Production Support Manager

Production Support Manager

Odyssey Reinsurance Company (OdysseyRe) is the global reinsurance arm of Odyssey Group, one of the world's leading providers of reinsurance and specialty insurance. OdysseyRe offers a broad range of property, casualty, and specialty reinsurance products, providing capital and risk management solutions for clients to efficiently manage economic risk through a network of branch and representative offices across North America, Latin America, EMEA (Europe, Middle East & Africa), AsiaPacific and London.

OdysseyRe is an equal opportunity employer with excellent benefits and a strong commitment to providing training and opportunities for our staff. We provide employees an innovative, enriching environment and take great pride in their career growth.

OdysseyRe is rated A+ (Superior) by AM Best and A+ (Strong) by Standard and Poor's. Odyssey Group is a subsidiary of Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited, which is traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol FFH.

About the Role:

Hudson Crop, a specialty insurance business, is seeking an experienced Production Support Manager to oversee the stability, availability, and operational excellence of our business-critical systems. The Crop insurance industry is heavily regulated by the USDA, requiring stringent compliance with government-driven changes. Business operations are highly time-sensitive, with 24x7 system availability crucial As the Production Support Manager, you will lead a dedicated team ensuring system uptime, incident response, problem management and collaboration with both Production Support and Service Desk teams. You will play a pivotal role in bridging production support with help desk functions to streamline issue resolution and enhanced user experience.

This is a contract-to-hire position reporting to the VP of IT Operations and Service Management.

Key Responsibilities

• Production Support Leadership:
• Manage day-to-day production support operations to maintain system availability, performance, and compliance with USDA regulations.
• Own and drive incident management, problem root cause analysis to minimize disruptions.
• Lead the triage, prioritization, and resolution of production issues in collaboration with business, IT, and vendor teams.
• Ensure adherence with monitoring, alerting, and escalation procedures are in place to preempt and mitigate system failures and pursue continuous improvement opportunities.
• Help Desk & Service Desk Integration:
• Bridge Production Support and Help Desk functions to improve issue resolution, documentation, and knowledge sharing.
• Define and implement workflows ensuring smooth handoffs between Service Desk and Production Support teams.
• Establish incident communication protocols to keep stakeholders informed during major disruptions.
• Process & Continuous Improvement:
• Drive automation, process enhancements, and proactive maintenance to improve system stability.
• Work closely with development teams to ensure seamless transition from development to production environments.
• Identify recurring issues and establish preventive measures to minimize future incidents.
• Major IT & Business Transformation Support:
• Support Hudson Crop's ongoing business and IT transformation initiatives, ensuring production systems evolve alongside new technology rollouts.
• Collaborate with engineering, architecture, and DevOps teams to integrate new solutions with minimal business disruption.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in Production Support, IT Operations, or Application Support in a regulated industry (insurance, financial services, or agriculture preferred).
• Excellent understanding of cloud technology – preferably Azure
• Familiarity with ITSM tools (such as ServiceNow)
• Strong leadership and incident management experience, with expertise in troubleshooting complex production issues.
• Experience working with 24x7 mission-critical systems where downtime has significant business impact.
• Familiarity with USDA regulatory requirements and their impact on business and IT operations (preferred).
• Strong understanding of ITIL, service management, and escalation procedures.
• Hands-on experience with monitoring tools, logging solutions, and automation for support operations.
• Ability to partner with Help Desk teams, developers, and infrastructure teams to ensure smooth support operations.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, able to work across business and IT teams.
• Oversight of Contract/Service provider Vendor resources
• Ability to Design and refine SLA & KPI's

Contract-to-Hire Details

• Reports to: VP of IT Operations and Service Management
• Hybrid Schedule: 3 days per week in Stamford, CT office
• Travel: Up to 15% (e.g. NYC, Overland Park)

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