Principal Software Engineer

NielsenIQ; Pune District; On-site; INR 4,000,000 - 9,000,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible working environment

Volunteer time off

Job summary

NIQ is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to lead the Insurance Engineering team in a hands-on capacity. You will shape architecture, guide modernization, and coordinate delivery across a distributed team, balancing stability with modernization efforts.

You will mentor engineers and ensure high availability, security, and performance for both customer-facing and internal tools. The role requires deep experience with C#/.NET, APIs, and data systems, plus strong communication across technical

Qualifications

• 8+ years of software engineering experience with ownership of production applications and technical leadership.
• Strong fundamentals in OOP, data structures, algorithms, testing, debugging, and maintainable code design.
• Hands-on with C# and .NET; experience modernizing .NET Framework apps is preferred.
• Experience designing and supporting APIs, backend services, web apps, and data-intensive systems.
• Relational databases, Microsoft SQL Server, schema design, queries, transactions, and migrations.
• NoSQL/search tech such as MongoDB or Elasticsearch.
• Frontend skills with Angular; familiarity with AngularJS is a plus.
• CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, source control, release management, observability, security practices.
• Diagnosing production problems across app, infra, DB, integration and data layers.
• Ability to communicate decisions and tradeoffs clearly to technical and non-technical audiences.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the technical lead for Insurance Engineering with architecture, implementation, delivery and production support.
• Lead design, development, maintenance, and modernization of Insurance applications and APIs.
• Remain hands-on in development, code reviews, debugging, performance tuning and complex issue resolution.
• Plan technical enhancements, platform maintenance, security remediation, deployments and debt reduction.
• Guide evolution of legacy tech toward maintainable architectures aligned with business needs.
• Define and review architecture, service boundaries, API contracts, data usage and integration patterns.
• Improve CI/CD, test automation, observability, secret management and operational readiness.
• Ensure availability, performance, security and data protection for customer-facing and internal tools.
• Partner across functions to translate requirements into executable technical work.
• Lead platform modernization and integration with shared Financial Services data and cloud platforms.
• Coordinate delivery, identify blockers, communicate status and risks.
• Mentor engineers through design reviews, pair programming and incident analysis.
• Maintain architecture diagrams, inventories, runbooks and decision records.
• Participate in incident/problem/change-management with evidence and rollback planning.

Skills

C# & .NET

API design

Backend services

Angular frontend

CI/CD pipelines

Data-intensive systems

SQL Server

MongoDB/Elasticsearch

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Technology, or related field

Tools

MongoDB

Elasticsearch

Job description

NIQ is looking for a Principal Software Engineer to provide technical leadership for the Insurance Engineering team within Financial Services Technology. The team develops and supports customer-facing and internal applications used for insurance replacement-product identification, present-value calculations, client administration, reporting, and data integration.

This is a hands-on technical leadership role. The Principal Software Engineer will set engineering direction, guide system design and modernization decisions, coordinate delivery across a distributed team, and remain directly involved in complex development, production support, and technical problem solving. The role will balance the stability of existing Insurance services with the gradual modernization of legacy applications and integration with shared Financial Services engineering platforms and practices.

Who We Are Looking For

• You take ownership of technical outcomes and can lead through influence, sound judgment, and direct contribution.
• You can understand an existing system before proposing change, including its business workflows, data dependencies, operational constraints, and customer commitments.
• You communicate clearly with engineers, product and operations partners, and non-technical stakeholders.
• You can prioritize reliability, security, maintainability, and delivery speed based on business impact.
• You are comfortable working across modern and legacy technologies and can define a practical path between them.
• You can work effectively with globally distributed teams and coordinate work across time zones.
• You document decisions, system dependencies, support procedures, and technical risks so that knowledge is not concentrated in one person.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the technical lead for Insurance Engineering, providing direction on architecture, implementation, delivery, and production support.
• Lead the design, development, maintenance, and modernization of Insurance applications, including Claim Manager, SpexAdmin, SpexOnline, reporting services, data connectors, and supporting APIs and services.
• Remain hands-on in software development, code review, debugging, root-cause analysis, performance tuning, and resolution of complex production issues.
• Own technical planning for application enhancements, platform maintenance, security remediation, dependency upgrades, deployment improvements, and technical debt reduction.
• Guide the evolution of legacy .NET, C#, AngularJS, Scala, F#, Perl, SQL Server, MongoDB, and Elasticsearch components toward maintainable, supported architectures where justified by business need.
• Define and review application architecture, service boundaries, API contracts, database usage, data flows, integration patterns, and non-functional requirements.
• Improve CI/CD, test automation, release validation, observability, secret management, vulnerability remediation, and operational readiness.
• Ensure customer-facing services and internal operational tools meet agreed expectations for availability, performance, security, data protection, and supportability.
• Partner with Insurance Services, Product, Operations, Infrastructure, Security, Enterprise Architecture, and Financial Services Engineering to translate business requirements into executable technical work.
• Lead technical discovery and dependency analysis for platform modernization, including the transition of legacy master-data dependencies and integration with shared Financial Services data and cloud platforms.
• Coordinate engineering delivery across the team, identify prerequisites and risks, remove technical blockers, and provide clear status on decisions, dependencies, and delivery commitments.
• Mentor engineers through design reviews, pair programming, code reviews, incident analysis, and practical knowledge sharing.
• Maintain current architecture diagrams, application and server inventories, deployment procedures, support runbooks, and decision records.
• Participate in incident, problem, and change-management processes and ensure production changes include testing evidence, rollback planning, and post-deployment validation.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of relevant software engineering experience, including ownership of production applications and technical leadership of complex delivery.
• Strong software engineering fundamentals, including object-oriented design, data structures, algorithms, testing, debugging, and maintainable code design.
• Hands-on experience with C# and .NET. Experience supporting or modernizing .NET Framework applications is strongly preferred.
• Experience designing and supporting APIs, backend services, web applications, and data-intensive systems.
• Experience with relational databases, preferably Microsoft SQL Server, and practical knowledge of schema design, query optimization, transactions, and migration planning.
• Experience with one or more NoSQL or search technologies such as MongoDB or Elasticsearch.
• Working knowledge of modern frontend development. Experience with Angular or AngularJS is preferred.
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, source control, release management, observability, and secure software-development practices.
• Experience diagnosing production problems across application, infrastructure, database, integration, and data layers.
• Ability to communicate technical decisions and tradeoffs clearly to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Technology, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Additional Information

• Flexible working environment
• Volunteer time off

NIQ may utilize artificial intelligence (AI) tools at various stages of the recruitment process, including résumé screening, candidate assessments, interview scheduling, job matching, communication support, and certain administrative tasks that help streamline workflows. These tools are intended to improve efficiency and support fair and consistent evaluation based on job-related criteria. All use of AI is governed by NIQ's principles of fairness, transparency, human oversight, and inclusion. Final hiring decisions are made exclusively by humans. NIQ regularly reviews its AI tools to help mitigate bias and ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations. If you have questions, require accommodations, or wish to request human review were permitted by law, please contact your local HR representative. For more information, please visit NIQ's AI Safety Policies and Guiding Principles: https://nielseniq.com/global/en/info/niqs-ai-safety-policies/

About NIQ

NIQ is the world's leading consumer intelligence company, delivering the most complete understanding of consumer buying behavior and revealing new pathways to growth. In 2023, NIQ combined with GfK, bringing together the two industry leaders with unparalleled global reach. With a holistic retail read and the most comprehensive consumer insights delivered with advanced analytics through state-of-the-art platforms, NIQ delivers the Full View. NIQ is an Advent International portfolio company with operations in 100+ markets, covering more than 90% of the world's population.

For more information, visit NIQ.com

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At NIQ, we are steadfast in our commitment to fostering an inclusive workplace that mirrors the rich diversity of the communities and markets we serve. We believe that embracing a wide range of perspectives drives innovation and excellence. All employment decisions at NIQ are made without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, or gender identity), national origin, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws. We invite individuals who share our dedication to inclusivity and equity to join us in making a meaningful impact. To learn more about our ongoing efforts in diversity and inclusion, please visit the https://nielseniq.com/global/en/news-center/diversity-inclusion