Principal Software Engineer, Berxi

Who are we? 
A strategic and trusted insurance partner, Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance (BHSI), provides a broad range of commercial property, casualty and specialty insurance coverages and outstanding service to customers and brokers around the world. Part of Berkshire Hathaway’s insurance operations, we bring our solutions to market with our stellar brand name, top-rated balance sheet, and the expertise of our global team of professionals, who exude excellent capabilities and strong character.

Berxi is the Small Commercial team within BHSI. We’re all about driving digital innovation in the Small Commercial Insurance space and are focused on leveraging technology to make insurance simple and affordable for professionals and small businesses. If you constantly strive for excellence and want to work with a collaborative, fast paced and energetic team – then Berxi is for you.

We are a values-based organization where respect, integrity, excellence, collaboration, and passion define who we are and how we do business.  We value diversity of backgrounds, experience, and perspectives and strive to foster an inclusive environment that enables all our team members to bring their best selves to work.  We are one team committed to building a culture where every teammate has the opportunity to contribute and be recognized. Want to be part of the team building the finest property, casualty and specialty lines insurance company in the world?

Learn more about our unique culture and history. 

Job Opportunity: 

Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance (BHSI) is seeking a highly skilled Principal Software Engineer to join its Berxi team in Boston. In this pivotal role, you will shape the strategic evolution of Berxi’s direct to customer Digital Platform by leading the design and implementation of scalable, cloud‑native solutions that support the needs of a fast‑growing insurance business. You’ll bring a hands‑on, solution‑oriented mindset to influence architectural decisions, mentor engineering teams, and contribute directly to Berxi’s strategic vision. Partnering closely with Product, Marketing, and Customer Experience, you will help build and enhance our direct‑to‑consumer application platform, delivering secure, reliable, and intuitive customer experiences. The ideal candidate thrives in a fast‑paced, collaborative environment, demonstrates strong leadership and deep technical expertise, and values autonomy, architectural ownership, and the opportunity to tackle meaningful, high‑impact problems that drive real business outcomes.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Spearhead the design and development of scalable, cloud-native applications on AWS, ensuring adherence to enterprise architecture principles and alignment with evolving business needs.
• Lead 1–2 Agile teams as a hands-on technical lead, setting clear Sprint goals, creating accountability, and removing blockers to ensure delivery success.
• Collaborate with front-end engineering initiatives using React or Vue.js to deliver responsive, accessible, and customer-friendly interfaces across multiple platforms.
• Model and optimize data architectures with a strong focus on performance, scalability, reliability, integrity, security, and observability, leveraging SQL, NoSQL, and in-memory solutions.
• Operate within an empowered engineering environment supported by modern platforms and tools, prioritizing impactful problem-solving over process overhead.
• Collaborate with enterprise architects and product managers to translate business requirements and architectural blueprints into robust, high-quality software components.
• Convert product backlog items into solution architectures, working closely with Architects and Principal Engineers on cross-cutting designs and event-driven contracts.
• Facilitate Sprint Refinement sessions to shape well-defined technical user stories that can be delivered in small, testable increments.
• Drive Sprint Planning activities, ensuring alignment with customer value, reliability, and performance objectives.
• Own the complete software development lifecycle, emphasizing test-driven development, secure coding practices, and long-term maintainability.
• Evaluate and adopt modern frameworks and tools that enhance development velocity, system scalability, and operational resilience.
• Provide technical leadership and mentorship to engineering teams, conduct code reviews, and champion best practices that foster a culture of excellence and continuous learning.
• Communicate architectural decisions and technical strategies to the Enterprise Architecture Review Board, ensuring compliance with organizational standards.
• Proactively identify and resolve system performance bottlenecks, architectural inefficiencies, and reliability concerns through targeted improvement initiatives.
• Develop and maintain comprehensive documentation covering system architecture, development workflows, and operational procedures to support scalability and onboarding.
• Ensure compliance with cybersecurity protocols, data governance standards, and regulatory requirements throughout the software delivery process.
• Own production readiness, actively participate in on-call rotations, and lead incident response for your domain. Instrument application code with observability best practices (metrics, distributed tracing, structured logging) in partnership with DevOps/SRE, ensuring services are operationally supportable.

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

• 10+ years of progressive, hands-on experience in software engineering, with a proven track record of delivering enterprise-grade, cloud-native solutions.
• Demonstrated success in a Principal Engineer or equivalent leadership role, driving design and implementation of scalable applications and complex integrations.
• Advanced proficiency in Golang (primary), with experience in Java or C#, applying SOLID principles and domain-driven design (DDD) to produce clean, maintainable, and secure code.
• Strong front-end development expertise using Vue.js/Nuxt.js or React, focused on building responsive, accessible, and customer-centric interfaces.
• Deep knowledge of relational and NoSQL databases, including PostgreSQL, SQL Server, DynamoDB, and Redis, covering schema design, query optimization, and ORM frameworks.
• Hands-on experience with AWS services such as Lambda, ECS, SQS, SNS, Step Functions, RDS, and S3, with a solid understanding of cloud-native development patterns and infrastructure automation.
• Comprehensive understanding of microservices architecture and event-driven systems, including inter-service communication (REST, gRPC), messaging patterns, and orchestration strategies.
• Strong foundation in system design and architectural patterns, with the ability to evaluate trade-offs and make decisions balancing scalability, security, maintainability, and performance.
• Skilled in CI/CD practices using GitHub Actions, CircleCI, or GitLab, with knowledge of GitFlow branching strategies and automated testing pipelines.
• Hands-on experience instrumenting applications with observability tooling (Prometheus, CloudWatch, Datadog, or similar) and participating in on-call support for production systems, with understanding of SLIs, SLOs, and incident response practices.
• Technically versatile and hands-on across the full software development lifecycle—from architecture and design to implementation, deployment, and support.
• Exceptional analytical and problem-solving skills, with a proactive approach to identifying and resolving technical challenges.
• Excellent communication and collaboration abilities, with experience working across distributed teams, engaging stakeholders, and coordinating with external vendors.
• Business-oriented mindset, aligning technical solutions with strategic objectives and operational goals.
• Familiarity with the Property & Casualty Insurance domain is a plus, though not required.
• Self-motivated, adaptable, and team-focused, with a strong sense of ownership and commitment to delivering high-quality outcomes.
• Demonstrated experience or exposure security and compliance frameworks within enterprise environments.

BHSI Offers:

• A competitive package and exciting growth opportunities for career-oriented teammates.
• A dynamic, action oriented, and thoughtful environment centered on always doing the right thing for our customers, teammates, and our other stakeholders.
• A purposely non-bureaucratic organization that embraces simplicity over complexity and emphasizes individual excellence in a team framework.
• Benefits that support your life and well-being, which include:
  • Comprehensive Health, Dental and Vision benefits
  • Disability Insurance (both short-term and long-term)
  • Life Insurance (for you and your family)
  • Accidental Death & Dismemberment Insurance (for you and your family)
  • Flexible Spending Accounts
  • Health Reimbursement Account
  • Employee Assistance Program
  • Retirement Savings 401(k) Plan with Company Match
  • Generous holiday and Paid Time Off
  • Tuition Reimbursement
  • Paid Parental Leave

The base salary range for this position in Boston is $150,000 to $180,000, along with annual bonus eligibility.  Total compensation for a candidate is determined by their relevant skills, location, and experience.  We value our teammates – both their capabilities and character – as demonstrated by our amazing culture.

NOTE: Compensation will be commensurate with experience. This job description is not intended to be all-inclusive. Team Member may perform other related duties as negotiated to meet the ongoing needs of the organization.