Principal Software Engineer

Director Software Engineering - IE06FE
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Principal Software Engineer (T6)

Role Summary

The Principal Software Engineer is a senior technical leader and hands-on engineer for Digital Enablement which is the digital backbone for most of our external customer interactions and internal workflow management. This role shapes and executes end-to-end application and platform strategy while providing forward-looking technology leadership across the Digital Enablement ecosystem.

• Own and execute end-to-end technical strategy for Digital Enablement platforms and applications, from architecture and design through delivery and production support.
• Serve as a technical authority across Digital Enablement platforms, spanning frontend, backend, integration, and data layers.
• Define and evolve solution architectures aligned with enterprise standards, security requirements, resiliency expectations, and modernization goals.
• Ensure technology decisions directly support business outcomes, operational efficiency, and long-term platform sustainability.
• Technical Leadership & Architecture Excellence :
• Establish and enforce engineering standards, architectural patterns, and best practices across teams and release trains with an AI first Engineering Excellence mindset.
• Lead the modernization of legacy systems into cloud-native, API-driven, and event-based architectures.
• Evaluate architectural trade-offs and risks, providing clear recommendations to senior technology and business leaders.
• Partner with Enterprise Architecture, Security, and Platform teams to ensure solutions meet non-functional requirements including performance, availability, scalability, and compliance.
• Hands-On Engineering & Delivery :
• Contribute production-quality code, technical designs, prototypes, and reference implementations for complex and high-risk initiatives.
• Lead the resolution of complex technical issues, including high-severity production incidents and systemic design problems.
• Act as a technical escalation point for delivery teams, helping unblock critical path issues and reduce delivery risk.
• Ensure solutions are production-ready and supportable, with appropriate documentation, controls, and operational readiness.

• Ensure quality is engineered into solutions through strong design, extreme automation, and preventative practices.
• Define and enforce 'Definition of Ready' and 'Definition of Done' expectations across the development lifecycle.
• Promote shift-left practices such as test-driven development, in-sprint automation, and design for testability.
• Lead root cause analysis of recurring defects or reliability issues and drive systemic improvements.
• AI-First Innovation Focus :
• Identify opportunities to leverage modern platforms, AI-enabled capabilities, and GenAI solutions to improve business outcomes.
• Lead Proof of Concept (POC) efforts to validate feasibility, value, risk, and scalability of new technologies or approaches.
• Translate ambiguous business problems into clear technical hypotheses and solution options.
• Present POC outcomes, architectural decisions, and recommendations to senior stakeholders.

• Champion strong AI driven SDLC and DevOps practices, including CI/CD pipelines, automation-first delivery, and environment hygiene.
• Partner with DevSecOps and Reliability Engineering to embed observability, monitoring, alerting, and resiliency into functional solutions.
• Design systems that are reliable, diagnosable, and operable at enterprise scale.

• Continuously assess the relevant external technology landscape to identify emerging trends, architectural shifts, and external innovations with potential business impact.
• Proactively surface and mitigate technology stack risks, including obsolescence, scalability constraints, security exposure, and vendor or platform dependencies.
• Evaluate long-term trade-offs across build vs. buy, modernization sequencing, and platform investments to inform strategic decision-making.
• Partner with Enterprise Architecture, Security, and Platform teams to ensure future-facing designs remain resilient, compliant, and aligned to enterprise strategy.
• Cross-Functional Influence & Collaboration with Business and Technology
• Partner closely with business Product Owners to validate requirements, influence technical prioritization, and align solutions with business objectives.
• Manage technical dependencies across teams and release trains; proactively identify and escalate risks.
• Mentor and guide engineers through design reviews, technical coaching, and knowledge sharing.

• 12+ years of experience in enterprise application development and large-scale system delivery.
• Demonstrated success delivering complex, mission-critical systems in Agile environments.
• Proven ability to influence technical direction across multiple teams or domains.
• Demonstrated success in using the AI tools in SDLC and delivering better business outcomes.
• Exceptional communication skills, with the ability to drive clarity and sound decision-making in ambiguous situations.
• Experience in Finance and/or Insurance industries strongly preferred.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field required.

• Strong hands-on expertise in Java, Spring Boot, Angular/TypeScript, SQL, and modern application architectures.
• Deep experience with cloud-native platforms (AWS experience preferred).
• Expertise in APIs, microservices, event-driven architectures, and distributed systems. Experience with observability and monitoring tools (e.g., Application Insights, Splunk).
• Experience in Identity and Access Management, Mobile a plus.
• Hands on experience with AI frameworks and AI-assisted development tools.