Principal Software Engineer - Personal Lines

Location: Morristown, NJ

Remote Type: Hybrid

Time Type: Full time

Job Description

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.

Hands-on Engineering & Delivery

• 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.

SDLC, DevOps & Operational Excellence

• 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.

Quality & Engineering Excellence

• 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.

Innovation, Ideation & Proof of Value

• 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.

Cross-Functional Collaboration & Influence

• 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.

Qualifications

Experience

• 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.

Technical Skills

• 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.

Quality, DevOps & Innovation

• 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.

Leadership & Communication

• 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.

This role will have a Hybrid work schedule, with the expectation of working in an office 3 days a week

Compensation

The listed annualized base pay range is primarily based on analysis of similar positions in the external market. Actual base pay could vary and may be above or below the listed range based on factors including but not limited to performance, proficiency and demonstration of competencies required for the role. The base pay is just one component of The Hartford’s total compensation package for employees. Other rewards may include short-term or annual bonuses, long-term incentives, and on-the-spot recognition. The annualized base pay range for this role is:

Equal Opportunity Employer/Sex/Race/Color/Veterans/Disability/Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity or Expression/Religion/Age

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