Senior Staff Software Engineer

Senior Staff Software Engineer

We're determined to make a difference and are proud to be an insurance company that goes well beyond coverages and policies. Working here means having every opportunity to achieve your goals – and to help others accomplish theirs, too. Join our team as we help shape the future. Role Overview: We're hiring a Senior Staff Engineer to act as the technical lead for one or more scrum teams. This role sits at the intersection of architecture, engineering execution, and cross-functional collaboration. You will translate high-level architecture into actionable design, drive coding standards and best practices, and ensure the team delivers high-quality, scalable software — at velocity. You are expected to be hands-on, lead by example, and proactively remove friction that slows down engineering. This is a high-influence IC role — you're the one others turn to when things get complex, messy, or unclear.

Key Responsibilities

• Technical Leadership
  • Act as the Tech Lead for the scrum team(s) — own the technical roadmap in collaboration with Product, Architects, and RTEs.
  • Drive low-level design (LLD) and validate high-level design (HLD) provided by architects — raise flags, suggest improvements, and ensure feasibility.
  • Participate in and often lead estimation discussions with the Product Owner and Release Train Engineer (RTE).
  • Set and enforce engineering standards, coding best practices, and peer review rigor across the team.
• Hands-On Development & Mentorship
  • Write production-grade code based on team capacity — lead by doing, not just directing.
  • Unblock developers when stuck and mentor junior engineers on architecture, design, and implementation decisions.
  • Perform thorough code reviews, improve code quality, and advocate for test coverage and maintainability.
• Efficiency, Velocity & Innovation
  • Champion GenAI tools, CI/CD best practices, and automation to improve development velocity and reduce toil.
  • Conduct POCs and spike solutions to explore new technologies or improve engineering processes.
  • Partner with the Scrum Master to identify and resolve dependencies and remove execution bottlenecks.
• Stakeholder Communication
  • Work closely with the Director of Engineering to keep leadership informed of technical risks, team health, and delivery posture.
  • Communicate clearly with product managers, architects, and cross-functional stakeholders — translate between business goals and technical constraints.

Technical Environment / Tech Stack

We expect fluency or deep familiarity with:

• Languages: Java (Spring Boot), JavaScript/TypeScript, Python
• Cloud: AWS (EC2, Lambda, S3, API Gateway, RDS)
• CI/CD: Jenkins, GitHub Actions, Docker, Terraform
• GenAI: GitHub Copilot, prompt-based dev tools, LLMs for documentation and refactoring
• Testing & Observability: JUnit, TDD/Karate, Any observability tool

Qualifications

• 8+ years in software engineering, with 3+ years acting as a Tech Lead or Staff-level IC.

• Strong experience in backend development (Java) and Python good to have.

• Proven ability to guide teams technically while coding alongside them.

• Excellent communication skills — capable of managing up (to Directors) and across (Product, QA, Architects).

• Track record of raising engineering velocity without sacrificing quality.

Who You Are

• Hands-on engineer with strong technical judgment and natural team influence.

• You thrive in ambiguity — you bring structure, clarity, and progress where others freeze.

• Comfortable making hard technical tradeoffs and explaining them clearly to both tech and non-tech audiences.

• Known for raising the bar on engineering quality, delivery reliability, and team collaboration.

If you're a lead-level IC who wants to drive technical outcomes without needing a manager title, this is your role. This role will have a hybrid work schedule, with the expectation of working in an office (Charlotte, NC) 3 days a week (Tuesday through Thursday). Candidates must be authorized to work in the US without company sponsorship. The company will not support the STEM OPT I-983 Training Plan endorsement for this position.

Compensation The listed annualized base pay range is primarily based on analysis of similar positions in the external market. Actual base pay could vary and may be above or below the listed range based on factors including but not limited to performance, proficiency and demonstration of competencies required for the role. The base pay is just one component of The Hartford's total compensation package for employees. Other rewards may include short-term or annual bonuses, long-term incentives, and on-the-spot recognition. The annualized base pay range for this role is: $126,160 - $189,240 Equal Opportunity Employer/Sex/Race/Color/Veterans/Disability/Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity or Expression/Religion/Age