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Team Leader Architecture Incubation

Wellmark, Inc.


Job Location:

Des Moines, IA - USA

Monthly Salary: Not provided by the employer
Posted: 2 September 2026 (Yesterday)
Application Deadline: 30 November 2026
Vacancies: 1 Vacancy

Job Summary

Accountable for leading the incubation of new architecture capabilities at the data center level turning emerging technologies and architectural concepts into proven repeatable capabilities that can scale across the enterprise. Leads a team of architects through discovery experimentation proof-of-concept development technical validation and transition to operational ownership. Establishes clear guardrails success measures reference patterns and adoption pathways so that new infrastructure platform data integration automation security and observability capabilities can be evaluated safely and advanced based on evidence. Partners with data center engineering infrastructure security operations product and enterprise architecture leaders to prioritize incubation opportunities remove barriers and align experiments with business outcomes enterprise standards and long-term technology strategy. Builds an environment that encourages disciplined innovation rapid learning technical excellence and responsible handoff from incubation into production-ready service capabilities.


Qualifications :

Preferred:

  • Experience in regulated industries (e.g. healthcare finance) and in environments with rigorous security resilience and compliance requirements.
  • Certifications such as TOGAF AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional Azure Solutions Architect Expert or similar architecture and infrastructure credentials.
  • Experience leading technology incubation proof-of-concepts pilots platform engineering data center modernization or transition of emerging capabilities into operational services.

Required: 

  • Bachelors degree in computer science information systems or related field or direct and applicable work experience.
  • Minimum 10 years experience in an IT environment with a minimum of 7 years of architecture experience including advanced knowledge of infrastructure and platform architecture development methodologies and solution design. Deep understanding of architecture frameworks hybrid cloud and on-premises platforms integration strategies automation security resilience and data center operations.
  • Prior formal leadership skills typically gained by leading work teams coaching mentoring and facilitating work activities along with strong relationship management skills. Demonstrated ability to build collaborative and strategic relationships across architecture data center engineering infrastructure security operations product and vendor teams.
  • Proven experience leading architecture teams formally or informally and advancing enterprise-scale capabilities from concept through technical validation and operational transition. Ability to think strategically create clarity in ambiguous spaces and communicate direction to technical and executive audiences.
  • Stays informed on emerging technology trends and skillsets. Proven experience creating structured experiments proof-of-concepts pilots and learning loops that reduce uncertainty and support evidence-based investment decisions. Encourages teams to surface assumptions test them quickly and resolve challenges.
  • Ability to translate long-range technology goals into prioritized incubation themes capability roadmaps decision points and executable plans.
  • Effective consulting critical thinking systems thinking and problem-solving skills. Uses data technical evidence risk analysis and sound judgment to recommend whether capabilities should be advanced revised paused or retired.
  • Demonstrated success influencing at all levels of the organization. Builds trust alignment commitment and action across teams that own architecture engineering cybersecurity operations service management finance and procurement.
  • Prior experience defining and measuring incubation outcomes including technical feasibility security and compliance readiness operability reliability scalability cost supportability and adoption potential.
  • Proven ability to adapt to unexpected changes or situations and work effectively across evolving structures processes requirements and cultures. Experience with architecture in a Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) environment supporting Agile Release Trains and aligning incubation work with Lean-Agile principles.
  • Travel required up to 5%.

Additional Information :

a. Lead with a focus on disciplined innovation and empowered teams. Coach and mentor architects as they explore new capabilities develop hypotheses design experiments interpret results and communicate recommendations. Build a culture that balances speed of learning with security reliability compliance and operational accountability. Align staffing vendor support laboratory capacity and funding with the highest-value incubation priorities.

b. Build and govern a data center architecture incubation practice. Establish a transparent intake and prioritization process for new capability ideas. Define stage gates from discovery through proof-of-concept pilot production readiness and operational handoff. Ensure each incubation effort has a clear problem statement sponsor scope assumptions success measures risks decision rights and exit criteria.

c. Make the data center a proving ground for future-ready architecture capabilities. Guide the evaluation of emerging infrastructure hybrid cloud platform network storage compute automation observability resilience security data and integration approaches. Ensure experiments are isolated appropriately aligned with enterprise standards and designed to generate reusable learning rather than one-off demonstrations.

d. Convert validated learning into reusable architecture assets. Oversee the development of reference architectures capability models patterns standards guardrails decision records test results implementation guidance and operational readiness criteria. Ensure artifacts clearly describe where a capability fits when to use it known constraints dependencies cost implications and the path to broader adoption.

e. Create a reliable transition from incubation to enterprise capability. Partner with engineering infrastructure cybersecurity operations service management product and business leaders to define ownership funding support models skills controls migration approaches and adoption plans. Prevent successful pilots from stalling by establishing handoff expectations early and confirming production readiness before scale-out.

f. Incubate modern data and integration capabilities at the platform level. Evaluate API-first architectures event-driven integration scalable data platforms AI/ML enablement and self-service access patterns in the context of data center and hybrid environments. Validate data integrity security performance resilience interoperability observability and operational support before recommending enterprise adoption.

g. Maintain an active pipeline of architecture experiments. Scout relevant technology trends frame opportunities against enterprise needs and run focused proof-of-concepts that answer specific technical and business questions. Use evidence from experiments to recommend investment refinement standardization or retirement. Share outcomes broadly so that both successful and unsuccessful experiments accelerate organizational learning.

h. Manage architecture incubation resources and outcomes. Balance architects and enabling engineering resources across experiments contribute to strategic planning and budgeting manage vendor participation and prioritize investments based on potential value risk reduction feasibility and readiness. Report the incubation portfolio decisions learning risks and transition status to technology leadership.

i. Other duties as assigned.

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

An Equal Opportunity Employer

The policy of Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield is to recruit hire train and promote individuals in all job classifications without regard to race color religion sex national origin age veteran status disability sexual orientation gender identity or any other characteristic protected by law.

Applicants requiring a reasonable accommodation due to a disability at any stage of the employment application process should contact us at

Please inform us if you meet the definition of a Covered DoD official.

At this time Wellmark is not considering applicants for this position that require any type of immigration sponsorship (additional work authorization or permanent work authorization) now or in the future to work in the United States. This includes but IS NOT LIMITED TO: F1-OPT F1-CPT H-1B TN L-1 J-1 etc. For additional information around work authorization needs please refer to the following resources:Nonimmigrant Workers and Green Card for Employment-Based Immigrants 

Wellmark supports and expects the responsible use of AI for our workforce! We welcome the responsible use of these tools by job seekers as well and are interested in learning from you; you will have an opportunity in the application process to share which tools you used and how you applied them. 


Remote Work :

No


Employment Type :

Full-time


About Company

Why Wellmark: We are a mutual insurance company owned by our policy holders across Iowa and South Dakota, and we’ve built our reputation on over 80 years’ worth of trust. We are not motivated by profits. We are motivated by the well-being of our friends, family, and neighbors–our memb ... View more

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