Principal Software Engineer

Vertafore; Denver (CO); On-site; USD 125,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

VIP Bonus

Job summary

Vertafore is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to shape the future of AI-native platforms. You will lead architectural direction, tackle the most complex engineering problems, and demonstrate how to merge engineering excellence with AI-driven development.

You will collaborate with Product and Engineering leadership to deliver real customer value. The role emphasizes hands-on leadership, modernization of platforms, and setting long-term technical strategy.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• Experience designing and delivering large-scale enterprise systems.
• Proven ability to lead complex technical initiatives and influence multiple teams.
• Hands-on experience with AI-assisted development tools and automation.
• Production experience with AWS and cloud platforms.
• Clear communication with technical and nontechnical audiences.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field.

Responsibilities

• Set technical direction and architecture for scalable, secure systems.
• Build and deliver reference implementations, reusable components, and frameworks.
• Lead AI-native engineering, tooling, and standards adoption across teams.
• Raise the bar by defining engineering standards and mentoring engineers.

Skills

Distributed systems

API design

Cloud platforms

AI-assisted development

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS

Tools

AWS

EKS

ECS

EC2

Job description

$125,000 - $180,000 + VIP Bonus

The insurance industry runs on Vertafore. We equip agencies, MGAs, and carriers with the core digital systems, specialized AI, and data-driven foundation to eliminate distribution drag across the insurance lifecycle, spanning sales, servicing, and back-office operations.

Underpinned by unmatched speed and performance power, we are the trusted backbone that’s taking the insurance industry from friction to flow with Distribution Velocity – speed, performance, and trust - to drive growth at scale.

With over 95% of the top agencies and insurers and 50% of industry compliance transactions running through Vertafore, we lead at the intersection of innovation and trust, giving insurance professionals the confidence to transform and win in the AI era.

Our reach is global, with headquarters in Denver, Colorado, and offices across the U.S., Canada, and India.

Vertafore is looking for a Principal Software Engineer to help shape the future of our technology platforms and lead how we build software in an AI-native world.

You’ll be a senior technical leader who stays hands‑on. You’ll set architectural direction, personally take on our hardest engineering problems, and show what an engineering organization can achieve when engineering excellence and AI are leveraged together.

You’ll work closely with Product and Engineering leadership so that what we build delivers real value to our customers.

What you’ll do

Set technical direction

• Design and guide scalable, secure, resilient architectures, making the tradeoffs between speed, quality, and long‑term sustainability.
• Lead the modernization of legacy platforms toward cloud‑native, API‑first, and AI‑enabled architectures.
• Identify and address technical debt, architectural risk, and performance bottlenecks early.
• Shape long‑term technology strategy, and evaluate emerging technologies through hands‑on experiments and proofs of concept.

Build and deliver

• Stay hands‑on in design, implementation, prototyping, and debugging, and personally take on our most complex problems.
• Build reference implementations, reusable components, and shared frameworks that speed up teams across the organization.
• Own technical outcomes, not just recommendations, with high standards for security, performance, reliability, and observability.

Lead AI-native engineering

• Set the example in using AI coding agents, automated testing, and intelligent code review in daily work.
• Help define Vertafore’s AI-native development methodology, tooling, and standards, including where human judgment matters most.
• Automate repetitive engineering work, and measure the impact on velocity, quality, and reliability.

Raise the bar across engineering

• Define engineering standards and design principles, and lead design reviews that encourage constructive debate.
• Mentor senior engineers, architects, and emerging technical leaders.
• Influence decisions across teams without direct authority, and partner with Product, Architecture, and Security to turn business strategy into technical plans.

What we’re looking for

Core qualifications

• 10+ years of professional software engineering, with deep expertise in at least one of Java, C#/.NET, Node.js/JavaScript, or Python.
• A track record of designing and delivering large‑scale enterprise systems, grounded in architecture, distributed systems, and APIs.
• Significant experience leading complex technical initiatives and influencing direction across multiple teams.
• Hands‑on experience with AI‑assisted development tools, and evidence that you’ve improved how teams work through automation.
• Production experience with cloud platforms, ideally AWS.
• Clear communication with both technical and nontechnical audiences.
• A bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Areas of depth

Our platform spans a wide range of technologies, and we don’t expect anyone to be an expert in all of them. We’re looking for real depth in several of these areas and the curiosity to grow in the rest.

• Cloud and infrastructure: AWS services such as EKS, ECS, and EC2; containerization; cloud‑native architecture.
• DevOps and delivery: CI/CD pipelines, deployment automation, observability, and DevSecOps.
• Data: relational databases such as Oracle, PostgreSQL, or SQL Server, including SQL development and performance tuning.
• Frontend: modern UI frameworks such as React or Angular.
• Modernization: evolving large‑scale legacy applications into modern platforms.
• Applied AI: LLMs, retrieval‑augmented generation, agents, and agentic workflows.
• Platform engineering: shared services, internal platforms, and developer productivity tools.
• Regulated environments: sensitive customer data, compliance requirements, and enterprise SaaS.