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.

• 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.
• 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 to ensure consistent standards and on-time delivery. Support skills development and knowledge transfer to permanent staff.
• 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.
• 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 readiness.
• 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.

Experience: 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).

• 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

• 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.

• 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 × 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.
• 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.

Our standard working hours are from 09:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Full-time employees are to be in the office for 3 days per week, with 2 days working from home.