Senior Engineer in Bexhill-on-Sea

Senior Engineer

This is a hybrid role, requiring attendance at our Bexhill or Leicester office at least once per week and at quarterly departmental events. As such, applicants must be located within a 90-minute commuting distance of one of these offices .

We're a digital insurance provider with ambitious plans to become The Best and Biggest in the UK market. Over the past few years, we've made significant investments in our data and tech capabilities, particularly within our CIO function. Our CIO team is at the forefront of driving innovation and ensuring our technology infrastructure supports our ambitious goals. We've nurtured our 4Cs culture, fostering collaboration, creativity, and continuous improvement.

We're proud of the journey we're on as a company and know that our continued success will rely on the contribution of our talented colleagues. The CIO team plays a crucial role in this journey, working on cutting-edge projects that turn many of our business ambitions into reality.

We provide insurance to over four million customers, but we know there's even bigger opportunity out there. The fact you're now reading this job advert means we've tempted you to find out more about #lifeatHD - we really hope you like what you see, and you'll join us to share in the success of the exciting chapter that lies ahead.

We understand some people may not apply for jobs unless they feel they tick every box. If you are excited about joining us and think you have some of what we are looking for, even if you're not 100% sure, we would love to hear from you. Our CIO team is always looking for passionate individuals who are eager to make a difference and contribute to our success.

What does the role involve?

This is an exciting opportunity for a Senior Engineer to work across all aspects of the software development lifecycle; providing leadership, supporting and delivering high quality end to end solutions across Hastings' systems and platforms. You will be responsible for working across all aspects of the software development lifecycle and operating within agile teams from application support and change functions.

As a senior member of the team, you'll play a pivotal role in shaping our technical direction and supporting others to deliver high-quality solutions. You'll work across the full breadth of a solution rather than a single technology or platform, joining up the services, data and interfaces that make a change work end to end for our customers and colleagues.

You'll use AI to enhance our software engineering practises, improve engineering efficiency and raise quality standards across our teams, and you'll also build AI into the solutions themselves including designing, integrating and supporting AI-enabled components as part of an end to end delivery. You'll make sure teams apply critical thinking to validate AI-generated outputs, support the build and testing of AI-enabled solutions, and help drive the responsible and effective adoption of AI within everyday delivery.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Providing technical leadership, making informed decisions, and effectively managing stakeholder expectations.
• Designing, building, modifying, and supporting complex software systems in line with agreed standards and engineering best practices.
• Delivering end-to-end solutions across multiple services, platforms, and integrations, including AI-enabled components where appropriate.
• Estimating engineering tasks, guiding peers, and mentoring team members to support effective delivery and professional development.
• Debugging, testing, and optimising complex code to ensure performance, quality, and reliability.
• Using AI tools to accelerate the development, testing, maintenance, and documentation of software, while promoting effective human-led AI practices.
• Creating effective prompts, critically evaluating AI-generated outputs, and supporting colleagues in the responsible adoption of AI technologies.
• Contributing to AI-enabled solutions, ensuring compliance with security, privacy, governance, and cost requirements, while driving continuous improvement through the evaluation of emerging tools, technologies, and ways of working.

Skills we would love you to have:

We're looking for someone with strong technical expertise, a curious mindset and a passion for building high quality, user-centric solutions. We care more about breadth, judgement and the ability to learn than about any single technology, so if you have most of the below we'd like to hear from you. Ideally, you'll bring:

• Extensive hands-on experience supporting and developing enterprise-level customer and employee-facing applications.
• Experience delivering end-to-end solutions across front-end, services, and integration layers.
• Strong software engineering fundamentals, including object-oriented design, design patterns, problem solving, peer reviews, unit testing, and test-driven development.
• Proficiency in one or more modern programming languages, with th