Technical Services - Infrastructure Architect

Infrastructure Architect (Hybrid – Omaha, NE)

YOU MUST BE LOCAL TO OMAHA!

Business Technology – Technical Services | WoodmenLife
Location: Hybrid – Omaha, NE
Reports To: Director, Technical Services

PLEASE NOTE: WoodmenLife will not sponsor applicants for work visas for this position. Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis.

To be considered for this position, applicants must submit a resume that includes their full name, current residential address, email address, and phone number. Resumes that do not contain all required contact information will not be considered.

Why You’ll Love This Role

WoodmenLife is seeking an Infrastructure Architect to help shape the future of our enterprise infrastructure environment and lead architectural direction across infrastructure modernization, hybrid cloud, automation, resiliency, and technology lifecycle initiatives.

This is a highly visible, senior technical leadership role that combines infrastructure architecture, technology strategy, modernization, and cross-functional collaboration. You will work across Systems Engineering, Networking, Operations, Enterprise and Cloud Architecture, Security, and Application Services to ensure our infrastructure capabilities are secure, resilient, scalable, supportable, and aligned with broader business and technology objectives.

You will also serve as the System Architect for the Infrastructure & Operations Services (IOS) Agile Release Train, providing architectural leadership for PI Planning, maintaining the architectural runway, defining architectural enablers, and helping teams navigate technical dependencies and risks.

This is a senior individual-contributor role, not a people-management or operations-management position. It is an excellent opportunity for an experienced infrastructure leader who wants to influence technology strategy and major technical decisions while remaining closely connected to architecture and engineering.

At WoodmenLife, you'll also enjoy a culture that values people as much as technology, with a collaborative environment, strong work-life balance (including Friday afternoons off year-round), and a focus on meaningful outcomes.

Role Summary

The Infrastructure Architect provides architectural leadership and technical direction for infrastructure platforms, strategy, and modernization initiatives across Technical Services.

This role develops infrastructure patterns, reference architectures, technical standards, and roadmaps while evaluating technology investments and identifying technical debt, lifecycle risks, and modernization opportunities.

The Infrastructure Architect also serves as System Architect for the IOS Agile Release Train, providing architecture leadership for ART planning and delivery while ensuring infrastructure initiatives remain aligned with approved architecture, security requirements, enterprise standards, and operational needs.

What You’ll Do

Infrastructure Architecture & Technical Direction

• Design and evolve secure, resilient, scalable, highly available, and operationally sustainable infrastructure architectures across on-premises and hybrid environments.

• Develop infrastructure patterns, reference architectures, and technical guidance across networking, compute, storage, virtualization, identity and access management, observability, automation, and related infrastructure technologies.

• Translate business, technology, security, and operational requirements into infrastructure architecture designs and technical plans.

• Evaluate infrastructure solutions for architectural alignment, feasibility, security, performance, interoperability, supportability, and operational readiness.

• Document and communicate significant architecture decisions, dependencies, constraints, risks, and technical tradeoffs.

Infrastructure Strategy & Modernization

• Help develop and execute infrastructure strategies, roadmaps, lifecycle plans, and modernization initiatives.

• Identify infrastructure risks, technical debt, architectural gaps, unsupported technologies, and opportunities to simplify or modernize platforms.

• Guide the evolution of on-premises and hybrid infrastructure and support approved cloud architecture.

• Promote greater use of automation, Infrastructure as Code, Platform Engineering, DevOps, and DevSecOps practices.

• Evaluate emerging technologies and infrastructure investments based on business value, technical fit, security, risk, cost, and operational readiness.

• Guide improvements in infrastructure capacity, performance, availability, observability, reliability, resiliency, and operational efficiency.

IOS System Architecture Leadership

• Serve as System Architect for the Infrastructure, Operations & Security Agile Release Train.

• Provide architectural leadership for ART planning and delivery.

• Define and maintain the architectural runway and architectural enablers required to support planned infrastructure capabilities.

• Participate in PI Planning, architecture synchronization, technical planning, and other ART activities.

• Coordinate architecture decisions, technical dependencies, risks, constraints, and nonfunctional requirements across teams.

• Represent the IOS ART within architecture discussions and communicate relevant architecture matters to Technical Services and enterprise architecture stakeholders.

Architecture Governance & Collaboration

• Partner with Enterprise and Cloud Architecture to align infrastructure platforms, patterns, roadmaps, standards, and modernization initiatives with enterprise technology direction.

• Develop and recommend infrastructure-specific patterns and standards.

• Collaborate across architecture, security, application, engineering, networking, and operations teams.

• Evaluate internal and vendor-provided designs for security, resiliency, integration, supportability, and operational readiness.

• Provide infrastructure architecture expertise for enterprise initiatives, platform migrations, technology implementations, and significant infrastructure changes.

Implementation & Operational Readiness

• Provide architectural guidance throughout solution design, implementation, validation, deployment, and transition to operations.

• Help resolve architecture and design challenges that arise during implementation.

• Ensure infrastructure solutions incorporate appropriate monitoring, observability, operational documentation, support procedures, recovery capabilities, and production-readiness requirements.

• Support validation of resiliency, performance, capacity, security, failure scenarios, disaster recovery, and other nonfunctional requirements.

• Apply lessons learned from implementations, incidents, service problems, and operational experience to improve architecture and reduce technical debt.

Technical Leadership & Enablement

• Serve as a trusted advisor to Technical Services leadership on infrastructure architecture, technical risk, technology investments, modernization, and long-term direction.

• Communicate architecture recommendations, risks, decisions, and tradeoffs to technical and nontechnical stakeholders.

• Facilitate technical discussions and build consensus across Business Technology teams.

• Mentor technical teams on infrastructure architecture principles, approved patterns, and modern infrastructure practices.

• Influence technology direction across multiple teams without direct management authority.

What You Bring

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related discipline, or equivalent professional experience.

• 10+ years of progressive information technology experience.

• 5+ years of experience in infrastructure architecture, systems architecture, cloud architecture, or a related technical leadership role.

• Experience designing enterprise infrastructure solutions across networking, compute, storage, virtualization, identity and access management, automation, observability, and hybrid cloud environments.

• Experience developing infrastructure strategies, roadmaps, modernization initiatives, and lifecycle plans.

• Experience supporting infrastructure modernization, platform transformation, and technical debt reduction.

• Experience providing architecture leadership within an Agile Release Train, including PI Planning, architectural runway development, enabler definition, and cross-team dependency management.

• Experience with architecture governance, technical design reviews, infrastructure planning, and significant technology decisions.

• Strong understanding of infrastructure resiliency, high availability, disaster recovery, business continuity, capacity management, monitoring, observability, performance, and operational readiness.

• Strong understanding of infrastructure security, identity and access management, regulatory requirements, and Zero Trust principles.

• Working knowledge of IT service management, production operations, incident and problem management, and operational support practices.

• Ability to evaluate technology alternatives based on technical fit, risk, security, supportability, operational impact, cost, and long-term sustainability.

• Strong communication, facilitation, stakeholder engagement, and consensus-building skills.

• Demonstrated ability to influence technical direction across multiple teams without direct authority.

Preferred Qualifications

• SAFe Architect, SAFe Agilist, or related scaled Agile certification.

• Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect Expert or another relevant cloud or infrastructure architecture certification.

• Experience with Infrastructure as Code, including technologies such as Terraform or Bicep.

• Experience with PowerShell and infrastructure automation.

• Experience with Platform Engineering, DevOps, DevSecOps, and cloud operations.

• Experience with ServiceNow, CMDB, monitoring, and observability platforms.

• Experience evaluating vendor solutions, managed services, infrastructure investments, capacity requirements, and total cost of ownership.

• Experience in insurance, financial services, or another regulated industry.

Scope & Decision Authority

• Serves as the Infrastructure Architect within Technical Services and System Architect for the IOS Agile Release Train.

• Provides architecture direction for infrastructure platforms, modernization initiatives, and the IOS architectural runway.

• Recommends infrastructure standards, patterns, and technology direction.

• Advises on architecture alignment, technical risk, security, resiliency, supportability, operational readiness, and cost.

• Collaborates with Enterprise and Cloud Architecture on standards, cloud-platform direction, and architecture governance.

• Influences infrastructure roadmaps, technology decisions, investment priorities, and budget planning.

• Operates as a senior technical leader while engineering and operations teams maintain responsibility for implementation, service ownership, and production support.

Leadership Insight from the Hiring Manager

“My management and leadership approach is collaborative, transparent, and focused on empowering others. I provide clear direction and accountability while giving team members the autonomy to use their expertise and make decisions within their areas of responsibility. I encourage open discussion, strong collaboration, and bringing the right people together to solve complex problems while keeping our work aligned with broader business priorities.”

WoodmenLife offers a competitive compensation package and a comprehensive benefits package. More information about our benefits can be found at:
https://www.woodmenlife.org/careers/home-office/benefits/

As part of WoodmenLife’s employment process, candidates will be required to complete a criminal background check, credit check (where required for position), fingerprint check (where required for position), drug screen, and reference checks. Any offer of employment will be contingent upon successfully passing the above.

WoodmenLife is welcoming to all regardless of background and beliefs. We respect every associate’s unique perspective and contribution. We are committed to creating an environment that values differences and provides opportunities for growth, leadership, and service. This includes providing equal opportunity in recruitment, employment, promotion, training, and community outreach. WoodmenLife is also dedicated to strengthening the communities where our employees live and work.

APPLICANTS WITH DISABILITIES should advise the Human Resources Department at the time of application if special accommodations are needed.

Woodmen of the World Life Insurance Society (WoodmenLife) is an Equal Opportunity Employer.