Description and Requirements

【Job Description】

We are looking for a Principal Software / Platform Engineering professional with a track record of improving system reliability, building scalable platform capabilities, and leveraging modern technologies to enable enterprise-scale software delivery. To be successful in this role, the candidate would require a balance of hands-on technical expertise and technical thought leadership across site reliability engineering, cloud platforms, automation, observability, infrastructure engineering, and AI-enabled operational practices.

The mission of this role is to drive operational excellence and technology transformation through Site Reliability Engineering, Platform Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, and Automation, from platform design and architecture through production-grade operations, ensuring reliable, secure, scalable, and resilient services 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, software engineers, architects, and operational support teams. This role will collaborate closely with business and technology partners to co-create solutions, navigate operational complexity, and establish reliability and platform engineering best practices across multiple initiatives.

The Principal Software / Platform Engineer serves as a senior technical leader and individual contributor within the organization. Besides contributing through hands-on engineering, automation, and platform activities, this role influences technical strategy, promotes operational excellence, and mentors engineers across teams. Ultimately, you are responsible for helping build a highly reliable and scalable technology ecosystem through engineering best practices, reusable platform capabilities, intelligent automation, and AI-enabled operational improvements.

【Responsibilities】

• Drive technology transformation through Site Reliability Engineering, Platform Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, and Automation.

• Design, develop, and operate scalable, secure, resilient, and maintainable platform solutions supporting business-critical services.

• Lead all stages of the platform engineering lifecycle, from architecture, design, and implementation through production operations, monitoring, and continuous improvement.

• Solve complex technology and operational challenges using engineering excellence, automation, observability, and data-driven decision making.

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

• Collaborate with software engineering teams to improve reliability, scalability, performance, and operational efficiency.

• Drive adoption of platform engineering practices, Infrastructure as Code, CI/CD, cloud-native technologies, and self-service engineering capabilities.

• Identify, evaluate, and implement emerging technologies, including AI-powered operational solutions, intelligent observability platforms, and automation capabilities.

• Define and monitor service level objectives (SLOs), service level indicators (SLIs), and reliability metrics across platforms and services.

• Lead incident analysis, problem management, operational readiness reviews, and continuous improvement initiatives.

• Promote reliability engineering best practices, including resiliency testing, disaster recovery preparedness, capacity planning, and operational excellence.

• Develop reusable platform components, engineering accelerators, automation frameworks, and operational tooling.

• 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 platform engineering, site reliability engineering, infrastructure engineering, software engineering, or related disciplines with delivered business results.

• Proven record of improving reliability, scalability, performance, and operational efficiency across enterprise technology environments.

• Strong experience designing, implementing, and supporting large-scale cloud and platform solutions.

• Proven expertise in Site Reliability Engineering principles, operational excellence, resiliency engineering, and production support practices.

• Experience working with large and complex enterprise applications, distributed systems, cloud-native architectures, microservices, and integrated technology ecosystems.

• Strong expertise in automation, Infrastructure as Code, configuration management, and platform engineering practices.

• Experience establishing observability solutions, monitoring capabilities, logging strategies, alerting frameworks, and operational metrics.

• Strong programming and scripting skills in one or more languages such as Python, Java, C#, Go, PowerShell, Bash, or similar technologies.

• Familiarity with cloud platforms (Azure, AWS, GCP) and associated infrastructure, platform, and operational services.

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

• Awareness of Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), release management, environment management, operational support models, disaster recovery, and service management 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 reliability, operational efficiency, engineering productivity, and business outcomes.

• Strong analytical, troubleshooting, root cause analysis, 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 Microsoft Azure platform services, cloud operations, and enterprise cloud transformation initiatives.

• Experience with Kubernetes, container platforms, service mesh technologies, and cloud-native operational practices.

• Experience implementing AI-powered operational capabilities, intelligent observability, AIOps, automated remediation, or operational analytics solutions.

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

• Experience designing and implementing internal developer platforms, self-service engineering capabilities, or platform modernization initiatives.

• Experience leading reliability improvement programs across multiple teams and products.

• Experience with performance engineering, capacity management, disaster recovery testing, and business continuity planning.

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

• Relevant certifications in cloud platforms, site reliability engineering, platform engineering, DevOps, 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.