[Hiring] AVP, Software Engineering & DevOps @Aon

Role Description

The AVP, Software Engineering & DevOps owns software development, DevOps, and code delivery across the firm. This role is responsible for establishing engineering rigor, leading development execution, and ensuring code moves from concept through production reliably, securely, and repeatedly.

• Build a structured, scalable software engineering and DevOps function that connects development and infrastructure.
• Improve delivery speed and reliability.
• Consistently transform approved priorities into secure, maintainable production solutions.

Key Responsibilities

• Software Development & Delivery
  • Own delivery across internally developed applications, integrations, automation, and supporting services.
  • Convert approved priorities into actionable technical plans with defined scope, order, ownership, and delivery commitments.
  • Lead solution build, code development, testing, release, and production stabilization.
  • Review and contribute code, troubleshoot critical issues, and make pragmatic technical decisions when required.
• DevOps & Release Engineering
  • Own CI/CD, build and release automation, environment management, deployment controls, and production-readiness standards.
  • Implement repeatable provisioning, configuration, artifact management, and secret-management practices.
  • Reduce manual releases, environment drift, deployment failures, and reliance on individual employees or contractors.
  • Continuously improve delivery speed, quality, control, and recoverability.
• Engineering Standards & Team Leadership
  • Set realistic guidelines for architecture, coding, source control, code review, automated testing, documentation, and technical debt.
  • Guide and mentor developers with different experiences into a cohesive engineering team that follows consistent practices and maintains clear accountability.
  • Define ownership for applications, repositories, environments, releases, and production support.
  • Assess capability gaps and build the appropriate staffing model across employees, contractors, and strategic partners.
• Infrastructure, Security & Operations Partnership
  • Act as the operational link between development and Infrastructure, Security, Data, Enterprise Applications, Architecture, and Program Management.
  • Ensure availability, performance, security, recoverability, supportability, and cost are addressed throughout the development lifecycle.
  • Establish application observability through actionable logging, metrics, alerting, dashboards, and support procedures.
  • Lead application incident response, root-cause analysis, and completion of corrective actions.
• Accountability
  • Speed, quality, and predictability of software delivery.
  • Code quality, testing rigor, documentation, and maintainability.
  • Reliability and efficiency of build, release, and deployment processes.
  • Preparation for production, application monitoring, and incident resolution.
  • Ability, responsibility, and output of the development team.

What This Role Does Not Own

• Business ideation, prioritization, or the enterprise opportunity pipeline.
• Underlying enterprise infrastructure, network operations, or cybersecurity policy and governance.
• Enterprise data strategy, data platform engineering, or business reporting outcomes.
• Endpoint engineering, application packaging, laptop security, out-of-box experience, or IT logistics.

Leadership Profile

• Practical leader with extensive software engineering and DevOps background.
• Strong builder and operator with a focus on execution, simplicity, and production outcomes.
• Established capability to direct developers with different experiences and elevate engineering maturity.
• Capability to examine code, identify delivery issues, and make well-informed architectural choices.
• Solid knowledge of cloud and Microsoft-focused enterprise environments.
• Effective collaborator across business, development, infrastructure, security, data, and program teams.

Success Metrics

• Predictable delivery of committed software outcomes.
• Increased deployment frequency and reduced lead time to production.
• Reduction in failed changes, rollbacks, manual release effort, and person-dependent processes.
• Advancement in application reliability, observability, and incident recovery time.
• Progress in code quality, automated testing, documentation, and production readiness.
• Improved skills and ownership within the development team.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Physics, Math, Information Systems, or related field, or an equivalent combination of education and relevant professional experience.
• 8+ years of progressive experience in software engineering, application development, or DevOps, including hands-on responsibility for production systems.
• 3+ years of experience leading developers, engineering teams, or technical delivery functions.
• Proven capability to analyze, debug, and contribute production code using contemporary development frameworks and languages.
• Strong experience with source control, automated testing, CI/CD, release automation, observability, and cloud-based application environments.
• Experience building or supporting AI-enabled applications and using AI-assisted software development tools.
• Solid knowledge of APIs, integrations, databases, application architecture, security, and production-support needs.
• Experience with Microsoft Azure, GitHub, Azure DevOps, or comparable cloud and development platforms.
• Experience delivering technology in financial services or another regulated environment preferred.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to collaborate across development, infrastructure, security, data, business, and executive partners.

Benefits

• Competitive salary.
• PTO & paid holidays.
• 401(k) with match.
• Exclusive discount programs.
• Health & wellness programs.
• PeopleFirst culture focusing on building and nurturing lifelong relationships with employees.