Enterprise Data & AI Architect

Company Description

Encova Insurance is a super-regional carrier offering commercial, auto, and home insurance solutions across 27 states and Washington, D.C. Ranked among the top 25 mutual insurance companies in the United States, Encova is rated A (excellent) by AM Best. With over 1,100 associates, more than 2,000 independent agency partners, and $5.4 billion in assets, Encova has established itself as a financially strong and trusted provider. The company is committed to delivering comprehensive and innovative insurance products to meet customer needs.

Role Description

JOB OBJECTIVE:

The Data & AI Architect will lead the architecture and design of modern Data and AI solutions that advance Encova’s enterprise data and digital strategy. This role is responsible for developing and driving Data and AI strategies, reference architectures, roadmaps, and design patterns to enable secure, and scalable solutions that promote enterprise-wide adoption.  The architect will collaborate with key stakeholders to plan, design, and guide the delivery of data and AI capabilities that deliver measurable value. By leveraging architecture blueprints and roadmaps, the architect will help enhance engineering speed, agility, and alignment with Encova’s overall strategic direction.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS: 

• Develop and maintain the enterprise Data & AI architecture strategy and roadmaps to ensure alignment with Encova’s business and technology objectives.
• Design and publish Data & AI reference architectures, standards, and guidance to drive consistent and scalable adoption across the enterprise.
• Design and optimize end-to-end operational workflows by embedding automation, AI-driven workflow orchestration, intelligent decisioning, and continuous feedback loops to accelerate processes and reduce overall cycle times.
• Establish and update enterprise standards and patterns for Data & AI technologies, including DevOps/MLOps, security, privacy, and observability practices.
• Architect and enhance Data & AI platform solutions and integration patterns, stay informed on emerging technologies and evaluate their applicability within Encova.
• Provide architectural leadership and consultation on Data & AI capabilities across business and technology, ensuring alignment with enterprise frameworks, standards, and strategic goals.
• Lead and evaluate Data & AI architecture deliverables, perform capability assessments, and support technical evaluations to identify and close gaps.
• Collaborate with solution architects and engineers to document design decisions, ensuring architectural consistency and traceability.
• Partner with technology, business, and governance leaders to identify Data & AI risks and process challenges and develop enterprise patterns to address them.
• Collaborate with enterprise architecture, cybersecurity, compliance, governance, privacy, business, and IT teams to evangelize and align on Data & AI strategies, standards, and architectural guidance.
• Monitor and assess emerging Data & AI threats, designing resilient architectures and controls to mitigate risks.

OTHER FUNCTIONS:

• Champion the adoption of Data & AI best practices, driving continuous improvement in business agility, value realization, and cost effectiveness.
• Build Up and mentor associate team members

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES:

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related field.
• 8 years of IT design and implementation experience in designing and architecting IT solutions, AI/ML frameworks, AI/ML Engineering, Prompt Engineering, cloud platforms, and modern data technologies
• Experience in designing GenAI solutions, with experience in MLOPS, LLM, AWS Bedrock, SageMaker, Snowflake Cortex is a plus, OpenAI, BIG Data Solutions.
• Experience in architecting and designing modern enterprise data platforms (data lake, data warehouses, data marts, etc.)
• Familiarity with modern DevOps/Data Engineering practices, including CI/CD pipelines and automation tools (e.g., Terraform, Ansible).
• Proven experience in AWS cloud architecture and services, including EC2, S3, Lambda, RDS, VPC, IAM, CloudFormation, Snowflake, and others.
• Prior insurance industry experience is a plus
• Strong problem-solving and critical thinking skills, with the ability to design scalable solutions for complex business needs.
• Trusted and respected as a thought leader who can influence and persuade business and IT leaders and IT development teams
• Willingness to learn new things and adapt quickly to a team and enterprise undergoing positive transformation and growth
• Ability to foster a sense of purpose among the team and create a culture of transparency with clear accountabilities and metrics
• Demonstrated ability to foster a culture of innovation and a high-agency mindset
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work across teams and with business stakeholders.