Director of Platform Engineering

Director of Platform Engineering

Apply locations London, UK time type Full time posted on Posted 3 Days Ago job requisition id R13997

Job Title

Director of Platform Engineering

Job Description

UnderwriteMe is a UK based Insurtech creating disruptive SaaS solutions for the insurance industry. We are on a mission to make life insurance more widely accessible, providing technology to ensure people and their loved ones are protected when the inevitable happens.

We are wholly owned by Pacific Life, but operate as an autonomous business within the company. This gives us the best of both worlds - the freedom to act like a technology scale-up, with the stability of a large company meaning longer-term thinking and no last minute pivots to gain our next funding round.

UnderwriteMe has two main products we sell to customers:

1. Decision Platform - a B2B enterprise platform that provides a best-in-market Underwriting Rules Engine used by over 30 insurers to power their underwriting decisions.

2. Protection Platform - a B2B2C marketplace used by over 15,000 advisors to power quoting and purchase of protection products in the UK.

UnderwriteMe is part-way through a multi-year transformation to adopt a Product Operating Model, modernising our architecture and moving our products to a SaaS model. We still have much to do, and we're looking for people to join us on this challenging and exciting journey.

About The Role

We are looking for a Director of Engineering to join us to lead Engineering for our underlying engineering platform. This role will play a leadership role in getting us from where we are today to our future target state.

All of our infrastructure runs on AWS, with most of our applications being JVM based and running on Kubernetes. We use DataDog for centralised logging, monitoring and alerting and GitLab for source control.

What you will be Doing

You will lead engineering for our platform engineering squad, reporting directly into the VP Engineering. You will play a second role in acting as a leader of our underlying engineering platform, providing a vision for the future direction of our platform.

As the leader of the platform engineering squad, provide metrics and progress on our transformation to our Senior Leadership Team. You will also be a member of the Engineering leadership at UnderwriteMe, collaborating with other engineering leaders.

Your day to day will involve creation and execution of a roadmap of improvements that move our platform towards your defined target state.

About You

You are technically great, with a strong understanding of modern platform engineering and engineering leadership. You thrive on moving between different levels of detail depending on what the situation needs.

You believe in building out a modern engineering platform that can support the needs of engineers. You care deeply about creating a platform that enables engineers to move quickly.

You are a creative problem solver and a curious coach, helping others to improve. You have a growth mindset and thrive in a fast-paced environment with large amounts of uncertainty.

Technical Requirements

You are an experienced platform engineering leader, building an engineering platform on a cloud-based infrastructure, preferably on AWS using Kubernetes. You are an expert with IaC and have a passion for automating everything.

You understand the full software engineering lifecycle and the role that platform engineering plays in this. You have experience in a regulated environment, ideally working with standards such as ISO 27001 / SOC2.

You've been working in teams following modern software delivery methodologies, such as agile, lean, and DevOps.

What we offer

Here at UnderwriteMe, you have the chance to work on solving complex problems that will change how lives are protected. We offer a number of benefits and programmes to reward and recognise our employees' contributions.

We also take pride in giving back to the community and offer rewarding volunteering and social responsibility opportunities.

Benefits (Only for Permanent and Fixed Term Employees)

• Stakeholder Pension Scheme
• Life Assurance
• Subsidised Gym Membership
• Private Medical Insurance
• Season Ticket Loan
• Eye Care
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Group Income Protection
• Wellness Benefits

As part of our commitment to accessibility for all, UnderwriteMe will, upon the request of the applicant, provide accommodation during the recruitment process to ensure equal access to applicants with disabilities.

UnderwriteMe is an Insurtech software business and subsidiary of Pacific Life Re (PL Re), a global life and pensions reinsurance firm.

Joining UnderwriteMe means being part of a technology company that is committed to bringing a fresh and dynamic approach to insurance.