Technical Account Manager

Summary

We are looking for a Technical Account Manager (TAM) to join our Guidewire Customer Success & Alliances (CSA) organization. The Technical Account Manager will be a remote role in the US and will report to one of our
Directors in the Technical Account Management group.
We are Guidewire Software, and we're perhaps the best company to work for that you've never heard of. We are proud to be voted a “Top 3” employer on Glassdoor by our own employees and positioned as a market leader by industry experts like Gartner. We serve the second-largest financial services industry in the world (after banking), worth $2 trillion USD. We build the core applications that companies use to sell insurance policies, settle claims, and bill their customers. We also have a portfolio of products serving the innovative needs of our customers in areas such as data management, digital online portals, and predictive analytics. We serve customers all over the world, helping them handle billions of dollars of business. This is a lucrative and underserved market, and we have grown rapidly through a combination of quality products, excellent service, innovative technology, and a passionate belief in our core values of rationality, collegiality & integrity.

Job Description

We’re looking for an experienced resource that can build and maintain strong relationships with our

cloud customers, engaging during the customer’s cloud implementation and continuing forward during the path to Production and eventual deployment which commences ongoing production operations.  

At Guidewire, our TAMs engage throughout the entire customer lifecycle.  At the start of a program, we focus on onboarding and technical enablement for key platform features, and partner with customers in the management of the customer’s operational experience with GWCP.  As the implementation phase winds down, our TAMs focus on the “path to production” and enabling customers for success in the post-production phase of a customer’s journey.  In this capacity they serve as a primary liaison between the customer team and the internal Guidewire organizations to ensure all parties understand and meet their obligations necessary to be successful running the Guidewire Cloud service.  

In this role you will be an advocate for our customers, while simultaneously advocating the benefits of the service and operating model that defines our cloud service offerings.  On a day-to-day basis, you may be involved in areas such as technical feature education and enablement, service management, SLA/SLO management, escalation and incident engagement, cloud infrastructure guidance and optimization, product update planning and execution, and “DevOps” tasks such as build and release management.  No matter what task you face on a given day, you will collaborate closely with an impressive team of peers whose primary goal is our customer’s success.  We particularly value demonstrated leadership

capability and presence, experience working in a Subscription software-as-a-service model, project management experience, excellent organization skills, and negotiation skills.

Responsibilities:

• We live by our core principles of integrity, rationality, and collegiality.  Your first responsibility is always to adhere to these principles in everything that you do.

• This is a customer facing role and a priority is placed on exceptional customer service skills including but not limited to professional communication capability, timely response procedures, and understanding the sense of urgency that is characteristic of enterprise production systems.

• Understand all aspects of our production operating model(s), and work directly with our customers to ensure they understand and are prepared to successfully operate in our SaaS service-based subscription model.  

• Utilize a foundational knowledge of Guidewire core products and our Cloud Platform(s) to communicate with and enable customers on important technical features.

• Advocate for the importance of our Cloud standards, and ensure customers understand our recommendations and are executing on those recommendations to optimize their Guidewire solutions.

• Work with our Cloud Program Management function to ensure our cloud programs are adhering to our defined methodologies and best practices.

• Once live in Production, take a leadership role alongside the customer and any implementation parties in stabilizing the Guidewire ecosystem and ensuring the customer is prepared to operate within the defined production operations model.

• Help to define and implement strategies to optimize our operational engagement model for Cloud customers.

• Assist customers with the incident management process, including escalations and clarifications, ticket hygiene,  and sharing of information between Guidewire teams and customer teams when cross-collaboration is required.

• Provide data and insights on production operational tasks such as SLA management, Guidewire Credit optimization and usage, incident management performance, scheduled maintenance, and comprehension of official technical standards and directives as communicated by Guidewire.

• Assist customers with the Cloud Update process to ensure they remain compliant with our release standards.

• Challenge and identify ways to continuously improve our internal service management capabilities by understanding our customers’ unique needs.

• Ability to clearly communicate functional and technical concepts while working in a remote/distributed environment.

Desired Skills/Experience:

• Preference will be given to candidates that have 4+ years of experience in one or more of the following settings: 

  • Work as a Technical Account Manager in a SaaS provider or cloud-based software company

  • Work as a Customer Success Manager across various business settings

  • Work as a Customer Support representative in a technical environment which included working with hardware or software solutions

  • Work within a Customer Support organization focused on SaaS production support/operations

• Preference will be given to candidates that have 2+ years of applied project experience with Guidewire applications (PolicyCenter, ClaimCenter, BillingCenter, Digital xEngage, Data Management, InsuranceNow) 

• Comfort being in a dynamic role that may not be the same “day to day” 

• Strong command of the English language with excellent communication and interpersonal skills 

• Applied project management experience

• Demonstrated problem solving skills performed in a time-sensitive environment

• Proven experience influencing customer behavior and building relationships, both with technical resources and those in business or management roles

• Ability to quickly triage customer issues and prioritize tasks (i.e., differentiate between production issues and development issues)

• Experience working with a SaaS “software as a service” offering and understanding key differences versus on-premise software solutions

• Experience with customer and support systems such as Salesforce, Jira, Google Enterprise, Confluence, and Slack

• Amazon Web Services (AWS) Practitioner Certification is desired  

• Applied “DevOps” experience is nice to have

Requirements:

• This is a hybrid position that will require travel to a customer location not to exceed 25% travel

• Bachelors’ Degree (B.S., B.A.) or equivalent from a higher education institution

• Authorized to work in the United States

The US base salary range for this full-time position is $116,000 - $174,000 . Your base pay will depend on your experience, skills, education, training, and location among other factors. All full-time positions or part-time roles working 30 hours or more a week at Guidewire are eligible for benefits that support their health and well-being including health, dental, and vision insurance, paid time off, and a company sponsored retirement plan. In addition, some roles may be eligible for the annual company bonus plan, commissions, and/or long term incentive awards which are contingent on a variety of factors including, but not limited to, company and employee performance.

Disability Accommodations and Guidewire’s Appeals Process. Guidewire provides accommodations to the hiring process to create a fair opportunity for candidates with disabilities to contend for open positions. Accommodation requests should be directed to [email protected]. If things do not go as hoped, we invite you to use our appeals process. Guidewire promises to independently review any denied accommodation and any decision not to offer you the position. The appeals process is the same in either case. Within five business days of receiving a notice of denial of an accommodation, or receiving a notice of your non-selection for a vacancy, e-mail [email protected] to make an appeal. Guidewire will assign a new decision-maker to review the request and/or hiring decision, who will then notify you in writing of a decision within 10 business days.

About Guidewire

Guidewire is the platform P&C insurers trust to engage, innovate, and grow efficiently. We combine digital, core, analytics, and AI to deliver our platform as a cloud service. More than 540+ insurers in 40 countries, from new ventures to the largest and most complex in the world, run on Guidewire.

As a partner to our customers, we continually evolve to enable their success. We are proud of our unparalleled implementation track record with 1600+ successful projects, supported by the largest R&D team and partner ecosystem in the industry. Our Marketplace provides hundreds of applications that accelerate integration, localization, and innovation.

For more information, please visit www.guidewire.com and follow us on Twitter: @Guidewire_PandC.

Guidewire Software, Inc. is proud to be an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer. We are committed to an inclusive workplace, and believe that a diversity of perspectives, abilities, and cultures is a key to our success. Qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, citizenship, marital status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, veteran status, or disability. All offers are contingent upon passing a criminal history and other background checks where it's applicable to the position.