Staff Software Engineer at Symetra

Job description

We are seeking a Staff Software Engineer to provide technical leadership for the design and delivery of a new, cloud-native platform. This engineer will work across teams to translate business capabilities and architectural direction into scalable, maintainable software while helping establish the engineering practices and technical foundations needed to support the platform long term. The Staff Software Engineer will operate as a hands-on technical leader, partnering closely with Engineering, Product, Architecture, and external delivery partners. This role requires someone who can move comfortably between architecture and implementation, make pragmatic technical decisions, identify risks early, and help multiple engineering teams deliver effectively without sacrificing long-term system quality. Key responsibilities include: • Provide hands-on technical leadership across the design, development, testing, deployment, and operation of platform capabilities. • Partner with Architecture, Engineering, and Product to translate business capabilities and architectural direction into pragmatic, executable technical designs. • Make and influence technical decisions involving application architecture, integration patterns, APIs, data flows, reliability, scalability, security, and maintainability. • Lead technical design discussions and help teams evaluate tradeoffs rather than defaulting to a single solution or technology. • Develop production-quality software while remaining close enough to implementation to understand the realities facing engineering teams. • Establish and reinforce engineering standards and practices across software design, code quality, automated testing, CI/CD, observability, reliability, and production readiness. • Identify architectural, technical, integration, and delivery risks early and drive them toward resolution. • Work across multiple engineering teams to maintain technical consistency while allowing teams appropriate autonomy in implementation. • Mentor senior and mid-level engineers, raise the technical capability of the broader organization, and help develop future technical leaders. • Create clear technical artifacts, including design documents, architecture decision records, technical plans, and other documentation needed to make important decisions durable and understandable. • Partner with engineering leadership to improve technical planning, decomposition, dependency management, and delivery predictability. • Help establish sustainable engineering practices that enable teams to deliver quickly without creating unnecessary operational or technical debt. • Participate in production support and continuously improve the reliability, observability, and operability of the platform. Working across a blended delivery organization: • Provide technical leadership across a blended engineering model consisting of FTEs, contractors, and onshore/offshore vendor teams. • Work directly with vendor technical leads and engineers to ensure solutions align with established architecture, engineering standards, and long-term platform direction. • Review and challenge vendor-proposed designs and technical approaches when appropriate, using engineering evidence, tradeoffs, and platform needs to drive decisions. • Help ensure critical technical knowledge, architectural decisions, and engineering ownership remain within the organization rather than becoming dependent on individual vendors or delivery partners. • Support onboarding and technical integration of new engineering teams as the organization scales, creating patterns and practices that can be reused across teams. The ideal candidate combines deep software engineering expertise with strong technical leadership and systems thinking. They should be comfortable working in a complex distributed environment, influencing technical direction across organizational boundaries, challenging assumptions constructively, and turning ambiguous problems into clear technical approaches. They should be equally comfortable designing a system, writing production code, reviewing another team's architecture, mentoring engineers, and explaining technical tradeoffs to engineering and non-engineering partners. Success in this role is not measured solely by individual code contribution, but by the engineer's ability to improve the technical quality, decision-making, and effectiveness of the broader engineering organization. We empower inclusion At Symetra, we aspire to be the most inclusive insurance company in the country. We're building a place where every employee feels valued, respected, and has opportunities to contribute. Inclusion is about recognizing our assumptions, considering multiple perspective, and removing barriers. We accept and celebrate diverse experiences, identities, and perspectives, because lifting each other up fuels thought and builds a stronger, more innovative company. We invite you to learn more about our efforts here. Creating a world where more people have access to financial freedom Symetra is a national financial services company dedicated to helping people achieve their financial goals and feel confident about the future. In our daily work, we're guided by the principles of Value, Transparency and Sustainability. This means we provide products and services people need at a competitive price, we communicate clearly and openly so people understand what they're buying, and we design products--and operate our company--to stand the test of time. We're committed to showing up for our communities, lifting up our employees, and standing up for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Join our team and help us create a world where more people have access to financial freedom. For more information about our careers visit: symetra.eightfold.ai Work Authorization Employer work visa sponsorship and support are not provided for this role. Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States at hire and must maintain authorization to work in the United States throughout their employment with our company. Please review Symetra's Remote Network Minimum Requirements: As a remote-first organization committed to providing a positive experience for both employees and customers, Symetra has the following standards for employees' internet connection: • Minimum Internet Speed:100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload, in alignment with the FCC's definition of "broadband." • Internet Type:Fiber, Cable (e.g., Comcast, Spectrum), or DSL. • Not Permissible:Satellite (e.g., Starlink), cellular broadband (hotspot or otherwise), any other wireless technology, or wired dial-up. When applying to jobs at Symetra you'll be asked to test your internet speed and confirm that your internet connection meets or exceeds Symetra's standard as outlined above. Identity Verification Symetra is committed to fair and secure hiring practices. For all roles, candidates will be required (after the initial phone screen) to be on video for all interviews. Symetra will take affirmative steps at key points in the process to verify that a candidate is not seeking employment fraudulently, e.g. through use of a false identity. Failure to comply with verification procedures may result in: • Disqualification from the recruitment process • Withdrawal of a job offer • Termination of employment and other criminal and/or civil remedies, if fraud is discovered

Requirements

Must-haves

• Provide hands-on technical leadership across the design, development, testing, deployment, and operation of platform capabilities.
• Partner with Architecture, Engineering, and Product to translate business capabilities and architectural direction into pragmatic, executable technical designs.
• Make and influence technical decisions involving application architecture, integration patterns, APIs, data flows, reliability, scalability, security, and maintainability.
• Lead technical design discussions and help teams evaluate tradeoffs rather than defaulting to a single solution or technology.
• Develop production-quality software while remaining close enough to implementation to understand the realities facing engineering teams.
• Establish and reinforce engineering standards and practices across software design, code quality, automated testing, CI/CD, observability, reliability, and production readiness.
• Identify architectural, technical, integration, and delivery risks early and drive them toward resolution.
• Work across multiple engineering teams to maintain technical consistency while allowing teams appropriate autonomy in implementation.
• Mentor senior and mid-level engineers, raise the technical capability of the broader organization, and help develop future technical leaders.
• Create clear technical artifacts, including design documents, architecture decision records, technical plans, and other documentation needed to make important decisions durable and understandable.
• Partner with engineering leadership to improve technical planning, decomposition, dependency management, and delivery predictability.
• Help establish sustainable engineering practices that enable teams to deliver quickly without creating unnecessary operational or technical debt.
• Participate in production support and continuously improve the reliability, observability, and operability of the platform.
• Provide technical leadership across a blended engineering model consisting of FTEs, contractors, and onshore/offshore vendor teams.
• Work directly with vendor technical leads and engineers to ensure solutions align with established architecture, engineering standards, and long-term platform direction.
• Review and challenge vendor-proposed designs and technical approaches when appropriate, using engineering evidence, tradeoffs, and platform needs to drive decisions.
• Help ensure critical technical knowledge, architectural decisions, and engineering ownership remain within the organization rather than becoming dependent on individual vendors or delivery partners.
• Support onboarding and technical integration of new engineering teams as the organization scales, creating patterns and practices that can be reused across teams.
We empower inclusion
At Symetra, we aspire to be the most inclusive insurance company in the country. We're building a place where every employee feels valued, respected, and has opportunities to contribute.
Creating a world where more people have access to financial freedom
Work Authorization
Please review Symetra's Remote Network Minimum Requirements:
As a remote-first organization committed to providing a positive experience for both employees and customers, Symetra has the following standards for employees' internet connection:

Nice-to-haves

None flagged.

Application prep

Use the role’s language and application details while tailoring your materials.

Keywords to mirror

ci/cdai

Platform: eightfold
Effort: medium