Principal Engineer, Customer Web and Mobile Experience

Principal Engineer

Established in 2021, Independence Pet Holdings is a corporate holding company that manages a diverse and broad portfolio of modern pet health brands and services, including insurance, pet education, lost recovery services, and more throughout North America.

We believe pet insurance is more than a financial product and build solutions to simplify the pet parenting journey and help improve the well-being of pets. As a leading authority in the pet category, we operate with a full stack of resources, capital, and services to support pet parents. Our multi-brand and omni-channel approach include our own insurance carrier, insurance brands and partner brands.

Job Summary

We are seeking a Principal Engineer to serve as the senior-most individual contributor and technical leader for our customer-facing web and mobile platforms. Reporting to the Senior Director, Customer Web and Mobile Experience, this role sets the technical direction for the React and React Native applications that power the pet parent experience across IPH brands. The Principal Engineer partners with architecture, product, UX, and security to translate enterprise digital strategy into resilient, scalable, and customer-centric solutions, while mentoring engineers and raising the technical bar across the organization.

Job Location:

Chicago

Reports To:

Senior Director, Customer Web and Mobile Experience

Main Responsibilities

• Serve as the principal technical authority for customer web and mobile platforms, owning end-to-end architecture across React and React Native (including React Native Web) applications.
• Translate the enterprise digital strategy into concrete technical roadmaps, design specifications, and reference implementations.
• Set foundational engineering standards for the team's core toolchain — Git/Git Hub workflows, Node.js runtime and package management, VS Code, Git Hub Code spaces containerized development, Git Hub Copilot Enterprise for AI-assisted development, Expo CLI, Azure CLI, Postman for API testing, React Dev Tools, and Browser Stack for cross-device/browser coverage.
• Define the design-system and styling architecture for the customer experience, including a utility-first styling approach (e.g., Tailwind/Native Wind), shared component patterns (e.g., shadcn/ui-style component libraries adapted for React Native), and consistent typography across web and mobile.
• Lead complex architectural decisions spanning front-end frameworks, application structure, state management, API contracts, and the mobile app lifecycle.
• Drive adoption of modern frameworks and tooling that improve developer velocity, performance, accessibility, and security.
• Establish and enforce coding standards, design patterns, code review practices, and CI/CD pipelines for web and mobile delivery.
• Define and uphold standards for authentication, identity, secure storage, observability, feature experimentation, and customer engagement integrations.
• Implement SEO best practices (SSR/SSG, semantic markup, structured data, Core Web Vitals) and CDN/edge strategies for high-traffic consumer applications.
• Partner with security, compliance, and platform teams to ensure customer-facing experiences meet regulatory and industry requirements.
• Lead technical due diligence on emerging technologies, third-party SDKs, and System Integrator deliverables; recommend build, buy, or partner decisions.
• Provide hands-on technical leadership for the most complex initiatives, including performance optimization, observability, and resiliency engineering.
• Mentor Senior and Staff Engineers, lead architecture review boards, and grow a deep bench of front-end and mobile talent.
• Define and track engineering KPIs (page performance, crash-free sessions, accessibility conformance, deployment frequency) and report progress to senior leadership.
• Represent the customer engineering organization in cross-functional executive forums and external technology partnerships.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related field (equivalent experience considered).
• 15+ years of professional software engineering experience, including 5+ years in a Staff or Principal-level role focused on customer-facing web and mobile platforms.
• Expert proficiency in JavaScript and Type Script, with deep production experience in React and React Native (including React Native Web).
• Deep, hands-on expertise with the foundational developer toolchain:
  Git/Git Hub, Node.js, Next.js, VS Code, React Dev Tools, Postman, Expo CLI, Azure CLI, and Browser Stack.
• Hands-on experience building Backend-for-Frontend (BFF) services and Web APIs  (C#) to support customer-facing web and mobile experiences.
• Experience leading engineering teams in adopting Git Hub Code spaces for containerized development environments and Git Hub Copilot Enterprise for AI-assisted development.
• Strong expertise in modern styling and UI architecture — utility-first CSS frameworks (Tailwind/Native Wind), component-pattern…