Head of Software Engineering

VP, Head of Engineering Practice

Location: Jersey City, NJ (preferred) or Raleigh, NC (3 days/week in office)

We are seeking a visionary and hands-on VP, Head of Engineering Practice to drive innovation across Engineering initiatives, shared services, and foundational frameworks. This role will be pivotal in shaping the engineering culture, establishing best practices, and delivering scalable, cloud-native solutions that power our enterprise platforms.

Key Responsibilities

• Strategic Leadership & Governance:

  • Define and execute the engineering strategy for engineering initiatives and shared services
  • Facilitate Engineering Practice meetings with broad representation across teams, including Infrastructure and Security
  • Champion engineering excellence and modern development practices across the organization
  • Lead workgroups/guilds focused on key engineering topics with defined charters and deliverables
  • Develop and maintain engineering policies and standards

• Technology Delivery & Innovation:

  • Spearhead the creation of reusable libraries, templates, and frameworks to accelerate development across teams
  • Lead the design and development of cloud-native, API-first applications with a strong emphasis on scalability, security, and performance
  • Oversee reference implementations and participate in tool evaluations
  • Participate in architecture decisions and ensure alignment with enterprise standards and business objectives
  • Drive adoption of DevOps, CI/CD, automated testing, and observability practices

• Innovation & Enablement:

  • Foster a culture of innovation and continuous improvement within engineering teams
  • Collaborate with product and business leaders to identify opportunities for leveraging AI and emerging technologies
  • Champion AI-driven solutions and integrate GenAI capabilities into engineering workflows (e.g., automated testing, release notes)
  • Establish engineering playbooks and best practices for full-stack development
  • Build and mentor a team of Junior Engineers
  • Promote knowledge sharing and cross-functional collaboration

Qualifications, Skills & Experience

• Proven experience as a Principal Engineer or senior technology leader with a strong hands-on full-stack background
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field (Master's degree preferred)
• Minimum 15+ years in software engineering, with at least 5 years in a senior technology leadership role
• Proven track record of leading large engineering teams and delivering complex enterprise solutions
• Expertise in Java, Spring Boot, Angular, and relational/non-relational databases
• Deep understanding of cloud-native architectures and API-first design principles
• Hands-on experience with Microsoft Azure and related services
• Strong knowledge of software engineering best practices, design patterns, and architectural principles
• Experience with microservices, containerization (Docker/Kubernetes), and event-driven architectures
• Demonstrated ability to lead large-scale engineering initiatives and deliver enterprise-grade solutions
• Experience in Insurance P&C domain is strongly preferred
• Familiarity in building AI-driven applications and integrating machine learning models into production systems
• Excellent communication and leadership skills with the ability to influence at all levels