Java Full Stack Technical Lead (Individual Contributor)

If you’re passionate about being part of a dynamic organization that enables a Fortune 100 company with nearly $70 billion in annual sales to drive innovation and adopt new technologies that deliver business results, then Nationwide’s Technology team could be the place for you! At Nationwide®, “on your side” goes beyond just words. Our customers are at the center of everything we do and we’re looking for associates who are passionate about delivering extraordinary care.

About This Role

If you are the kind of engineer who wants to own meaningful platforms, deliver outcomes that matter, and help make the people around you stronger, this role offers the chance to do exactly that. You will join a team responsible for critical Retirement Solutions capabilities and help keep our platforms healthy, current, secure, and ready to evolve into a strategic advantage.

What You Will Do

In this role, success is centered on three areas that matter deeply on our team: own the platform, deliver for our customers, and grow our people.

Own the platform

• Lead the design, development, enhancement, and support of software solutions that enable Retirement Solutions business outcomes.
• Apply secure software and systems engineering practices throughout the delivery lifecycle so the solutions you build are protected from threats and vulnerabilities.
• Contribute to both modernization work and ongoing operational support, including release activity, integrations, batch or event driven processing, and production stability work.

Deliver for our customers

• Partner with product, architecture, engineering, and support teams to move work forward across multiple teams and priorities.
• Analyze requirements, develop solutions, test and debug applications, document changes, and support deployment using sound engineering practices.
• Champion DevSecOps practices, tooling, and continuous improvement to help the team deliver with greater speed, quality, and resiliency.

Grow our people

• Mentor and guide other engineers through design reviews, coding standards, problem solving, and day to day technical leadership.
• Share knowledge, encourage strong engineering habits, and help raise the technical capability of the team over time.
• Lead through influence, collaboration, and a willingness to make others around you stronger.

What We Are Looking For

• A strong AI mindset and a proven track record of using AI tools to improve productivity, accelerate delivery, strengthen engineering quality, and simplify day to day work.
• Hands on technical leadership experience and the ability to influence direction without formal people leadership authority.
• Deep hands-on experience in at least one modern programming language or framework, such as Java or Angular, with the ability to apply that expertise to complex engineering challenges.
• Strong knowledge of the software development lifecycle and modern delivery practices.
• A track record of solving sophisticated business and technology problems in a collaborative team environment.
• Experience with enterprise integrations, operationally critical applications, cloud enabled components, or modernization work that balances new capabilities with support for existing platforms.
• A genuine interest in mentoring others, sharing knowledge, and helping raise the technical capability of the team over time.
• A positive, collaborative attitude and the ability to translate technical concepts into clear, easy to understand language.

Job Description Summary

If you’re enthusiastic about delivering secure technology solutions to support a company providing extraordinary care to its customers, then Nationwide Technology is the place for you. Nationwide's industry-leading technology workforce embraces an agile work environment and a collaborative culture to deliver outstanding solutions and results. If that sounds like something you aspire to, we want to hear from you!

As a Tech Lead, you will focus on mentoring and leading others to deliver high-quality, cost-effective technology solutions by providing technical leadership, setting engineering direction and creating clear accountability for product and application health across delivery teams. You will translate business goals into technical strategy, strengthen engineering quality, manage technical debt and operational risk, and improve continuity and coordination across teams while remaining grounded in firsthand engineering practices. You’ll also guide the evaluation and practical use of emerging technologies to improve delivery effectiveness, resiliency, and long-term product sustainability.

Job Description

Key Responsibilities:

• Provides technical direction and leadership for product development and oversees architecture and design decisions to support scalability, performance and long-term product health.
• Responsible for applying secure software and systems engineering practices throughout the delivery lifecycle to ensure data and technology solutions are protected from threats and vulnerabilities.
• Mentors and trains team members on design techniques, tools, coding standards and engineering best practices.
• Provides strategic advice on using technology to achieve business and product goals and helps align product development with customer needs and desired outcomes.
• Translates product and business priorities into technical strategy, solution direction and execution guardrails for the team.
• Maintains end-to-end technical ownership for assigned products or applications and drives accountability for architecture, engineering execution, operational health and long-term sustainability.
• Applies a product mindset by aligning technical strategy, sequencing and tradeoff decisions to long-term product roadmaps, customer needs and business outcomes.
• Strengthens knowledge continuity by building institutional knowledge, promoting documentation and developing technical backup depth to reduce key-person dependency.
• Establishes accountability for application quality and technical health by driving visibility and action around code quality, testing, technical debt, vulnerabilities, currency and release readiness.
• Drives cross-collaboration and execution across multiple teams, including coordination with architects, Tech Consultants, Distinguished Engineers, product owners and the broader developer community.
• Partners with product, delivery and agile leaders to plan timelines, manage resource needs, track quarterly commitments and mitigate risks throughout the product lifecycle.
• Leads the team in implementing new features and enhancements and ensures timely delivery of high-quality software products.
• Establishes and reinforces robust software engineering practices, including code reviews, automated testing, consistent sprint execution and prompt resolution of technical issues and defects.
• Champions the use of DevSecOps practices, tooling and techniques and ensures continuous learning and improvement through ongoing training, practice and innovation.
• Establishes and reinforces engineering guardrails by ensuring design decisions, code changes, test approaches and production readiness align with security, quality, resiliency and supportability expectations.
• Evaluates and guides the practical use of emerging technologies, automation patterns and modern engineering approaches to improve delivery outcomes without weakening accountability or engineering discipline.
• Helps create clear technical ownership for applications, strengthens knowledge continuity and supports better management of technical debt, vulnerabilities, currency and release readiness, including empowered go/no-go input when appropriate.

Qualifications & Experience

May perform other responsibilities as assigned.

Education

Undergraduate studies in computer science, management information systems, mathematics, or related field are strongly preferred.

Experience

Eight or more years of experience in programming and systems design. Three years of experience in project management is preferred.

Technical Skills

• CI/CD
• Cloud Computing
• Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
• Software Security
• Software Testing
• Systems Integration
• Technology Roadmap
• Vendor Management

Soft Skills & Attributes

• Persuasive communication and collaboration skills
• Analytical and problem-solving mindset
• Ability to work in agile and global environments
• Time management and prioritization

Firsthand technical leadership experience leading project teams and setting technical direction. Deep expertise in one programming language such as Java, C++, Python, JavaScript. Knowledge of software development lifecycle. Proven ability to tackle sophisticated business and development problems. Ability to thrive in a team environment. Insurance or financial services industry knowledge a plus.

Additional Information

Reporting Structure:

Reports to Technology Leader

Working Hours

Aligned to India business hours with flexibility for global collaboration.

Location Flexibility:

Hybrid work model with periodic in-office collaboration as required.

Equal Opportunity Statement

Nationwide is committed to diversity and inclusion. All qualified applicants will be considered without regard to race, gender, disability, religion, or other protected categories.