Domain Architect — Health & Benefits (H&B)

What is the role?

As the Domain Architect — Health & Benefits, you will own the technology design, architecture and strategic roadmap for the H & B line of business. You will design and deliver a future‑state, fully integrated, AI‑enabled platform and collaboration model that supports end‑to‑end client and colleague journey maps for H & B. This role is both strategic and hands‑on: you will define architecture standards, lead vendor selection, prototype AI/agentic solutions, and deliver reference architectures and guardrails to accelerate H & B transformation. You will partner with business, operations, analytics, security, product and engineering teams to ensure our H & B technology stack is secure, compliant, scalable and optimized to create differentiated client experiences and a colleague‑centric workplace.
What success looks like

A clear, executable H & B technology roadmap and target architecture that maps to client and colleague journeys.
An operational Howden Intelligence blueprint for H & B: document ingestion, feature store, model registry/MLOps, knowledge graph & RAG, LLM strategy, explainability & monitoring.
Production‑ready integration patterns and APIs across CRM, AMS, Benefit Admin, client & employee experience platforms.
Secure, compliant architecture designs for regulated datasets (HIPAA, GDPR, state health privacy laws) and vendor/partner integration.
Rapid delivery of prototype agentic capabilities (e.g., quote/ SBC comparison, loss‑run normalization, member cost prediction) with human‑AI collaboration patterns and governance.
What you will be doing

Own the H & B domain architecture and roadmap, from strategy to tactical delivery.
Produce an end‑to‑end future‑state architecture that maps directly to client & colleague journey maps.
Define canonical data models, integration patterns and API contracts consistent with the Digital Backbone architecture and Howden Intelligence layer.
Design agentic and human‑AI collaboration architectures: RAG agents, LLM orchestration, human‑in‑the‑loop, and approval flows.
Define MLOps & model governance, model registry, feature store, explainability, fairness checks, drift detection, and deployment patterns.
Lead prototyping of AI use cases across H & B (quote / SBC comparison, loss run standardization, member cost prediction) and convert prototypes to production blueprints.
Architect robust integrations between CRM (Howden Client), AMS/broking systems (Applied Epic / Plansight), Benefit Administration systems, client portals, and employee experience platforms.
Design message/event‑based and API‑first integration patterns using Azure Integration Services, API Management, Event Hubs or equivalent.
Design orchestration for long‑running workflows and synchronous APIs for client/producer UIs.
Define how large data feeds (MarketScan, claims, pharmacy, provider data) integrate into the data lake/lakehouse (Databricks Delta) for H & B analytics.
Specify ingestion patterns, bronze/silver/gold pipelines, feature engineering pipelines and offline/online feature serving.
Design secure architectures for regulated data: data residency, encryption (at rest/in transit), key management (Key Vault), identity (Entra ID/AAD), RBAC, audit trails and logging.
Ensure architecture meets SOC2/ISO27001 / HIPAA / GDPR / state laws and supports compliance reviews and audits.
Define governance for partner data (Unity Catalog, Delta Sharing), data anonymization, and access controls for LLM usage.
Lead vendor evaluations and vendor‑ecosystem decisions (buy vs build), create procurement artefacts and drive commercial/technical evaluations.
Work cross‑functionally with Product, Consulting, Data Science, Security and Engineering to deliver architecture into roadmaps.
Create architecture patterns, runbooks, reference implementations and acceptance criteria for engineering teams.
Mentor and guide engineers, data scientists and solution architects in the H & B domain.
Communicate complex technical decisions to CXO stakeholders and business leaders in business terms.
Qualifications

15+ years in enterprise/solutions architecture or technology leadership, preferably with experience in benefits, health, insurance, HR tech or healthcare.
Proven experience designing cloud‑native architectures (Azure strongly preferred; experience with Databricks) and with Data Lake/Lakehouse patterns.
Deep knowledge of integrations: APIs, event streaming (Event Hubs/Kafka), API Management.
Demonstrable experience with LLM architecture, RAG designs, vector DBs, knowledge graphs, and agent orchestration.
Strong background in designing secure systems for regulated industries (HIPAA, SOC2, ISO27001, GDPR) and applying compliance controls.
Track record of vendor evaluation and integration of best‑of‑breed SaaS platforms and custom systems.
Excellent communicator and stakeholder influencer with experience presenting to executive leadership.
Strong engineering judgement and ability to lead greenfield programs while establishing sustainable engineering practices.
Behavioral & leadership: Strategic thinker with an entrepreneurial, product‑driven mindset; comfortable in ambiguity and able to translate business journeys into executable technical strategies.
Collaborator: able to work with consulting, product, data science, security and engineering teams.
Hands‑on: able to prototype, review code/design and accelerate delivery when needed.
Desirable: Experience with regulated health data (MarketScan or similar), benefit administration systems, Avante/Certilytics, Zywave or BenAdmin vendors; Prior exposure to implementing Unity Catalog / Databricks serverless or similar privacy‑preserving technologies.
Deliverables & Accountabilities

H & B Target Architecture & Roadmap with a staged delivery plan.
End‑to‑end client & colleague journey maps mapped to technology and governance requirements.
Howden Intelligence blueprint for H & B (ingestion → feature store → MLOps → RAG → agents).
Standards & integration patterns (API contracts, event topics) and a set of reference implementations.
Security & compliance architecture, including partner data governance.
Vendor selection recommendations and architecture governance model.
Measurable KPIs and success metrics for platform adoption and business outcomes.
Compensation and Benefits

Base salary range: $225,000 - $275,000 depending on experience and location.
Competitive base salary, discretionary bonus eligibility.
Medical, dental, vision insurance; healthcare savings and reimbursement accounts.
401(k) retirement plan.
Flexible Paid Time Off and paid parental leave.
Life and disability insurance.
Reasonable Adjustments

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to ensure our positions align with your needs. In addition to typical adjustments such as software, IT, and office setups, we can accommodate changes such as flexible hours or hybrid working arrangements. Please contact your Recruitment Partner for further details.

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