Director, Software Engineering; Hybrid

About Us

At Selective, we don't just insure uniquely, we employ uniqueness. Selective is a midsized U.S. domestic property and casualty insurance company with nearly 100 years of strong, consistent financial performance. Selective's unique position as both a leading insurance group and an employer of choice is recognized in a wide variety of awards and honors, including listing in Forbes Best Midsize Employers in 2025 and certification as a Great Place to Work® for the sixth consecutive year.

Employees are empowered and encouraged to Be Uniquely You by being their true, unique selves and contributing their diverse talents, experiences, and perspectives to our shared success. Together, we are a high-performing team working to serve our customers responsibly by helping to mitigate loss, keep them safe, and restore their lives and businesses after an insured loss occurs.

Applicants must be authorized to work for any employer in the United States. Selective will not sponsor or assume the sponsorship of an employment visa at this time. Note for NJ based candidates:
This role will be located at our future headquarters in Short Hills, N.J. Until the new headquarters is operational, the successful candidate will be offered the ability to work in our Branchville, N.J. location during this interim period.

Selective Insurance is looking for an Application Manager, Software Engineering who is responsible for delivering software solutions to solve business, and customer needs. This individual will oversee a team consisting of senior software engineers and team leads responsible for supporting applications that are complex in nature and of high strategic importance to the corporation. The primary responsibility will be to oversee 2-3 agile delivery teams leading new strategic projects and enhancements for Excess & Surplus line solutions used by Selective’s agents and underwriters.

• Manages implementations of new hardware and software solutions and the ongoing maintenance for insurance policy administration systems
• Collaborate with managers (IT and business) to discuss system requirements, specifications, costs and timelines
• Establishing and maintaining relationships with business and IT counterparts to ensure proper collaboration
• Accountable for leading efforts around project scope, schedule, and budget, ensuring commitments and progress are monitored closely and communicated clearly
• Forecasting and allocation of team members across several development projects
• Regular reporting of key metrics like resource allocation, software defects, productivity, and efficiency
• Trains, supervises, assigns projects to, evaluates, and is responsible for hiring/termination of information technology personnel and contracting staff
• Talent management of team members to ensure high morale and appropriate advancement of individual goals and career aspirations
• Participate in the evaluation, acquisition, and implementation of software to support business processes
• Participation in and well-planned implementation of established quality improvement initiatives and processes

Demonstrates extensive abilities and/or a proven record of success as a team leader by:

• Supervising teams to create an atmosphere of trust; seeking diverse views to encourage improvement and innovation;
• Participating in various staff recruitment and retention activities;
• Coaching staff including providing timely meaningful written and verbal feedback;
• Managing a cross functional team of Pega architects and system architects, along with .NET/Angular developers, and ensure tasks are assigned and delivered on time and on budget;
• Translating complex functional, technical and business requirements into architectural designs;
• Developing high-level application design and direct detailed design work of the developers;
• Developing proofs-of-concept and prototypes to validate and compare design alternatives;
• Performing cost/benefit and trade-off analyses of design alternatives;
• Defining high-level development tasks, provide estimates, and identify skills necessary for implementation;
• Guiding software engineers in the implementation of selected designs and…