Principal Engineer

Company Description

Welcome to TAL. As a leading life insurer, we’ve been protecting Australians for over 150 years. Backed by Daiichi Life, we're driven by big ambitions and empower to create better products and services.

Together with our Partners, we’re helping millions of Australians live a life filled with choices, options, and freedoms. See the direct impact you make delivering support and financial security with care and expertise. Grow beyond expectations with diverse roles, global connections, and exclusive learning opportunities.

Work with passionate, bright and capable colleagues. Feel inspired by supportive leaders. Collaborate with heart, where flexibility, wellbeing and inclusivity is valued. Together, we're reimagining insurance.

Bring your curiosity, ambition and unique perspective, and help us continue reimagining insurance through innovative thinking, digital capability and a commitment to better outcomes for the people who depend on us.

• Job Description
• As the Principal Engineer, AI & Emerging Technology, you will serve as TAL's most senior technical specialist in AI engineering, shaping the direction, architecture, and governance of AI capabilities across the enterprise. You will lead the design and implementation of innovative solutions spanning generative AI, agentic systems, and production machine learning, while partnering closely with delivery teams to solve complex technical challenges and accelerate adoption of emerging technologies. Through the development of reference architectures, reusable engineering patterns, and technical standards, you will drive best practice, strengthen engineering capability, and ensure solutions are secure, reliable, and fit for purpose within a regulated life insurance environment. Combining deep technical expertise with enterprise-wide influence, you will play a pivotal role in transforming complex AI innovations into scalable, practical solutions that deliver meaningful business value.

• In this role you will:
• •Set the technical direction and reference architectures for AI solutions across the portfolio, covering generative AI, agentic systems, ML and the platforms that support them.
• •Own critical design decisions in partnership with Architecture, ensuring solutions align with TAL's technology strategy, platform foundations and integration patterns.
• •Provide technical assurance on high-risk designs, acting as the escalation point for complex engineering trade-offs.
• •Work directly with delivery pods on complex engineering problems e.g. complex integrations, agentic workflows, performance, reliability and evaluation.
• •Define and evolve engineering standards, patterns and best practices for AI development, including agentic software development, CI/CD, testing and observability.
• •Champion reuse of shared AI platforms, gateways and governance tooling, and contribute to their design and evolution.
• •Identify and address technical risks including model risk, data privacy, security and drift, partnering with Cyber and Risk on controls.
• •Stay at the forefront of advancements in AI, machine learning and agentic engineering, and evaluate new technologies and approaches that can advance TAL's AI capabilities.

• Qualifications
• •Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, AI, or related field.
• •Advanced degrees preferred.
• •10+ years in software, AI/ML or data engineering roles, with a sustained record of designing and shipping complex AI solutions to production at scale.
• •Proven experience as a principal-level or senior technical leader, setting architecture and standards across multiple teams and leading through influence.
• •Deep expertise in generative AI, LLM-based and agentic systems, and MLOps/LLMOps practices including evaluation, monitoring and safe deployment.
• •Extensive hands-on experience with major cloud platforms (Azure preferred), including AI/ML services, APIs, containers and modern integration patterns.
• •Expert proficiency in Python and modern engineering practices; fluency with AI-assisted and agentic software development workflows.
• •Deep understanding of CI/CD, automated testing, observability and software engineering principles, and experience embedding these across teams.
• Benefits

At TAL, we're committed to helping our people thrive both professionally and personally. Depending on your role and eligibility, benefits may include:

• •Flexible and blended ways of working that support your work and personal commitments.
• •Access to learning, leadership development programs, LinkedIn Learning and global career opportunities through the Daiichi Life Group.
• •TAL-funded Life, Income Protection and Total & Permanent Disability insurance, plus employee insurance discounts.
• •Wellbeing support including Employee Assistance Program services, wellbeing resources, annual flu vaccinations and health initiatives.
• •Additional leave benefits including paid parental leave, wellbeing leave, community leave and purchased leave options.
• •Access to TAL Rewards Plus, offering discounts at hundreds of popular retailers and services.

Our Commitment to Inclusion

We're proud to be recognised as an Employer of Choice for Gender Equality and maintain partnerships with organisations including Diversity Council Australia, Australian Disability Network and Pride in Diversity . Through our Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan , we're also committed to building meaningful relationships, creating opportunities and contributing to positive outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

We welcome applications from people with diverse experiences, perspectives and backgrounds and are committed to providing an inclusive recruitment experience for all candidates. Need adjustments during the recruitment process? Let our team know by getting in touch with us here we’re here to support you.

If you are already a TAL employee, please apply via the Jobs Hub in Workday. This is important to ensure that your application is recorded accurately.