Health & Benefits - Technology Architect

Who are we?

Howden is a global insurance group with employee ownership at its heart. Together, we have pushed the boundaries of insurance. We are united by a shared passion and no-limits mindset, and our strength lies in our ability to collaborate as a powerful international team comprised of 23,000 employees spanning over 56 countries.

People join Howden for many different reasons, but they stay for the same one: our culture. It’s what sets us apart, and the reason our employees have been turning down headhunters for years. Whatever your priorities – work / life balance, career progression, sustainability, volunteering – you’ll find like-minded people driving change at Howden.

Who are we?

Howden is a collective – a group of talented and passionate people all around the world. Together, we have pushed the boundaries of insurance. We are united by a shared passion and no-limits mindset, and our strength lies in our ability to collaborate as a powerful international team comprised of 20,000 employees spanning over 100 countries.

Our people are our biggest asset as well as our largest shareholder group and are everything that makes us unique; our inclusive culture, the quality service we offer our clients, and our continued growth, all come from our people first approach. There’s no such thing as individual success. We all need to play our part, contributing our skills and experience to make a true difference. That’s Howden.

Why work at Howden?

We have always been employee-owned and driven by entrepreneurial spirit. Right from the beginning, we've focused on employing talented individuals and empowering them to make a real difference to the company, whilst building successful and fulfilling careers at the same time. Simply put, we hire talented specialists and give them what they need to make a difference for clients.

Always have, always will.

People join Howden for many different reasons, but they stay for the same one: our culture. It’s what sets us apart, and the reason our employees have been turning down disappointed headhunters for years. Whatever your priorities – work/life balance, career progression, sustainability, volunteering – you’ll find like-minded people driving change at Howden.

What is the role?

As the H&B Technology Architect, you will be the architect of our next-generation brokerage platform, responsible for shaping a cohesive, secure, and scalable tech ecosystem. You  will design a colleague-first experience that frees our consultants from tactical tasks and equips them with advanced analytics and tools to act as strategic advisors. In parallel, they will create a client-first experience that delivers clarity, insights, and confidence in decision-making.

This is both a strategic and hands-on role — setting the blueprint for our ecosystem, guiding vendor selection, overseeing integration, and ensuring our platform becomes a differentiator in the US H&B market.

What will you be doing?

• Architecture Vision & Roadmap: Develop and own the enterprise architecture roadmap spanning data, analytics, productivity & collaboration, RFP/AMS platforms, and client/employee-facing tools.
• Colleague Enablement: Implement tools and workflows that reduce administrative burden, enable collaboration, and create space for consultants to focus on client strategy and delivering business value.
• Client Enablement: Architect a digital experience that makes benefits strategy actionable, transparent, and is future-oriented for clients.
• Vendor Ecosystem Leadership: Lead evaluation, selection, and integration of best-of-breed vendors (Snowflake, Certilytics, Avante, Cascade AI, Glean, Salesforce, Zywave, etc.) to create a seamless ecosystem.
• Scalability: Ensure systems are designed for growth (mid-market and large clients)
• Security: Lead compliance posture with adherence to SOC2/ISO 27001, HIPAA, GDPR, and modern security standards (AES-256, TLS 1.2/1.3, HL7/FHIR).
• Integration & Data Strategy: Create a unified data fabric (warehouse + lakehouse) to enable advanced analytics, insights, and automation across the firm.
• Innovation & Governance: Promote a culture of agility and manage iterative cycles with clear governance guardrails — balancing speed of innovation with operational discipline.
• Cross-Functional Leadership: Partner with consulting, analytics, finance, and operations leaders to ensure the tech stack enhances all three stakeholder experiences: colleague, client, and company

 Qualifications

• 15+ years in enterprise architecture, solutions architecture, or technology leadership, with experience in benefits, insurance, HR tech, or health tech preferred.
• Proven experience designing cloud-native architectures (AWS, Azure, GCP, Snowflake, Redshift, etc).
• Deep knowledge of integrations (APIs, HL7/FHIR, JSON, RPA) and data security/compliance frameworks.
• Track record of vendor evaluation and ecosystem building (buy/build decisions, integration of SaaS platforms).
• Strong communicator, able to translate complex technical decisions into business value for leadership, consultants, and clients.
• Entrepreneurial mindset: thrives in greenfield environments, balances speed with long-term scalability.

Compensation and Benefits

The expected base salary range for this role is $225,000 - $275,000, depending on experience and location.

In addition to a competitive base salary, employees are eligible to receive a discretionary bonus. Howden also offers a variety of benefits and programs, subject to eligibility, including:

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance, including healthcare savings and reimbursement accounts
• 401(k) retirement plan
• Flexible Paid Time Off and paid parental leave
• Life and Disability insurance

What do we offer in return?

A career that you define.

Our business succeeds by allowing our people to make a mark in the areas they care about most: personal development, volunteering, and fundraising for charity, or creating new insurance products that address society’s greatest challenges.

And we know that separate home and work lives don't really exist. If you're happy and healthy at home, you're more likely to be happy and fulfilled at work – and vice versa. That's why we do our best to support our people in every aspect of their lives.

Our sustainability promise

We’re on a life-long journey to become an ever-more sustainable group. It's a commitment to taking care of our people and the world we live in, to doing good business, and to making a positive impact wherever we can. Our governance processes, company policies, and review systems are all geared towards our goal of making a positive impact in the world. You can read more about our sustainability work here.

What do we offer in return?

A career that you define. At Howden, we value diversity – there is no one Howden type. Instead, we’re looking for individuals who share the same values as us:

• Our successes have all come from someone brave enough to try something new

• We support each other in the small everyday moments and the bigger challenges

• We are determined to make a positive difference at work and beyond

Reasonable adjustments

We're committed to providing reasonable accommodations at Howden to ensure that our positions align well with your needs.  Besides the usual adjustments such as software, IT, and office setups, we can also accommodate other changes such as flexible hours* or hybrid working*.

If you're excited by this role but have some doubts about whether it’s the right fit for you, send us your application – if your profile fits the role’s criteria, we will be in touch to assist in helping to get you set up with any reasonable adjustments you may require.

*Not all positions can accommodate changes to working hours or locations. Reach out to your Recruitment Partner if you want to know more.

Permanent