Who are we?

Western National Insurance Group is a private mutual insurance company with over 120 years of experience serving customers' property-and-casualty insurance needs in the Midwestern, Northwestern, and Southwestern United States. Known as “The Relationship Company®,” we define success as a measure of the relationships we’ve built over time. In everything that we do, we know that delivering a friendly and helpful interaction makes for a better experience for everyone involved. That’s the power of “nice”. At Western National, nice is something we work to bring to every person and organization with whom we partner and serve.

Does this opportunity interest you?

Western National is seeking a Senior Automation Engineer to join our team! 

The individual in this role will have the opportunity to design, implement, test, and validate deployments of software application modifications.

What are the responsibilities and opportunities of this role?

• Collaborates with product team to test and deploy application modifications based on collaboratively defined requirements. 
• Participates in work refinement and estimation processes with product team.
• Prepares and executes testing on all new and modified code per team, product, and organization standards.
• Works with product and change control teams to ensure quality deliverables that provide customer value.
• Creates and maintains documentation that the product team or company has defined as important (support processes, team processes, system documentation, decisions / discussions, etc.).
• Ensures timely delivery of projects and tasks and communicates delays and roadblocks with the team and leadership, as needed.
• Flexes to noncore responsibilities as needed to ensure timely work delivery to the customer (analysis, testing, deployment, meeting facilitation, etc.). 
• Designs test automation into continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI / CD) pipelines with DevOps teams and ensures automation throughout all phases of life cycle.
• Influences inclusion of testability during design and development phases.
• Solicits and performs code review per team, product, and organization standards.
• Identifies opportunities for process improvement and collaborates with team and team leadership to influence process improvement at product team level.
• Identifies defect-prone areas in product and platform architecture and designs and provides test coverage.
• Actively participates in test defect resolution process, providing defect descriptions, root cause, scope, risks, and impact of a problem.
• Facilitates test defect resolution process (meetings, metrics, etc.).
• Leads in troubleshooting, resolution, and communication of urgent production issues within product team.
• Finds opportunities for automation of processes and tasks at product team level.
• Participates in evolution of team level development best practices, standards, and policies with consideration for implications in work activities.
• Identifies opportunities to improve application and business process efficiency and effectiveness with an emphasis on quality and positive user experience.
• Understands and effectively communicates the relationship between problem components.
• Utilizes high level of knowledge, experience, and creative resources to find a wide range of solutions.
• Contributes to resolve problems and / or process improvements at the product team level.
• Consistently acts according to our customer experience standards, including responding quickly, maintaining a positive attitude, building rapport, demonstrating empathy, managing the customer’s expectations, using the proper communication channel for the situation, and taking ownership to ensure the customer’s issue is resolved.
• Provides support to primary customers, including, but are not limited to, direct teammates in all roles, product team leadership, and colleagues on other teams, managers, and vendors.
• Performs special projects and other duties as assigned.

What are the must-have qualifications for a candidate?

• Coding experience with JavaScript. 
• Experience with Cypress or Selenium.
• Experience with the version control tool Git and Git branching models.
• Experience on either Gitlab, Bitbucket, or GitHub.
• Experience with CI / CD platforms like Jenkins or Gitlab.
• Experience with Jira or similar issue tracking software is preferred.
• Xray or similar testing tool software experience is preferred.
• Insurance knowledge is preferred.
• Relevant education and / or training (e.g., bachelor’s degree, associate degree, bootcamp certificate); experience in lieu of education acceptable.

What will our ideal candidate have?

• Demonstrated advanced organizational and prioritization skills with ability to accomplish multiple priorities (including low and high) within a specified timeframe. 
• Proven ability to collaborate effectively with all product team members and with other teams.
• Demonstrated intermediate knowledge and application of relevant Agile testing methodologies at product team level.
• Demonstrated ability to consistently communicate clearly and effectively both verbally and in writing with technical and nontechnical audiences across all levels of the organization.
• Proactive mentorship that results in increased effectiveness in one or more areas of knowledge or skill for colleagues who have one or more learning approaches.
• Property-and-casualty insurance industry experience / education.

Compensation overview

The targeted hiring range for this role is $102,600 - $123,400, annually. However, the base pay offered may vary depending on the job-related knowledge, skills, credentials, and experience of each candidate as well as other factors such as the scope and location of the role. Candidates looking for compensation outside of the posted range are encouraged to apply and will be considered based on their individual qualifications and / or may be considered for other positions.

Western National Insurance Group reserves the right to fill this position at a level above or below the level included in this posting.

Culture and Total Rewards

Western National has long been known as “The Relationship Company®” and caring for our employees is part of that relationship commitment. We value connectiveness, empowerment, and accountability, and we believe that our employees are our biggest asset. 

Currently ranked as the 41st largest private company by revenue in Minnesota (Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal), Western National has earned accolades year-over-year as an employer of choice and garnered multiple awards for wellness in the workplace. Western National has also been named a Top Workplace by the Star Tribune for the past four consecutive years. In addition, the Group is consistently recognized as a Ward’s 50 property-and-casualty insurance company for its outstanding financial results.

Western National offers full-time employees a significant Total Rewards Package, including:

• Medical insurance plan options and other standard employee benefits, including dental insurance, vision benefits, life insurance, disability insurance, and more!
• Health Savings Accounts (HSA) and Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA)
• 401(k) Plan (participants are eligible for 100% matching on the first 6% of their contributions)
• Wellbeing Program, including onsite fitness studio
• Paid Time Off – including holiday, vacation, and volunteer
• 100% company-paid tuition reimbursement for approved job-relevant coursework and access to The Institutes (Risk and insurance education)
• Paid parental leave
• Bonus opportunities

Western National believes in supporting balance between work and life by providing a flexible work environment, which includes a variety of hybrid and remote work arrangements designed to balance individual, job, department, and company needs. 

Applicants must be authorized to work for any employer in the U.S. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment Visa at this time.

Western National provides employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws.

#LI-Hybrid