[Hiring] Principal Software Engineer - Emerging Technology & AI @CSAA Insurance Group, a AAA Insurer

Role Description

As a Principal Software Engineer, you will serve as a senior, hands-on technical leader focused on emerging technology and AI experimentation. You will design rapid prototypes, proofs of concept, and pilots; evaluate platforms, integrations, and architecture; and translate successful concepts into scalable solutions for delivery teams. Partnering across technology and the business, you will help shape technical standards, mentor engineers, solve complex challenges, and introduce innovative technologies and practices that improve development, quality, and delivery.

Your Work

• Technical Leadership
  • Demonstrates exceptional proficiency in evaluating and applying artificial intelligence (AI), generative AI (GenAI), agentic AI, and other emerging technologies in enterprise use cases.
  • Serves as a senior hands-on technical resource for Emerging Tech Labs, independently translating ambiguous opportunities into technical hypotheses, experiments, prototypes, and recommendations.
  • Provides advanced technical guidance across experiments and pilots while influencing technology choices, architecture patterns, and enterprise adoption decisions.
  • Partners with Enterprise Architecture to evaluate platform fit, integration strategy, security implications, governance considerations, and reusable patterns.
  • Mentors engineers and technical partners through advanced knowledge sharing while remaining an individual contributor with direct responsibility for technical execution.
• Design and Architecture
  • Leads the technical design of proof-of-concepts, prototypes, and controlled pilots across a diverse range of technologies, platforms, and enterprise use cases.
  • Builds sufficient working software and integrations to validate technical feasibility, architecture assumptions, platform capabilities, and key risks without over-engineering experiments as production applications.
  • Creates concise design artifacts, experiment documentation, technical decision records, and reusable patterns that meet Enterprise Architecture and engineering standards.
  • Evaluates APIs, cloud services, AI platforms, data sources, vendor products, and emerging technology frameworks through hands-on technical testing.
  • Supports technical transition of validated concepts to the appropriate engineering, platform, or delivery teams with clear architecture and implementation guidance.
• Code Quality and Review
  • Writes high-quality, maintainable prototype code and applies appropriate engineering practices for the scope and risk of each experiment.
  • Uses modern build, integration, testing, source control, and automation practices to ensure experiments are reproducible, secure, and technically credible.
  • Conducts technical reviews of prototype code and integrations and provides actionable feedback to improve quality, reliability, and reuse.
• Problem-Solving and Troubleshooting
  • Diagnoses and resolves sophisticated technical issues across applications, APIs, cloud services, AI platforms, data sources, and integration layers.
  • Identifies practical approaches for testing technologies where established enterprise patterns may not yet exist, clearly documenting assumptions, tradeoffs, constraints, and risks.
  • Determines when an experiment has produced sufficient evidence to recommend scaling, further evaluation, deferral, or stopping.
• Innovation and Improvement
  • Remains at the forefront of emerging technologies and methodologies, including AI/ML, GenAI, agentic AI, intelligent document processing, and related enterprise platforms.
  • Identifies technologies and technical patterns that warrant enterprise experimentation and evaluates their relevance, maturity, limitations, and potential value.
  • Converts experiment takeaways into reusable technical guidance, platform recommendations, reference patterns, standards input, or decision criteria.
• Project Planning and Estimation
  • Provides expert input on experiment scope, technical feasibility, dependencies, data needs, risks, success criteria, and expected effort.
  • Plans and drives time-boxed technical experiments with clear learning objectives and decision-oriented outputs.
  • Balances speed of experimentation with appropriate engineering rigor, security, governance, and enterprise architecture requirements.
• Collaboration and Communication
  • Collaborates with Enterprise Architecture, AI Strategy & Enablement, business sponsors, Security, Data, Risk, Legal, Procurement, platform teams, vendors, and delivery organizations.
  • Demonstrates exceptional oral, written, presentation, and listening skills, effectively explaining sophisticated technical concepts, experiment findings, tradeoffs, and recommendations to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
  • Demonstrates prototypes and clearly communicates what was tested, what was learned, what remains uncertain, and the implications for enterprise adoption and transition.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, technology, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and 10+ years of progressive experience in software engineering.
• 10 years Software development experience.
• Demonstrates knowledge of and experience with relevant technologies and platforms aligned to the role.
• Cloud-native services (e.g., AWS Lambda, DynamoDB, S3).
• Build, integration, and deployment tools (e.g., Jenkins, Maven).
• Programming languages and frameworks (e.g., Java/J2EE, Python, Node.js, JavaScript/TypeScript, React).
• Holds applicable certifications aligned to the technology stack.
• Familiarity with cloud-native services and architectures (e.g., compute, storage, and database services).
• Experience with software build, integration, and deployment tools.
• Actively shapes our company culture (e.g., supporting employee resource groups, mentoring employees, volunteering, joining cross-functional projects).
• Champions our cultural norms (e.g., willing to have cameras when it matters: helping onboard new team members, building relationships, etc.).
• Demonstrates a company ownership mindset, thinking beyond boundaries of their own area.
• Travels as needed for role, including divisional/team meetings and other in-person meetings.
• Fulfills business needs, which may include investing extra time, helping other teams, etc.

Benefits

• Recognition: We offer a total compensation package, annual bonus eligibility for most roles, 401(k) with a company match, and so much more!
• Career Growth: We believe in growth for everyone. Leaders and mentors partner with employees to align interests, unlock development opportunities, and support long-term success.
• Flexible Workplace: We embrace a remote-first culture through our Flexible Workplace. Most employees hold Home-Flex roles, working primarily from home, often with the flexibility to work from various locations including CSAA offices.
• Inclusion and Belonging: An inclusive and welcoming workplace is the cornerstone of our success.
• Sustainability: We are taking bold action to build more resilient communities and reduce our environmental impact.