Staff Engineer

About the role

Job Description

Role title: Staff Engineer, Data Platform

Salary range: $130,000 - $180,000 USD

Location: Chicago-based Hub or fully remote

Amazing Career Moments Happen Here

Transforming the insurance industry is ambitious, we know. That’s why at Applied, we’re building a team that shows up every day ready to learn, willing to try new things, and driven to deliver innovative software and services that make us indispensable to our customers – all within a culture built on values that make us indispensable to each other too. With 40+ years of experience in the insurtech game, we’re not just redefining what’s achievable, we’re creating a place where amazing career moments are made possible.

The opportunity

Applied engineers the platforms, data, and intelligent systems moving insurance forward. The work runs in production across agencies and carriers, where quality, speed, reliability, and sound technical judgment matter. In this role, you will lead architecture and technical decision-making across Applied’s customer-facing data platform.

This newly created individual contributor role reports directly to the leader of Data and Analytics and serves as the senior engineering lead across Data Lake, Data Engineering, Analytics & Visualization, and Data Science. You will help modernize the platform supporting internal products and customers, raise engineering standards, and remain hands-on when the work calls for it. You will influence how data moves from its source through ingestion, preparation, visualization, and consumption by Applied products, AI solutions, and customers.

What you’ll own

Lead architecture and technical decision-making across the end-to-end data lifecycle, from source ingestion and streaming through preparation, visualization, and consumption by products, AI solutions, and customers

Drive modern engineering approaches through proofs of concept, technology evaluation, and reimagining existing solutions when a more scalable or efficient path is available

Improve the scalability, reliability, accuracy, completeness, and observability of data flowing into and through the Data Lake

Guide and contribute to major initiatives, including reducing streaming latency, strengthening observability across more than 4,000 agency GCP projects, and modernizing database architecture away from SQL Server

Partner with Software Engineering, Data Engineering, BI Engineering, Data Science, product teams, and senior leadership to resolve difficult technical problems and align teams around sound platform decisions

Remain hands-on by designing, prototyping, troubleshooting, reviewing code, and contributing directly to implementation when needed

Mentor engineers and build a culture of strong software engineering practices, experimentation, platform thinking, AI-enabled work, and shared technical ownership

What you’ll bring

8+ years of experience in software engineering, with a track record of strong technical impact

Deep data-focused software engineering experience, with the ability to reason across ingestion, streaming, storage, transformation, visualization, and consumption

Strong cloud data platform experience in Google Cloud Platform, AWS, or Azure, including architecture and production problem-solving at scale

Experience designing or operating data lake and streaming systems, with practical knowledge of data accuracy, stability, availability, and performance

Strong software engineering fundamentals, including the software development lifecycle, source control, code review, automated testing, CI/CD, and production operations

Hands-on programming experience with Python, Go, or comparable languages, plus strong SQL and data architecture fundamentals

A track record of influencing technical direction across multiple teams without direct reporting authority while balancing strategic guidance with direct technical contribution

Experience leading complex platform design or migration decisions and communicating tradeoffs clearly to technical and business stakeholders, or equivalent practical experience

What could set you apart

Production experience with GCP technologies such as BigQuery, Dataflow or Apache Beam, Pub/Sub, AlloyDB or Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL, and Redis

Experience with change data capture tooling such as Debezium or an equivalent technology

Experience applying AI or machine learning within data platforms or using AI and automation to accelerate engineering work

Experience with large-scale, multi-tenant SaaS data platforms, particularly in insurance or another regulated industry

A record of modernizing legacy systems, leading low-disruption migrations, and creating engineering standards that teams adopt

An entrepreneurial approach that includes testing ideas, building proofs of concept, questioning existing assumptions, and starting fresh when the outcome justifies it

Your background may bring strengths we have not listed here. If the role and its impact interest you, we encourage you to apply.

Build a career that moves an industry

Applied is the connective intelligence transforming how insurance works. We build the platforms, data, and intelligent systems that connect agencies and carriers across the insurance lifecycle.

Here, careers move with the work. You can own meaningful decisions, build what reaches the market, expand your scope as the business evolves, and work alongside people who bring expertise, curiosity, and care to what they create.

What you can expect

Work with reach: Build products, services, or programs that support agencies, carriers, and teammates across the insurance lifecycle.

Ownership with context: Make decisions with a clear view of customer needs, business priorities, and the teammates who bring the work to market.

Growth through scope: Expand your impact through meaningful projects, cross-functional exposure, learning opportunities, and stretch work as the business evolves.

Built by people: Work with people who bring expertise, curiosity, and care to what they build, and who share accountability for moving the work forward.

Benefits and support

Our benefits support your health, time, and life beyond work.

NORTH AMERICA

Medical, dental, and vision coverage

Holiday and vacation time

Health and wellness days

A day off for your birthday

Compensation transparency

The anticipated base salary range for this position is $130,000 - $180,000 USD. Starting pay reflects the role’s scope and the successful candidate’s relevant experience, skills, and location.

Candidate security

Applied communicates with candidates through an @appliedsystems.com email address or our official careers portal. Our recruiters will never request payment or ask for bank account details, government identification numbers, or other sensitive financial information during initial recruiting conversations.

Background checks

Employment is contingent on successful completion of the background checks and verification steps that apply to the role and location.

Use of AI in recruitment

Applied may use AI-enabled tools to support parts of the recruitment process, such as organizing application information, scheduling, and workflow administration. Hiring decisions include human review and follow applicable laws and company policy.

Equal employment opportunity

Applied Systems is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. We make employment decisions based on job-related qualifications and business needs, without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, age, veteran status, or any other status protected by applicable law.

#LI-Remote #LI-US

Posting text as published by Applied Systems.

The evidence behind this listing

Workplace

Remote Matched in posting text

Seniority

staff+ From the job title

Employment type

Not established

Location as listed

Not stated

Pay and work authorization

Stated pay

$130k–180k/yr AI reading of the posting

Visa sponsorship

Not stated

Security clearance

Not established

Citizenship

Not established