Lead Software Engineer - Internal Developer Platform & Developer Experience

Description

The company is a mutual insurance firm owned by its policyholders in Iowa and South Dakota, with more than 80 years in business. The team builds modern, data-driven technology for members.

You will lead the design and evolution of complex engineering solutions and internal developer platform features that support the company's business and technology goals. As technical lead for the developer platform, developer experience, software catalog, integrations, self-service and engineering enablement, you make sure work fits business needs, company standards, architecture principles and security rules.

Using the relationships you already have with company leaders, you advise on platform capabilities, delivery problems, process changes and technology upgrades, and help shape the direction of the platform.

Responsibilities

• Lead complex programs from design through coding, testing and debugging, including workflows built on emerging technology that meet changing business needs.
• Serve as subject matter expert for developer platforms, developer experience, catalogs, integrations and self-service, and lead rollout of secure, scalable, cost-effective capabilities across many applications, systems and teams.
• Build and grow the developer portal and software catalog, connecting source control, cloud, CI/CD, application portfolio data, documentation and security tools into one developer experience with clear metadata, ownership and system links.
• Create health checks, scorecards, campaigns, templates, reference implementations, documentation, automation and self-service tools that show what matters, reduce developer friction and help teams adopt company standards.
• Manage the platform as a product: collect developer feedback, map developer journeys, rank capabilities, contribute to the roadmap and define measures for health, adoption, reliability and developer experience.
• Operate, monitor and improve platform capabilities with architecture, security, cloud, CI/CD, application engineering and other technology teams, weighing tradeoffs and encouraging shared ownership of reliable services.
• Coach and mentor team members on gathering information, root cause analysis, defining problems, building solutions, verifying results and improving them over time.
• Mentor other technology areas on designing, building and rolling out solutions, including how to use new or updated software.
• Work with application engineering, cloud, security, architecture, operations, quality engineering and other teams to bring platform capabilities, products and processes together.
• Lead platform roadmap work, capability assessments, project proposals, estimates and proof-of-concept efforts as needed.
• Track industry practices and standards, take part in outside knowledge-sharing groups, set direction for enterprise standards, run code reviews and check adherence.
• Other duties as assigned.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, MIS or a related field plus at least 5 years of software engineering experience, or 9 years of related and applicable experience.
• Strong analytical problem-solving skills and close attention to detail.
• Demonstrated knowledge of software development lifecycle methods.
• Ability to communicate clearly and to coach and mentor team members.
• Big-picture thinking, with the ability to translate WaaS strategy into company strategy.
• Strong root cause analysis skills, with recommendations backed by data.
• Ability to build relationships and communicate with stakeholders.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced setting with changing priorities.
• Continuous learning mindset and awareness of industry trends.
• Ability to collaborate within a diverse development team model.
• Demonstrated experience leading cross-team technical initiatives.
• Demonstrated experience designing, building, integrating or supporting platform capabilities used by several engineering teams.
• Preferred: experience in Agile product delivery or software engineering environments.
• Preferred: experience building or supporting internal developer platforms, developer portals and self-service engineering capabilities.
• Preferred: experience developing platform integrations, automation and self-service capabilities using AWS services, APIs, SDKs and infrastructure as code.
• Preferred: experience integrating developer platforms with source control, cloud, CI/CD, security tooling, documentation, observability, service management and enterprise data sources.
• Preferred: experience designing software catalogs, scorecards, health checks or similar platform capabilities.
• Preferred: experience building self-service workflows, templates, automation, documentation and onboarding that raise developer productivity and platform adoption.
• Preferred: experience finding developer friction and driving measurable gains across journeys, tools, processes, platforms and teams.
• Preferred: experience using platform health, adoption, usage, reliability or productivity measures to find opportunities and judge outcomes.
• Preferred: experience running and steadily improving an internal engineering platform, including monitoring, troubleshooting, documentation and service ownership.
• Preferred: experience applying product management to internal engineering platforms, including gathering feedback, prioritizing capabilities and measuring adoption, effectiveness and alignment with engineering standards.

Conditions

A non-compete agreement is required for this role.

At this time the company is not considering applicants who need any type of immigration sponsorship, now or in the future, to work in the United States, including additional or permanent work authorization. This covers F1-OPT, F1-CPT, H-1B, TN, L-1, J-1 and similar categories.

If you meet the definition of a Covered DoD official, please tell the company.

Applicant information is kept confidential under EEO guidelines. The company is an Equal Opportunity Employer.