Principal Engineer

The Principal Engineer is the Lead Technical Engineer for the Value Stream and resides at the Value Stream leadership level. The key interactions of this role include coaching engineers in Value streams, collaborating with Architecture leads and technical governance functions, supporting planning with Head of Product, Head of IT, and Delivery Lead, and reporting to the Chief Engineer as part of the extended leadership team. The role holder is the recognised expert and go-to contact point for all technical and functional aspects of the Value Stream’s domain. They are an all-rounder that can take the lead in new initiatives, live issues, and future technical options. 

The Principal Engineer works closely with the Value stream leadership, and the Solution/Enterprise Architects and head of capabilities in developing the Value stream’s roadmap, therein assessing engineering constraints and quality assurance gates. Such plans must align to the target architecture and engineering strategies. In that regard, the role holder is expected to contribute to and implement the best practices, standards and technical improvements as agreed by the Head of Capabilities and relevant chapter leads in the Value stream.

The Principal Engineer is passionate about adopting new industry best practices in concepts and methodologies. In this respect, they are very visible in both internal and external communities. Working across and with the wider technology organization, they will help remove technology and engineering related impediments, resolve technical constraints and escalations, and be a champion for the technology excellence within BTG.

Key Accountabilities and Responsibilities

• Technical Delivery: Ensure detailed design, engineering, and quality of technical delivery for the Value stream.
• Business Strategy Alignment: Ensure technical designs and solutions support the business strategy.
• Values Role Model: Promote productivity, quality, transparency, and openness over internal politics.
• Architectural Governance: Ensure technical solutions follow architectural governance and align with technology roadmaps.
• Continuous Improvement: Drive continuous improvements to processes, increasing efficiency and ROI.
• Technical Debt Management: Manage technical debt process and address specific epics to prevent uncontrolled technical debt.
• Leadership and Mentoring: Provide leadership and mentoring to the engineering community.
• Technical Solutions Creation: Lead the creation of technical solutions for epics/stories, ensuring timely and quality delivery.

Knowledge and Experience Required

• Extensive knowledge and experience engineering key technology components.
• Extensive knowledge and experience in design and development with the following:
  • Selected programming languages – Angular, React, Gosu and the Java/J2EE platform.
  • Code repository tools such as GitHub and GitLab.
  • Code deployment tools such as Jenkins, Nexus, or Team City.
  • Performance and monitoring tools e.g. AppDynamics, ELK etc.
  • Automated testing frameworks e.g. Cucumber, Protractor etc.
  • Application Server solutions e.g. JBOSS, Apache Tomcat etc.
  • Cloud applications and services such as Azure, GCP & AWS – this is a key development area for those in this role and needs oversight and responsibility. for keeping abreast of cloud-native development.
  • Spring and Spring boot frameworks.
  • Microservices and containerisation tools such as Docker and Kubernetes.
• Knowledge of Chatbot / Robotics development and capabilities.
• Knowledge and experience of Mobile & App development and capabilities.
• Knowledge and experience with Line management through both coaching and mentoring techniques.
• Extensive knowledge and experience using development and release toolsets.
• Knowledge and experience with third party service providers including facilitation of RFP, onboarding, and performance management (design of SLA and overall KPI).
• Previous experience of collaborating with architecture functions to deliver solutions aligned with technology roadmaps and Enterprise Architecture strategies.
• Extensive experience and awareness of IT architectural governance, standards, and methodology.
• Experience and knowledge of CISO governance frameworks, standards, controls, and auditing documentation covering both business and technology solutions currently within product backlogs.
• Knowledge of insurance technologies preferred e.g. Guidewire core and digital products.
• Knowledge and experience in the use of tools such as: Jira, Confluence etc.

Professional Training Requirements

• Professional Cloud Solutions Architect Certification – example for Cloud based professional qualification.
• TOGAF 9.0 (desirable).
• SAFe® 5 Agilist certification or equivalent (desirable).

Benefits and Work-Life Balance

At Admiral, we are proud to be a diverse business where we put our people and customers first. We have great benefits to ensure employees have a great work-life balance; it's one of the reasons we’re consistently voted one of the Sunday Times Best Big Companies to Work For in the UK. We want you to have an element of freedom to define a working lifestyle that supports this, so accommodate flexible hours wherever possible.

All colleagues will receive 33 days holiday (including banks holidays) when they join us, and this will increase with length of service, up to a maximum of 38 days (including banks holidays). You also have the option to buy or sell up to five days of annual leave in addition to your allocation.

You can also view some of our other key benefits here.

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