passion for continuous improvement helps drive our cutting-edge systems – and it’s something we’re recognized for externally. From the start, our business has been founded with technology and data innovation at its heart. Today, we continue to invest in advanced risk and portfolio insights enabled by serverless financial modelling, a data mesh architecture, and artificial intelligence with innovative partners. The impressive scalability and performance this has enabled has helped us achieve industry-leading results.

For our IT team, it means a unique environment. We’re developing next generation technology that has real world impact. Working side-by-side with industry-leading risk specialists, we help to solve complex problems that help protect communities around the world. A career in IT at RenaissanceRe is continually evolving, technically innovative and highly rewarding.  Our main IT hubs are Bermuda, Dublin, London and Raleigh, North Carolina.

About the Position

Reporting directly to the SVP, Group Infrastructure and Services Manager

The Infrastructure Operations Manager role is based in the Dublin office may require select travel to other RenRe offices within Europe, continental United States and to Bermuda.

Key Relationships

• Reports to: SVP, Group Infrastructure and Services Manager
• Key Stakeholders:  IT Customer Services Team, IT Engineering, IT Shared Services.
• Key Partners:  VP -Group IT Services and Operations, AVP – Datacentre and Virtualisation Manger, AVP – Network Manager.

Key Responsibilities

1. Infrastructure Operations Management

• Work the existing IT infrastructure team to create management reports, including monitoring and reporting on servers, networks, storage, data centres, and cloud systems uptime and availability.
• Ensure that Engineering teams are following correct process while deploying, maintaining and upgrading Infrastructure systems.
• Lead and manage resources in carrying out upgrades, expansions, and improvements to the infrastructure as needed.

2. Operations Monitoring and Incident Management

• Working with the monitoring team seeking to continually improve and develop our robust monitoring platforms, identifying enhancement opportunities.
• Manage and resolve escalated incidents, including system outages or performance issues, ensure that Senior leadership is kept informed on incident progress providing updates and Root Cause Analysis / Retrospectives when required.
• Act as an Incident Manager for IT Incidents,  work as part of the existing Incident Management team to help develop processes and participate in the Global Incident Management On Call.
• Run retrospectives when required, and drive RCA investigations preparing reports for Senior Leadership.

3. Security and Compliance

• Work with the Infrastructure team to Implement and manage security measures to protect IT systems.
• Partner with Security management to ensure compliance with relevant regulations, security posture changes and incident management.
• Seek to further develop the Security team’s relationship with IT Infrastructure, facilitating planning sessions and information sharing.

5. Vendor and Service Provider Management

• Manage relationships, where relevant, with third-party vendors and service providers for infrastructure services.
• Negotiate contracts, where relevant and when required, manage service level agreements (SLAs), and monitor vendor performance.

6. Budgeting and Cost Management

• Gather budget planning information from Infrastructure leads, feed this into the budget preparation process, ensure optimal use of financial resources. Provide forecasting and validate Finance Budget Vs Actual reporting.
• Track operational expenses and make recommendations for cost reductions, work with the Infrastructure and Services management team to forecast and monitor.

7. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity

• Ensure Infrastructure team are effective in how they deliver and plan for Disaster recovery. Work with the BCP Director to assist with coordinating annual testing of our Disaster recovery plan.

8. Capacity Planning and Scalability

• Monitor infrastructure capacity and forecast future needs based on business growth and technology trends.
• Ensure infrastructure is flexible, scalable and adaptable to new technologies and business requirements.

9. Policy Development and Process Improvement

• Drive continuous improvement in IT Infrastructure operational processes, adopting automation where possible.
• Work closely with other IT and business teams to ensure alignment with organizational goals.

10. Collaboration and Communication, Project Management

• Act as a liaison between IT and other business units to understand infrastructure needs and challenges.
• Provide regular updates on the status of IT operations, performance metrics, and project progress to senior management.
• Collaborate with development, security, and project management teams to ensure smooth IT operations and project delivery.
• Under the guidance of the Infrastructure Project Manager, act as a project lead for Infrastructure Projects, including IT Services and security, providing regular reporting to Infrastructure Management.

Candidate Qualifications:

• Degree or equivalent experience in IT Services Operations with management experience of a team across multiple locations.
• Strong IT Services Delivery or IT Infrastructure background with 6+ years in a leadership role.
• Experience and confidence presenting to large groups and executive level audiences.
• Broad experience in multiple competency areas of IT Services and Operations delivery; examples are IT Asset management, IT Security Operations, IT Support, Software Support and Cloud Services
• Proven team leadership, coaching, staff development and mentoring skills.
• Effectively drives people, process and technology change in a dynamic complex operating environment supported by excellent collaboration and communication skills.
• Strategic thinker with the skills to define and drive strategic outcomes either directly or through others not directly under his/her supervision.
• Able to manage and negotiate numerous problems and issues faced, even if undefined and where information is difficult to obtain.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, able to explain complex technical subjects to business leaders and business concepts to technologists in support of desired outcomes. Detail orientated and familiar with documentation standards especially in the field of Project Management.
• Proven project delivery experience with experience of leading project teams, use of project management tools and working with different project approaches such as Waterfall and Agile.

Would be advantageous to have:

• Experience with JIRA, ServiceNow and firm understanding of IT processes.
• Experience defining and managing light-touch governance frameworks in a regulated entity.
• Experience in Budget creation, maintenance, and management.
• Familiarity of GRC standards and working practices.
• Familiarity with requirements for regulatory governing bodies such as SOX, FINMA, PRA, Lloyds.