Description and Requirements

【Job Description】

We are looking for a Principal Product Development Engineering professional with a track record of delivering enterprise-scale software solutions, driving engineering excellence, and leveraging emerging technologies to create business value. To be successful in this role, the candidate would require a balance of hands-on technical expertise and technical thought leadership across the software development lifecycle, including full-stack application development, cloud-native architectures, DevOps practices, Artificial Intelligence, and modern engineering frameworks.

The mission of this role is to accelerate business transformation through software engineering innovation, technical leadership, and adoption of emerging technologies, from solution design and architecture through production-grade implementation, ensuring scalable, secure, and reliable solutions that deliver business value to the enterprise.

Success in this role requires strong collaboration, communication, and problem-solving skills, with an emphasis on partnering with business stakeholders, product teams, architects, and engineering teams. This role will collaborate closely with business and technology partners to co-create solutions, navigate technical complexity, and establish engineering best practices across multiple initiatives.

The Principal Product Development Engineer serves as a senior technical leader and individual contributor within the organization. Besides contributing through hands-on development and architecture activities, this role influences engineering strategy, promotes technical excellence, and mentors engineers across teams. Ultimately, you are responsible for helping build a high-performing engineering organization that delivers scalable, secure, and innovative technology solutions through best practices, reusable frameworks, and AI-enabled development capabilities.

【Responsibilities】

• Design, develop, and deliver scalable, secure, and maintainable software solutions supporting business objectives.

• Lead all stages of the software development lifecycle, from solution design, architecture, and technical planning through development, testing, deployment, and production support.

• Solve complex business and technology problems using modern engineering practices, software design principles, and emerging technologies.

• Provide technical leadership and architectural guidance across multiple teams and products.

• Collaborate with business stakeholders, product owners, architects, and engineering teams to define requirements, align priorities, and deliver business value.

• Drive adoption of modern engineering practices, including cloud-native development, DevOps, platform engineering, and AI-assisted software development.

• Identify, evaluate, and implement emerging technologies, including Generative AI and intelligent automation solutions, to improve developer productivity, solution quality, and delivery efficiency.

• Contribute to application modernization initiatives, helping evolve legacy platforms toward scalable and maintainable technology solutions.

• Promote software engineering best practices, including code quality, design standards, automated testing, performance optimization, and security-by-design principles.

• Develop reusable frameworks, components, reference architectures, and engineering accelerators that improve consistency and delivery speed.

• Document and communicate technical solutions effectively to both technical and non-technical audiences.

• Mentor and support engineers through technical guidance, knowledge sharing, and coaching.

• Contribute to innovation, experimentation, proof-of-concepts, and continuous improvement initiatives.

• Performs other duties as assigned or required.

【Required Qualifications】

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, information technology, engineering, or equivalent educational qualification.

• 10+ years of relevant experience in software engineering, application development, or related disciplines with delivered business results.

• Proven record of delivering complex enterprise software solutions and technical initiatives across multiple teams and business domains.

• Strong experience in full-stack application development, including front-end, back-end, API, and database technologies.

• Proven expertise in software architecture, object-oriented design, design patterns, and modern engineering principles.

• Experience designing and developing scalable, resilient, and secure applications in enterprise environments.

• Experience working with large and complex business applications, distributed systems, microservices architectures, cloud-native solutions, and third-party integrations.

• Strong programming expertise in one or more languages such as Java, C#, Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, or similar technologies.

• Experience with modern front-end frameworks, API development, integration patterns, and service-oriented architectures.

• Familiarity with cloud platforms (Azure, AWS, GCP) and cloud-native engineering practices.

• Experience with CI/CD, DevOps, DevSecOps, automated testing, and modern software delivery methodologies.

• Awareness of Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), release management, environment management, application monitoring, operational support, and software quality practices.

• Demonstrated ability to provide technical leadership and influence engineering direction without direct managerial authority.

• Demonstrated ability to evaluate and adopt emerging technologies to improve software quality, engineering productivity, and business outcomes.

• Strong analytical, troubleshooting, and structured problem-solving skills.

• Excellent communication, collaboration, storytelling, and presentation skills.

• Strong partner and stakeholder engagement experience across business and technology organizations.

【Preferable】

• Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance domain knowledge.

• Experience with cloud-native architectures, microservices, containerization technologies, and Kubernetes.

• Experience with Generative AI platforms, Large Language Models (LLMs), AI agents, prompt engineering, or enterprise AI frameworks.

• Experience implementing AI-assisted software development practices, developer copilots, intelligent automation, or engineering productivity solutions.

• Experience designing and implementing reusable engineering platforms, shared services, or developer enablement capabilities.

• Experience leading application modernization and digital transformation initiatives.

• Experience with Azure services and Microsoft development technologies.

• Experience working in Agile product delivery organizations across multiple teams.

• Evidence of technical thought leadership (publications, speaking engagements, open-source contributions, patents, or internal innovation).

• Relevant certifications in cloud platforms, software architecture, artificial intelligence, or software engineering disciplines.

【Language】

• Japanese: Business

• English: Business

福利厚生

メットライフ生命では、ワークライフバランスと社員の心身の健康を促進する福利厚生を提供しています。社員はフレックスタイム制度、年次有給休暇、特別連続休暇、リフレッシュ休暇等の休暇を利用できます。また、社会保険や団体保険の他、旅行や英会話教室で使える割引も提供しています。柔軟に働けるよう、オフィス勤務と在宅勤務を組み合わせた勤務形態の導入や、短時間勤務制度、また柔軟性のあるドレスコードなども設けています。

Benefits We Offer

MetLife Japan offers a comprehensive benefits package that promotes work-life balance and employee wellbeing. Employees can take advantage of flex time policy and a generous time-off policy, national holidays, annual paid leave, special consecutive leave, and refreshment leave. We also provide full social insurance coverage, a commuting expense reimbursement, group insurance, and discounts on travel and English language lessons. To support work flexibility, employees also have hybrid work options, shortened working hours for parents with children in third grade or below, and a casual dress code.

メットライフについて

メットライフは、グローバルで展開する金融サービス企業です。個人および法人のお客さまがより確かな未来を築けるよう、保険、年金、社員福利厚生給付、資産管理のサポートを提供しています。1868年に創業したメットライフは、世界40以上の市場で事業を展開し、米国、アジア、中南米、ヨーロッパ、中東において業界をリードしています。

メットライフは、New Frontier戦略の一環として、AIを活用し、人を中心に据えた未来を築いています。私たちは、AIを活用して顧客へのサービス向上、地域社会への支援、そして働き方の変革を推進していく中で、好奇心、適応力、そして成長意欲を持つ人材を求めています。メットライフにおいて、AIは、人間の判断力、創造性、継続的な改善を支える責任あるパートナーであり、信頼、インクルージョン、そして長期的な価値の構築に貢献しています。

メットライフ生命は、日本初の外資系生命保険会社として、1973年2月に国内での営業を開始しました。当社のPurpose「ともに歩んでゆく。よりたしかな未来に向けて。」は、メットライフが誇るグローバルネットワークと世界中のベストプラクティスを活かし、お客さまのニーズに応え、地域社会との信頼関係を築くという信念を表しています。

About MetLife

MetLife Inc., through its subsidiaries and affiliates (MetLife), is one of the world's leading financial services companies, providing insurance, annuities, employee benefits and asset management to help individual and institutional customers build a more confident future. Founded in 1868, MetLife has operations in more than 40 markets globally and holds leading positions in the United States, Asia, Latin America, Europe and the Middle East.

As part of our New Frontier strategy, MetLife is building an AI-enabled, people-centered future. We're looking for people who bring curiosity, adaptability, and a growth mindset as we use AI to enhance how we serve customers, support communities, and evolve the way work gets done. At MetLife, AI is a responsible partner that supports human judgment, creativity, and continuous improvement while helping us build trust, inclusion, and long-term value.

MetLife Japan began operations in February 1973 as Japan's first foreign-owned life insurance company. Our purpose, "Always with you, building a more confident future," encapsulates our strong commitment to leveraging our global network and best practices worldwide to stand with our customers and build trust with our communities.