Senior Manager – IT Development – Riva
RiverStone International is an established global non-life run-off insurance business specialist with more than 25 years of experience. Operating in the UK company and Lloyd’s of London markets, Bermuda, U.S., and Europe, RiverStone International has transacted a wide variety of deals – from insurance and reinsurance portfolio transfers to company purchases, acquiring over $17.7 billion of gross liabilities since 2010 and with around $6.4 billion of liabilities currently under management.
The role holder will lead the software engineering and build workstream for Project Riva — a strategic redevelopment initiative to modernise RiverStone’s legacy insurance systems. The role is accountable for the delivery of high-quality, secure and scalable applications aligned to the target architecture and business objectives.
This position will oversee multiple cross-functional delivery teams, ensuring that design, build and integration activities support the overall transformation roadmap for the Riva platform.
Develop and implement a structured handover plan to transition the Riva platform and associated development products into BAU support functions.
The role holder will lead the software engineering and build workstream for Project Riva — a strategic redevelopment initiative to modernise RiverStone’s legacy insurance systems. The role is accountable for the delivery of high-quality, secure and scalable applications aligned to the target architecture and business objectives.
This position will oversee multiple cross-functional delivery teams, ensuring that design, build and integration activities support the overall transformation roadmap for the Riva platform.
Develop and implement a structured handover plan to transition the Riva platform and associated development products into BAU support functions.
Responsibilities
1. Delivery & Execution- Lead end-to-end software development across multiple Agile workstreams within Project Riva.
- Manage the engineering delivery roadmap, ensuring milestones are met in line with programme timelines and business priorities.
- Oversee system integration between Riva components and legacy or external systems.
- Drive quality assurance through CI/CD, automated testing and secure coding standards.
2. People & Vendor Management
- Manage internal developers and external delivery partners, fostering high performance and accountability.
- Provide active coaching and mentoring to development teams, helping individuals navigate delivery pressures, prioritise effectively, and maintain quality during tight timelines
- Create an environment that encourages psychological safety, open communication and continuous learning, ensuring teams feel supported during periods of high intensity
- Guide teams in breaking down complex workloads, managing effort realistically, and maintaining sustainable delivery practices even when demands are high
- Define and implement engineering best practices and development methodologies.
- Coordinate with vendor engineering leads to ensure consistent standards and on-time delivery.
- Support skills development and knowledge transfer to permanent staff.
3. Architecture & Governance
- Collaborate closely with the Enterprise Architect function to ensure adherence to architectural principles, design patterns and security standards.
- Maintain control of codebase quality, integration consistency and non-functional requirements (e.g. performance, scalability, resilience).
- Participate in the Technical & Business design authorities as the delivery representative.
4. Stakeholder Engagement
- Partner with Business Product Owners, Functional Leads and Programme Management to ensure development outcomes align with business needs.
- Provide clear, timely communication of progress, risks, dependencies and decisions to the Riva Programme Manager.
- Work collaboratively across IT Operations, Data and Security teams to ensure operational & production readiness.
5. Change & Transition
- Support system & QA testing, release planning and deployment into production environments.
- Align development activity with the overall cutover and data migration strategy.
- Work with support teams to define operational responsibilities, service levels and support processes.
- Ensure knowledge transfer, documentation and training are completed for BAU teams before programme closure.
- Establish post-transition monitoring and performance baselines to validate platform stability and operational readiness.
- Support the embedding of continuous improvement and change governance into BAU practices to sustain delivery momentum after the transformation phase.
- Act as a key liaison between the transformation programme and BAU teams to resolve transitional issues and ensure continuity of service.
Requirements
ExperienceEssential
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering or related discipline.
- 12-15 years of experience in software development management within large, regulated organisations (ideally financial services or insurance).
- Proven track record delivering complex system redevelopment or modernisation programmes.
- Strong understanding of enterprise software engineering practices, including:
- Cloud-native and API-driven architecture
- CI/CD pipelines and DevOps tooling
- Agile delivery
- Demonstrated ability to manage multiple teams across geographies.
- Excellent communication, leadership and stakeholder management skills.
- Experience modernising or replacing legacy platforms.
- Familiarity with core insurance systems, including London Market experience.
- Exposure to legacy migration projects.
- Working knowledge of data migration, API management and cloud integration patterns.
- Awareness of regulatory and security frameworks (e.g., ISO27001, GDPR, PCI, SOX).
Knowledge
- The operation of reinsurance, claims, finance and actuarial departments
- IT development and support methodologies
- Project management and risk management techniques
- Software development tools used by the company
- Industry products, innovations and best practices
Skills
- Strategic and delivery-focused mindset.
- Strong leadership presence with the ability to inspire and motivate cross-functional teams.
- Pragmatic problem-solver with high attention to detail.
- Collaborative and adaptable in a complex, fast-paced environment.
- Committed to excellence, transparency and continuous improvement.
- Supervision and team management
Benefits
We believe in taking care of our team and helping our employees thrive both professionally and personally.
Our benefits include:
- Private Medical and Dental cover – Comprehensive Private Medical and Dental Insurance schemes with Bupa
- Health and Wellness –including access to our Employee Assistance Programme, Headspace subscription, Mental Health First aiders at each site, up to five funded counselling sessions per year, annual health check-up and eye test voucher
- Wellbeing Allowance – Can be used towards either physical or mental health wellbeing activities
- 25 days’ holiday per year – plus bank holidays and office closure on Christmas Eve. Holiday entitlement increases with length of service
- Bonus scheme – dependent on achieving individual, department and company goals
- Pension – a non-contributory defined contribution pension scheme
- Life Assurance – provides a lump sum 10 x your salary
- Permanent Health Insurance Scheme – scheme pays benefits during a prolonged period of illness or disability lasting more than 26 weeks
- Parental Leave – Enhanced Maternity, Paternity and Shared Parental Leave policy
- Training and development – Company funding for professional qualifications that would be beneficial for your role
- Volunteering and charity – triple matching donations made independently or via our Give As You Earn scheme, and two paid volunteering days per year to help give back to our local communities
- Cycle To Work Scheme – a tax efficient way to purchase a bicycle
- Interest Free Travel Loan – to assist with commuting costs
- Travel Insurance – business and personal travel
- Sports and Social – active sports and social committee that organizes subsidised events