Principal Software Engineer - Personal Lines

Principal Software Engineer - IE06GE
We're determined to make a difference and are proud to be an insurance company that goes well beyond coverages and policies. Working here means having every opportunity to achieve your goals - and to help others accomplish theirs, too. Join our team as we help shape the future.

The Principal Software Engineer is a senior individual contributor responsible for setting technical direction and delivering complex, high-impact software solutions within Personal Insurance. The role requires hands-on technical leadership, architectural ownership, and innovation, ensuring solutions are designed with quality, scalability, reliability, and security from the outset. This position partners closely with Product, Architecture, Reliability Engineering/Operations, DevSecOps, and Quality Engineering to deliver measurable business value through disciplined engineering practices and technical excellence.

Key Responsibilities

Technical Leadership & Architecture

• Serve as a technical authority for complex Personal Insurance systems across front-end, back-end, integration, and data layers.
• Define and evolve solution architectures that align with enterprise standards and enable scalable, resilient delivery.
• Ensure solutions meet functional and non-functional requirements, including performance, security, resiliency, maintainability, and operational readiness.
• Drive modernization of legacy systems into cloud-native, API-driven, and event-based architectures.

• Remain deeply hands-on by contributing production-quality code, technical designs, prototypes, and reference implementations.
• Lead resolution of complex technical issues, including high-severity production incidents and systemic design concerns.
• Establish and enforce engineering standards, design patterns, and best practices across teams.

• Champion strong 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 practices into solutions.
• Ensure applications are production-ready and supportable, with appropriate controls and documentation.

• Act as a quality bar-raiser, ensuring quality is engineered into solutions rather than validated solely through testing.
• Define and enforce quality engineering expectations across the lifecycle, including clear Definition of Ready and Definition of Done criteria.
• Promote shift-left practices such as test-driven development, in-sprint automation, and design-for-testability.
• Partner with Quality Engineering (SDET) to drive effective automation strategies and reduce escaped defects.
• Lead root-cause analysis of recurring defects and quality trends, driving systemic improvements.

• Conceptualize new ideas, approaches, and technical solutions to address business and technology challenges.
• Translate ambiguous problems into clear technical hypotheses and solution options.
• Lead Proof of Concept (POC) efforts to validate feasibility, quantify impact, and demonstrate value.
• Develop clear value propositions for POCs, including benefits, risks, costs, and recommendations.
• Present POC outcomes and recommendations to senior technology and business stakeholders to inform decision-making.
• Advocate responsible experimentation with emerging technologies, including AI-enabled development capabilities.

• Partner with 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.
• Provide clear, concise updates to senior leadership on architecture decisions, technical risks, and delivery readiness.
• Mentor and guide engineers through technical leadership, design reviews, and knowledge sharing, without formal HR management accountability.

• 14+ years of experience in enterprise application development.
• Strong technical leadership and mentoring experience
• Extensive experience delivering digital insurance solutions
• Demonstrated success delivering complex, large-scale systems in Agile environments.
• Proven ability to influence technical direction across multiple teams or domains through expertise and leadership.

• Strong technical background in Java, Angular, SQL, AWS, and scalable cloud-based systems.
• Proficient coding skills in modern languages such as Python and TypeScript.
• Familiarity with AI frameworks and AI-assisted development tools.
• Experience with distributed systems, APIs, microservices, and cloud-native architectures.
• Deep expertise in Microsoft Azure and cloud-native architecture
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field Required
• Cloud: Microsoft Azure, Azure Storage, Cosmos DB
• Languages & Frameworks: Java, C#, Spring Boot, .NET Core
• Integration: REST APIs, Swagger/OpenAPI, Kafka, JMS
• Frontend: Angular, TypeScript
• Monitoring: Application Insights, Splunk
• Familiarity with Duck Creek technology is a plus.

• Experience driving quality engineering practices, including automation, CI/CD quality controls, and production readiness standards.
• Demonstrated ability to ideate, prototype, and execute Proof of Concept initiatives that articulate clear value propositions.
• Strong understanding of DevOps, observability, and operational excellence principles.

• Exceptional communication and stakeholder management skills.
• Ability to explain complex technical concepts to both technical and executive audiences.
• Demonstrated ability to drive clarity, alignment, and sound decision-making in ambiguous situations.