About Pacific Blue Cross
Pacific Blue Cross (PBC) has been British Columbia's leading benefits provider for over 80 years. We are an independent, not-for-profit society with strong roots in BC’s health care system. We provide health, dental, life, disability, and travel coverage to 1 in 3 British Columbians through employee group plans and individual plans.
We are fueled by a commitment to keep health care sustainable for all British Columbians. Through our PBC Health Foundation, we fund projects that improve health outcomes directly related to mental health and wellbeing as well as the prevention and/or management of chronic disease. We are interested in finding people who want to make a difference and who are looking to grow their career with us.
Perks
- Work-life balance with flexible working hours of 7 hours per day, Monday to Friday (i.e., 35 hours per week).
- Paid vacation starts at 3 weeks per year, and increases with years of service.
- Hybrid work environment (i.e., a combination of work from office and work from home days).
- Generous benefits, including extended health, dental, and life insurance; these benefit premiums are 100% paid by PBC.
- Company pension contributions after 1 year of service.
- Education allowance up to $1,000 per calendar year.
- Onsite gym, cafeteria, and access to virtual doctors/counsellors 24/7 via our Employee Family Assistance Program!
About The Position
- We are searching for 5 permanent Software Developers supporting our IT team.
- This position is unionized and part of the CUPE 1816 Bargaining Unit. This position is paid at hourly rates and receives wage increases in accordance with the Collective Agreement. The wage for this position is: $8,781 per month to start (equivalent to $105,372 per year) and then progressing up to $9,923 per month (equivelant to $119,076 per year).
Job Summary
Under the broad managerial direction of the Assistant Manager/Manager and as an active member of a self-organized work team, collaborates collectively in the planning, design, testing, execution and delivery stages of technology-driven products and services that meet the needs of the business and deliver value. Provides subject matter expertise in program, and systems analysis, design and implementation to the team through the application of the software development life cycle, industry standards and best practices, and individual proficiency levels with PBC’s systems. Evaluates new and enhanced vendor products and contributes to internal knowledge databases. To support the team, may perform duties of the Business Systems Analyst and QA Analyst as determined through team collaboration. May receive and respond to off hours trouble calls. Maintains required proficiency levels in technical skills and core competencies consistent with the established framework for the position and pursues continuing self-development associated with the rapid pace of change within the industry.
Job Duties
Self-Organized Work Team Member
- As an active member of a self-organized work team and through group cooperation, shared processes and team problem solving, collaborates collectively in the planning, design, testing, execution and delivery stages of technology-driven products and services that meet the needs of the business and deliver value by:
- defining and expanding on the design features, components and overall priorities communicated by business stakeholders;
- estimating size and complexity of the work, and as a group, assessing team capacity to complete the work, determining achievable goals for each stage and identifying out of scope activities;
- participating in team discussions and coming to consensus on who will complete the work, and identifying in-house resources including network, database, architecture, deployment, security, production or other subject matter experts necessary to support team success;
- collaborating regularly with all team members throughout all stages of the work to track team progress, problem solve roadblocks and interdependencies, and identify options for enhancing stakeholder value in upcoming stages of the work;
- committing to and delivering on individually assigned activities and tasks within established time frames, as determined by the team as a whole;
- preparing and delivering informal presentations to the team and/or key stakeholders on technical design elements, demonstrations of challenges encountered in any stages of design or delivery, options for team and stakeholder feedback and consideration, and any other aspects where team collaboration can contribute to the quality, timing or effectiveness of shared outcomes;
- applying technical, professional, organizational and industry quality standards to meet or exceed delivery goals throughout all stages of the work;
- contributing to the smooth flow of communication between all team members and stakeholders;
- collectively assessing release and deployment status, and determining timing and activities required to deliver products into production;
- participating in retrospectives and sharing in the evaluation of delivery outcomes at the conclusion of each stage of the work, recognizing and celebrating successes, developing action plans for incorporating past or current experiences and new learnings into future team initiatives, and pursuing opportunities for continuous improvement;
- transferring knowledge to team colleagues in specific areas of individual expertise to increase team efficiency and operation, capitalize on opportunities for growth and development, and increase team engagement;
- liaising with stakeholders throughout all stages of the work to identify and facilitate the removal of barriers to successful team delivery; refers challenges outside of the team’s influence to resources external to the team‘s day to day operation;
- on an occasional basis, participating as a team in member communication processes such as focus groups to ensure understanding of the overall member experience with PBC products and services as they relate to the team member’s area of subject matter expertise.
Technical Software Systems Specialist
- Provides program and systems analysis, design and implementation expertise to the team in the design and delivery of technology-driven products/services through the application of the software development life cycle, industry standards and best practices, and individual proficiency levels with PBC’s systems by:
- consulting and collaborating with key internal and external business stakeholders to define and understand business requirements and design features that will influence the development approach and scope of activities
- understanding architecture and design diagrams and visualizing programming and system design outcomes within established system architecture;
- estimating type and cost of technical resources involved in the design, identifying out of scope activities and planning the specifics of the development process;
- developing, customizing or enhancing program code and interfaces to meet product, service and architectural requirements;
- consulting with third party suppliers or technical software and service agencies to determine interdependencies and potential/actual barriers associated with their application to the business;
- automating unit testing and the software build process to improve efficiency of operation using a variety of tools to compile and package source code;
- creating test plans and automated test scripts and running or monitoring outcomes in a test environment to validate features or components;
- deploying features from testing to staging and production environments following team and stakeholder signoff, using automatic release platforms to map and represent the environments in which the product/service will operate;
- acting as a subject matter expert in the application of specialized knowledge and deep problem solving skills within areas of individual practice such as web, mobile and data, and offering solutions in highly complex situations;
- maintaining detailed project documentation within established standards including requirements, design and software specifications, system reports, back up and operational requirements, and user procedures;
- providing technical application administration support by monitoring and optimizing application execution through modifying configuration and thresholds such as connectivity timeouts and retries, SQL, runtime optimization, concurrency thresholds, revising windows registry entries, programming workflows and applying other technical tools and techniques.
- Provides technical support to technology-driven products and services currently operating in a production environment to respond to and troubleshoot production support incidents within target service level objectives, correct software defects and ensure continuing functionality by reconstructing history, reviewing specifications and user procedures, analyzing data sources for integrity issues and identifying system interdependencies. Predicts user and business impacts, evaluates priorities and implements the best fix to resolve functionality problems within time, cost and other resource constraints.
- May receive off-hours trouble calls and coordinates and/or performs troubleshooting and recovery response through remote access.
- Evaluates new and enhanced vendor products and makes recommendations to the team and business stakeholders for purchase and incorporation into the business environment.
- Contributes to internal knowledge repositories to ensure resource information on all technology that has an interface with business products/services is current and accurate.
Additional Technical Functions Assigned Through Team Collaboration
- Perform any or all duties of the Business Systems Analyst and may perform QA Analyst duties as determined through team collaboration, which do not affect the rating of the core functions of the Developer job.
General Team and Department Support
- Through continuous learning initiatives, maintains up to date knowledge of system design concepts, development tools, design/build and deployment methodologies, security requirements, operating systems, business products/services within PBC’s environment and their relationship to technology-driven solutions, general technology trends and other information related to the provision of development services.
- Conducts ongoing review of technical materials related to changes in in-house products/services from a technology perspective, and those originating through cloud services management. Conducts online research and participates in information exchanges with colleagues and technical contacts, including membership in technology resource groups.
- Participates in semi-annual disaster recovery exercises by conducting regression testing for specific business applications in consultation with Data Base Administrators and members of the disaster recovery team.
- Performs other assigned duties related to the provision of development services and team operation which do not affect the rating of the job.
Qualifications
- 2 year diploma in computer systems technology such as BCIT’s Computer Systems Technology (CSIT) with program options in Technical Programming (or equivalent program) which in addition to technology courses includes foundational courses in:
- Business Communication
- MS Office products including Basic Word, Outlook and PowerPoint, and Advanced Excel
- Project Management
- Additional courses related to one or more areas of technical specialization (equivalent to one year or 15 credits)
- Software testing courses equivalent to:
- International Software Testing Qualifications Board Foundation Level (17 hours) OR Association of Software Testers Foundation Level (36 hours)
- Formal training leading to certification in Agile practitioner level skills and knowledge (eg SAFe Practitioner course (14 hours) or equivalent industry-recognized Agile course(s)
- Demonstrated critical thinking skills gained through the successful application of problem solving methods such as problem analysis, logic and judgement
- Minimum 5 years in business application development in a project team structure (medium size environment) with experience using a variety of application tools specific to the assigned area of operation and exposure to testing/quality assurance and business/systems analysis in a medium to large sized organization, working on medium to large scale projects.
- Demonstrated understanding of:
- All technical software design, business analysis and testing skills as defined in the technical skills framework for this position
- All team collaboration core competencies as defined in the core competency framework for this position
- MS Office products (basic Word, Outlook and PowerPoint; advanced Excel including pivot tables
If you’re excited about taking on this opportunity, we invite you to apply today and start the conversation with us about this position.
Please apply via our website this week at https://www.pac.bluecross.ca/careers
While we thank all applicants for their interest, only short-listed candidates will be contacted.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
PBC is an Indigenous Works employer of choice, an Insurance Business Canada Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion award winner, one of Canada’s Greenest employers, a Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion (CCDI) employer partner, and a Pride at Work partner.
We strive to create a workplace where everyone feels valued and employees feel empowered to freely participate and contribute regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ability, education level, parental status, or socioeconomic status. We are an equal opportunity employer and welcome applications from all qualified candidates.
To request an accommodation in completing this job application, testing, interviewing, or otherwise participating in the employee selection process, please direct your inquiries to careers@pac.bluecross.ca
. These accommodation requests will be reviewed confidentially and, on a case-by-case basis by Human Resources. 
