Principal Engineer, Database as a Service - Hybrid
- belfast city district, northern ireland, United Kingdom
- Hybrid
- £90 - £130 Per Hour
Job Description
At Allstate, great things happen when our people work together to protect families and their belongings from life’s uncertainties. And for more than 90 years, our innovative drive has kept us a step ahead of our customers’ evolving needs. From advocating for seat belts, air bags and graduated driving laws, to being an industry leader in pricing sophistication, telematics, and, more recently, device and identity protection.
Your role in the team
The Principal Engineer leads Allstate’s Database as a Service (DBaaS) organization, driving the technical strategy, adoption, and evolution of enterprise database platforms that support critical business applications across the company. This role will help modernize Allstate’s traditional database environment while advancing next-generation database capabilities that support cloud adoption, automation, and AI-enabled business needs. As a hands‑on technical leader, this individual partners closely with engineering, security, infrastructure, architecture, and product teams to strengthen existing SQL Server and Oracle environments, expand modern database platforms, and improve developer productivity through automation, self‑service, and Infrastructure as Code. The Principal Engineer plays a highly visible role in shaping Allstate’s future data platform ecosystem, influencing senior technical leaders, and enabling scalable, resilient, secure, and AI‑ready database services.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead the vision, technical strategy, and execution of Allstate’s Database as a Service (DBaaS) platform across both traditional enterprise databases and emerging cloud‑native capabilities.
- Serve as a hands‑on technical leader and senior engineering resource for database architecture, platform modernization, and technical execution.
- Drive the stabilization, standardization, and modernization of critical SQL Server and Oracle database platforms.
- Advance Infrastructure as Code, APIs, automation, and self‑service capabilities to improve database delivery, consistency, and operational efficiency.
- Help define and build next‑generation database capabilities that enable AI, analytics, and future enterprise platform priorities.
- Partner with engineering, architecture, infrastructure, security, product, and senior technology leaders to align database platform investments with enterprise priorities.
- Influence highly visible technology decisions across senior technical leadership, principal engineers, officers, and cross‑functional stakeholders.
- Establish metrics and KPIs focused on platform reliability, automation adoption, developer experience, performance, resiliency, and operational excellence.
- Establish enterprise standards for database security, observability, resiliency, and operational excellence.
- Mentor engineers, architects, and technical leaders while fostering a culture of engineering excellence, accountability, modernization, and continuous improvement.
- Influence vendor roadmaps and strategic technology partnerships to align platform capabilities with evolving business and engineering needs.
Skills & Capabilities
- Deep expertise in enterprise database platforms and modern data infrastructure.
- Strong understanding of platform engineering, automation, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), APIs, and cloud‑native architectures.
- Ability to influence enterprise technology strategy and drive adoption of new technologies and engineering practices.
- Proven change leadership and experience leading large‑scale modernization or transformation initiatives.
- Strong collaboration and relationship‑building skills across engineering, architecture, security, and business teams.
- Demonstrated people leadership experience and developing high‑performing engineering organizations.
- Effective communicator capable of translating complex technical concepts into business value.
- Experience influencing vendor roadmaps and product strategies to align with future platform and business needs.
Essential Criteria
- All applicants must demonstrate they have a legal right to work in the UK for employment at Allstate.
- Allstate is not providing sponsorship for this vacancy.
- 5+ years of experience in database engineering, platform engineering, cloud engineering, infrastructure engineering, or related technical disciplines.
- 5+ years of experience leading technical teams, mentoring engineers, and driving organizational change through influence and hands‑on technical leadership.
- 5+ years leading large‑scale enterprise database platforms, platform engineering initiatives, or modernization programs.
- Experience operating in large, complex enterprise environments and designing highly available, resilient, secure, and scalable platforms supporting business‑critical applications.
- Deep expertise in enterprise database platforms, including significant experience with SQL Server and/or Oracle environments supporting business‑critical applications, along with exposure to modern database technologies such as PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis, or cloud‑native database services.
- Strong experience with automation, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), APIs, DevOps, and platform engineering practices.
- Experience building, transforming, or modernizing self‑service platforms and operational automation capabilities.
- Proven ability to influence enterprise technology strategy, architecture decisions, engineering roadmaps, and senior technical stakeholders.
- Experience partnering with engineering, architecture, security, infrastructure, and product leaders to deliver enterprise‑scale technical solutions.
- Demonstrated ability to lead technical teams, mentor engineers, and drive organizational change through influence and hands‑on technical leadership.
Desirable criteria
- Experience building or leading Database as a Service (DBaaS) platforms.
- Experience with AWS, Azure, GCP, and cloud‑native database technologies.
- Experience enabling database platforms or data infrastructure that support AI, machine learning, analytics, or emerging enterprise AI use cases; exposure to AI‑enabled operations, vector databases, or LLM infrastructure is a plus.
- Experience with Kubernetes, containers, and modern cloud architectures.
- Experience leading large‑scale cloud migration or enterprise database transformation initiatives.
- Understanding of FinOps, platform economics, operational excellence, and platform adoption metrics.
- Experience influencing vendor roadmaps and partnering with technology providers to align platform capabilities and future business and engineering needs.
- Industry certifications in cloud, database, architecture, or related disciplines.
Supervisory Responsibilities
This job has supervisory duties.
Job posting End Date: Sunday 6th September 2026 #SE1 #Hybrid Skills Cloud Engineering, Database As A Service (DBaaS), Enterprise Technologies, Technical Strategy
Shape the Future of Insurance with Cutting-Edge Tech and a People-First Culture
Why join us? Allstate NI is proud to be Allstate’s European Digital Centre of Excellence, a hub for innovation and engineering excellence. We’re recent winners of Best Place to Work in IT (100+ employees) and Best Use of Cloud Services at the Belfast Telegraph IT Awards, and we’ve been recognised for our community and sustainability impact with Platinum in the Northern Ireland Environmental Benchmarking Survey. We’re a product-driven, cloud‑first organisation delivering real outcomes through modern technology, a digital product‑centric talent model, and a culture rooted in engineering excellence. Our teams work in cross‑functional structures, guided by an outcome‑based delivery approach that accelerates speed, agility, and value. We also invest in you. At Allstate NI, your career growth matters. You’ll have access to our Continuous Learning Hub, designed to support skills development and professional advancement through tailored learning paths, certifications, and mentoring opportunities. Whether you’re deepening technical expertise or exploring leadership roles, we provide the tools and support to help you thrive. Be part of a high‑performing, socially responsible organisation where your work has purpose, and your growth is supported every step of the way.
What do you get in return?
- Corporate bonus scheme
- Pension scheme
- Annual performance‑related pay reviews
- Life assurance and income protection
- Flexible working options
- Hybrid working
- Private medical and dental insurance
- Access to an employee assistance programme
- Discounted gym membership
- Two paid volunteering days each year
- Cycle to work scheme
At Allstate, we work hard to help people live a good life every day. Allstaters are dedicated to serving clients, customers, and communities, which allows employees to find meaning and value in their work. Allstate offers an environment that fosters innovative thinking where you’ll be able to explore your ideas and feel proud of the work you do. Allstate helps protect nearly 16 million households with auto, home, life, and retirement products. We want every professional connected to Allstate to be committed to giving our customers the best and that means finding the best talent. We want you to be our next great addition.