Senior Staff Software Engineer - Governance

GEICO; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 110,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

GEICO is seeking an experienced Senior Staff Engineer to drive high‑performance, zero‑downtime platforms and guide the transformation of IT toward a tech‑driven organization with engineering excellence and a culture of psychological safety.

You will collaborate with distinguished engineers to define a strategic technical roadmap, lead delivery across platforms, mentor engineers, and ensure quality and performance while aligning with business goals.

Qualifications

• Hands-on experience in complex system design and data pipelines.
• Knowledge of Docker and Kubernetes.
• Experience with governance and policy engines such as Cloud Custodian and OPA.
• Proficiency in Go or Python (OOP languages).
• Familiarity with relational and NoSQL databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL, Cassandra, MongoDB, Elasticsearch).
• Strong REST/SOAP and enterprise middleware understanding.
• Excellent communication and leadership to drive projects.
• Experience with CI/CD and Infrastructure as Code.
• Exposure to open-source monitoring (Grafana/Prometheus).
• Big data, streaming data, and ETL pipelines; ML/AI knowledge.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical strategy and execution for the Platform Engineering domain.
• Collaborate with product managers and teams to solve complex problems.
• Develop and execute software development roadmap to increase velocity.
• Ensure quality, usability, and performance of solutions.
• Mentor engineers and influence executives on technical direction.
• Share best practices and improve cross-team processes.
• Forecast costs and required resources; align with business plans.
• Support on-call and operational needs.

Skills

Docker

Kubernetes

Go

Python

REST APIs

CI/CD

Cloud platforms

Data pipelines

Leadership

Communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Grafana

Prometheus

Cloud Custodian

Open Policy Agent

Job description

Why Join GEICO?

At GEICO, we offer a rewarding career where your ambitions are met with endless possibilities.

Every day we honor our iconic brand by offering quality coverage to millions of customers and being there when they need us most. We thrive on relentless innovation to exceed our customers' expectations while making a real impact on local communities nationwide.

Founded in 1936, GEICO is a member of the Berkshire Hathaway family of companies and one of the largest auto insurers in the United States. When you join our company, we want you to feel valued, supported, and proud to work here. That's why we offer the GEICO Pledge: Great Company, Great Culture, Great Rewards, and Great Careers.

Position Summary

GEICO is seeking an experienced Senior Staff Engineer with a passion for building high-performance, low maintenance, zero-downtime platforms, and applications. You will help drive our insurance business transformation as we transition from a traditional IT model to a tech organization with engineering excellence as its mission, while co-creating the culture of psychological safety and continuous improvement.

Position Description

Our Senior Staff Engineer works with our Distinguished Engineer and Sr. Engineers to innovate and build new systems, improve, and enhance existing systems and identify new opportunities to apply your knowledge to solve critical problems. You will lead Strategy and Execution of a technical roadmap that will increase the velocity of delivering products and unlock new engineering capabilities.

Position Responsibilities

• Focus on multiple areas and provide technical and thought leadership to the enterprise
• Collaborate with product managers, team members, customers, and other engineering teams to solve our toughest problems
• Develop and execute technical software development strategy for the Platform Engineering domain
• Accountable for the quality, usability, and performance of the solutions
• Be a role model and mentor, helping to coach and strengthen the technical expertise and know-how of our engineering and product community. Influence and educate executives
• Consistently share best practices and improve processes within and across teams
• Analyze cost and forecast, incorporating them into business plans
• Determine and support resource requirements, evaluate operational processes, measure outcomes to ensure desired results, demonstrate adaptability and sponsor continuous learning
• Willing to take on-call and operation support

Qualifications

• Deep hands‑on experience in complex system design and data pipeline and architectures, scale and performance, tuning, with good knowledge on Docker and Kubernetes
• Experience with open‑source software is a plus
• Experience with governance and policy engines such as Cloud Custodian, Open Policy Agent (OPA).
• Advance knowledge of at least one OOP languages such as Go or Python
• Understand open‑source databases like MySQL, PostgreSQL, etc., familiar with No‑SQL databases like Cassandra, MongoDB, Elasticsearch, etc.
• Strong understanding of web service integration (REST/SOAP) and enterprise middleware integration tiers
• Excellent communication skills – needs to be able to lead projects from the front and interact with clients and sponsors on a regular basis
• Experience partnering with engineering teams and transferring research to production
• Experience with continuous delivery (CI/CD) and Infrastructure as Code
• Willing to work on both fast development and operation environment
• Knowledge of developer tooling across the software development life cycle (task management, source code, building, deployment, test automation and related tools, operations, real‑time communication)
• Knowledge in big data, streaming data and ETL pipeline architecture
• Experience solving analytical problems with quantitative approaches
• Knowledge in ML and AI technologies
• Knowledge on Open‑source monitoring software like Grafana and Prometheus

Experience

• 6+ years of professional experience in software development, platform architecture, administration, governance, infrastructure management, installation, and maintenance of the hardware, software, and network systems
• 4+ years of experience in open‑source frameworks
• 3+ years of experience with architecture and design
• 3+ years of experience with AWS, GCP, Azure, or hybrid data center

Education

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, Information Systems, or equivalent education or work experience

Annual Salary

$110,000.00 - $260,000.00

The above annual salary range is a general guideline. Multiple factors are taken into consideration to arrive at the final hourly rate/ annual salary to be offered to the selected candidate. Factors include, but are not limited to, the scope and responsibilities of the role, the selected candidate's work experience, education and training, the work location as well as market and business considerations.

At this time, GEICO will not sponsor a new applicant for employment authorization for this position.

The GEICO Pledge

Great Company:

Protecting customers through life's twists and turns with innovation and integrity.

Great Careers:

Personalized development programs, mentorship, and certification assistance.

Great Culture:

Inclusive and collaborative culture rooted in shared success.

Great Rewards:

Competitive pay, benefits, and flexibility to support your well-being and future.

The equal employment opportunity policy of the GEICO Companies provides for a fair and equal employment opportunity for all associates and job applicants regardless of race, color, religious creed, national origin, ancestry, age, gender, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, familial status, disability or genetic information, in compliance with applicable federal, state and local law. GEICO hires and promotes individuals solely on the basis of their qualifications for the job to be filled. GEICO reasonably accommodates qualified individuals with disabilities to enable them to receive equal employment opportunity and/or perform the essential functions of the job, unless the accommodation would impose an undue hardship to the Company. This applies to all applicants and associates. GEICO also provides a work environment in which each associate is able to be productive and work to the best of their ability. We do not condone or tolerate an atmosphere of intimidation or harassment. We expect and require the cooperation of all associates in maintaining an atmosphere free from discrimination and harassment with mutual respect by and for all associates and applicants.