Principal Engineer, Developer Experience

Allstate; United States; On-site; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Allstate is seeking a Principal Engineer/Director to lead the Developer Experience organization, driving strategy and adoption of tools, platforms, and capabilities used to build, test, deploy, secure, and operate software.

The role partners with engineering teams to reduce friction, improve productivity, and champion modern engineering practices, AI-assisted development, and emerging agentic technologies across a globally distributed organization.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of software engineering experience, including leadership of engineering organizations, platform teams, or developer experience functions.
• Hands-on experience building software and working with developer platforms, automation tools, and cloud-native technologies.
• Experience leveraging GitHub Copilot, AI-assisted engineering tools, large language models, and emerging agentic development capabilities.
• Strong understanding of the end-to-end software development lifecycle and modern engineering practices.
• Proven ability to influence senior technical leaders and drive adoption of new technologies and practices.
• Experience presenting technical concepts, demonstrations, and engaging with engineering communities.

Responsibilities

• Lead the vision, technical strategy, and execution of Allstate's Developer Experience program, ensuring engineers have access to modern, secure, and efficient development tools and platforms.
• Serve as a trusted advocate for the engineering community by gathering feedback, understanding developer pain points, and driving improvements that reduce friction and increase productivity.
• Remain actively engaged in software engineering practices, contributing to technical discussions, prototypes, automation initiatives, and platform improvements.
• Evaluate, validate, and govern developer tools, plugins, frameworks, and platform capabilities before enterprise adoption to ensure security, reliability, and scalability.
• Champion the adoption of AI-assisted software development, including GitHub Copilot and emerging agentic engineering capabilities.
• Partner with engineering leaders, architects, platform teams, and product stakeholders to create a seamless and consistent development experience across the enterprise.
• Drive innovation through experimentation, proof-of-concepts, technical demonstrations, and continuous assessment of emerging technologies.
• Establish metrics and KPIs focused on developer productivity, platform adoption, engineering satisfaction, and operational excellence.

Skills

Developer-first mindset

Influence technology strategy

Change leadership

Cross-functional collaboration

People leadership

Clear communication

Vendor roadmaps & strategy

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Engineering/IT

Tools

GitHub Copilot

Cloud-native technologies

Job description

At Allstate, great things happen when our people work together to protect families and their belongings from life's uncertainties. And for more than 90 years, our innovative drive has kept us a step ahead of our customers' evolving needs. From advocating for seat belts, air bags and graduated driving laws, to being an industry leader in pricing sophistication, telematics, and, more recently, device and identity protection.

Job Description

The Principal Engineer leads Allstate's Developer Experience organization, driving the technical strategy, adoption, and continuous improvement of the tools, platforms, and capabilities engineers use to build, test, deploy, secure, and operate software. As a hands on technical leader and advocate for the developer community, this individual partners closely with engineering teams to reduce friction, improve productivity, and enhance the overall development experience. The Principal Engineer champions modern engineering practices, AI-assisted development, and emerging agentic technologies while leading high performing teams responsible for delivering scalable, secure, and innovative solutions that enable business outcomes.

As a Director you won't just deliver results – you drive our culture and shared purpose. At Allstate, we value in person connected experiences not just with your team but also other Allstaters. This may require travel within your local area or to one of our offices on a regular basis.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the vision, technical strategy , and execution of Allstate's Developer Experience program, ensuring engineers have access to modern, secure, and efficient development tools and platforms.
• Serve as a trusted advocate for the engineering community by continuously gathering feedback, understanding developer pain points, and driving improvements that reduce friction and increase productivity.
• Remain actively engaged in software engineering practices, contributing to technical discussions, prototypes, automation initiatives, and platform improvements.
• Evaluate, validate , and govern developer tools, plugins, frameworks, and platform capabilities before enterprise adoption to ensure security, reliability, and scalability.
• Champion the adoption of AI-assisted software development, including GitHub Copilot and emerging agentic engineering capabilities, identifying opportunities to improve developer effectiveness and software quality.
• Partner with engineering leaders, architects, platform teams, and product stakeholders to create a seamless and consistent development experience across the enterprise.
• Drive innovation through experimentation, proof-of-concepts, technical demonstrations, and continuous assessment of emerging technologies.
• Establish metrics and KPIs focused on developer productivity, platform adoption, engineering satisfaction, and operational excellence.
• Build and lead high-performing teams while fostering a culture of technical excellence, learning, innovation, and customer-centric thinking.
• Influence enterprise-wide engineering standards, best practices, and technology decisions that enhance the software development lifecycle.
• Lead globally distributed and cross-functional teams to deliver modern engineering capabilities that enable speed, quality, security, and reliability.

Skills & Capabilities

• Developer-first mindset with a passion for improving the engineering experience.
• Ability to influence technology strategy and drive adoption of new tools and practices across the enterprise.
• Proven change leadership and experience leading engineering transformation initiatives.
• Strong collaboration and relationship-building skills across engineering, product, and business teams.
• Demonstrated people leadership experience and developing high-performing teams.
• Effective communicator with the ability to translate complex technical concepts into business value.
• Experience influencing vendor roadmaps and product strategies to align with evolving business objectives and operational priorities.

Experience

• 12+ years of software engineering experience, including experience leading engineering organizations, platform engineering teams, or developer experience functions.
• Demonstrated hands-on experience building software and working directly with developer platforms, automation tools, and cloud-native technologies.
• Experience leveraging GitHub Copilot, AI-assisted engineering tools, large language models, and emerging agentic development capabilities.
• Strong understanding of the end-to-end software development lifecycle and modern engineering practices.
• Proven ability to influence senior technical leaders and drive adoption of new technologies and engineering practices.
• Experience presenting technical concepts, facilitating demonstrations, and engaging directly with engineering communities.

Education

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science , Software Engineering, Information Technology, or a related technical field.

Supervisory Res