Manager Information Technology

Introduction We’re motivated by the fact that educators take care of our children’s future, and we believe they deserve someone to look after theirs. We help educators identify their financial goals and develop plans to achieve them. This includes insurance to protect what they have today and financial products to help them prepare for their future. Overview

This position will be hybrid out of either Springfield, IL or Plano, TX. It is not a remote position.

Horace Mann is seeking an experienced and strategic
IT Manager
to lead a critical development team within IT whowill be instrumental in maintaining application stability and efficiency, driving continuous improvement, and aligning business priorities with technical excellence. The IT Manger is expected to possess a
strong technical background, deep understanding of business needs, and exceptional decision-making skills
to evaluate and prioritize requests that maximize business value.

This role requires someone who is
highly organized, confident in making firm prioritization decisions, and skilled in communicating trade-offs to stakeholders
. The manager must be able to navigate competing demands, align technology work with business strategic goals, and create a structured approach to application system support and incremental enhancements.

Leadership & Team Management:

Lead, mentor, and empower
application
development team
responsible for support, defect resolution, and system enhancements, upgrades and conversions.

• Ensure cross-team collaboration
  , fostering a shared understanding of priorities, dependencies, and technical solutions.
• Create and uphold
  accountability structures
  to ensure work is completed efficiently and with high quality.
• Drive a
  culture of ownership, problem-solving, and continuous learning
  .

Technical & Business Understanding:

• Serve as the bridge between
  technology teams and business stakeholders
  , ensuring both sides understand priorities, constraints, and impacts.
• Provide guidance on
  best practices for system stability, scalability, and continuous improvement
  .

Stakeholder Communication & Expectation Management:

• Set
  firm but fair expectations
  with business stakeholders, ensuring they understand how and why prioritization decisions are made.
• Provide regular updates on
  progress, challenges, and key outcomes
  related to support and enhancements.
• Communicate
  realistic timelines, risks, and trade-offs
  when managing requests.

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Business Administration, or equivalent experience.

Experience:

• 3+ years of experience in IT leadership, with a focus on
  managing developers, operations, technical support, and system enhancements
  .
• Proven track record of
  making strategic prioritization decisions that drive business value
  .
• Strong background in
  technical support, bug resolution, and application enhancement
  .

Skills & Competencies

Technical & Business Expertise:

• Strong understanding
  software development life cycles, and IT support models
  coinciding with business needs.
• Ability to translate
  business requirements into technical requirements and development prioritization.
• Familiarity with
  modern ticketing systems (e.g., Jira, Azure Dev Ops) and IT service management best practices
  .
• Proficiency in leveraging generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Copilot, or similar to enhance development workflows.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Insurance Product Knowledge
  - Annuities, Life, IUL, Supplemental Health, Group Health and Group Life
• Development Experience
  - Main Frame, C#, SSIS, SSRS, Java,SQL