{"id":1841075,"url":"https://alion.io/job/southern-cross-principal-quality-engineer","title":"Principal Quality Engineer","company":{"id":2060143,"name":"Southern Cross","domain":"southerncross.co.nz","url":"https://alion.io/company/southerncross","size_band":"5000+","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Workday","truth_index":null},"role":"Industrial Engineering","role_family":"Industrial Engineering","seniority":"lead","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Auckland, New Zealand"],"countries":["NZ"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":58000,"max_usd":149000,"period":"year","method":"global_role_cell_scaled_by_country","sample_n":2403},"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"CI/CD","optional":false},{"name":"SLI/SLO/SLA","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-02T00:00:00Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-02","last_verified_at":"2026-10-22T09:47:01Z","board_verified":false,"closed_at":null,"days_open":23,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":23},"description":"About us\nSouthern Cross Health Insurance is shaping a healthier Aotearoa New Zealand. Our purpose is simple: empowering our members to live well for longer. We're here to give peace of mind through timely access to quality care, inspire healthier living, and lead positive change across the health system. As a New Zealand-owned, member-based organisation, we're building a future where wellbeing is at the heart of everything we do -- delivering exceptional value for our members and creating an environment where our people thrive.\nNow is an exciting time to join us. You'll be part of a high-performing, values-driven team where people are at the heart of everything we do -- and in return for your talent, you'll have the opportunity to grow, make an impact, and be proud of the difference your work makes.\nAbout the role\nSouthern Cross is guided by purpose, powered by people and technology. We exist to help our members live well for longer.\nWe serve almost one million members across Aotearoa New Zealand - which means the work we do carries real scale, real responsibility, and a genuine opportunity to improve health outcomes for our nation.\nAs we grow to be about assurance as well as insurance - a more proactive partner in our members’ health - the technology behind that shift matters more than ever. Our Digital Platforms teams are organised into Value Streams, with squads delivering the systems our members and partners rely on every day.\nThis role leads quality engineering across one of those Value Streams, helping squads ship fast, safe and maintainable software, and growing quality capability across the teams.\nAbout the role\nYou’ll work closely with the Value Stream Principal Engineer to set the quality strategy for the squads in your Value Stream. The focus is on building quality in from the start rather than checking for it at the end - getting the test pyramid right, surfacing risk at refinement rather than at release, and making test data, environments and quality gates easy for squads to use.\nA big part of the role is people. You’ll coach engineers at every level, lead the Quality Engineering Community of Practice, and be someone squads come to for input on significant technical decisions.\nYou’ll need to be as comfortable in the detail of a pipeline or a code review as you are explaining quality risks and trade-offs to stakeholders.\nWhat you’ll do\nSet and evolve the Value Stream quality strategy with the Engineering Practice, architecture peers and the wider engineering community\nPartner with the Head of Technology, Principal Engineer and Technology Leads so quality, reliability and delivery outcomes are considered together\nCoach Software Engineers and Quality Engineers through code review, pairing, structured feedback and Capability Framework conversations\nLead the Quality Engineering Community of Practice as the main venue for sharing patterns and evolving standards\nWork with Platform and Architecture so golden paths cover test data, environments and pipeline quality gates\nFacilitate cross-squad technical decisions where quality or testing standards are in question, using data to find a way forward\nReview significant quality engineering investments and the criteria behind them\nInvestigate significant production incidents alongside squads, and feed learnings back into standards and capability\nTranslate product priorities into quality decisions, and engineering realities back into stakeholder language\nWhat you’ll bring\nWe’re looking for someone who has lifted engineering practice across multiple teams and can influence without relying on formal authority.\nA proven track record uplifting engineering practices across multiple squads\nStrong coding skills across multiple languages\nDeep grounding in CI/CD, cloud-native architectures and secure coding, with a data-driven approach using DORA metrics\nExpertise in test pyramid optimisation and automation across all layers, particularly in distributed systems\nExperience with observability, SLI/SLO design and improving MTTR\nStrong knowledge of risk-based testing, quality gate design, test data management, performance testing, and accessibility and compliance automation\nExperience running Communities of Practice and coaching senior engineers\nA collaborative approach to working across Architecture, Platform, Security and Product\nWhy join us\nWe're investing - in people, in technology, and in the mission. At a time when the market is hesitant, we're continuing to invest in strengthening our foundations and building our capabilities.\nYou’ll work closely with the Value Stream Principal Engineer, Head of Technology and Technology Leads, with real ownership over how quality engineering is practised across the Value Stream.\nWe're building something worth joining. Our teams are growing, our employer brand is gaining real traction in market, and the way we show up for our members and each other is being noticed. This momentum has also been reflected externally - in 2026, Southern Cross placed 8th in the Kantar Corporate Reputation Index and 5th in New Zealand for Trust.\nWho we are\nNgākau nui. Āhurutanga. Tikanga.\nJoin a proud, diverse team that's always there, always real, always true. If you thrive in a caring, honest and open culture, we think you'll love working with us.\nWe know our team's culture and wellbeing drive us forward. That's why we prioritise not only professional development but opportunities to thrive personally. We offer exceptional work/life balance, and our people are encouraged - and rewarded - for living well.\nSouthern Cross employee benefits include:\nFive days of wellbeing leave per year\nHealth insurance for you and your immediate whānau\nLife insurance cover and discounts on pet and travel insurance\nExtra parental leave benefits and financial wellbeing support\nParticipation in our workplace wellbeing programme\nThe option to purchase flexi leave for study, volunteering, or supporting your whānau\nAn annual volunteer day to contribute to a cause with your team\nThis role is Auckland based. While we appreciate interest from candidates in other locations, we're not able to consider remote options at this stage. If this sounds like the kind of work you want to help shape, we'd love to hear from you. Have questions? Check out our FAQs for help with the application and recruitment process.\nWe are proud to have taken the Pride Pledge, reflecting our commitment to inclusion and belonging. We also facilitate an active, employee-led Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Forum, which includes our Rainbow Network, Māori Network, Pasifika Collective, and Neurodiversity and Whānau Support networks.\nIf you share our commitment and passion, we'd love to hear from you.","description_format":"text","description_chars":6720,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Equity","Health insurance","Life insurance","Parental leave","Professional development"],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Health Care","Property & Casualty Insurance"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-04T16:22:43Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":59,"band":"ok","label":"Likely open","p_open":1,"p_active":0.792,"p_room":0.75,"age_days":22,"expected_fill_days":23,"reasons":["conf:44","velocity","win:late"],"computed_at":"2026-10-24T06:02:35Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/southern-cross-principal-quality-engineer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/southern-cross-principal-quality-engineer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-25T00:50:13Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":1277,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-26T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":2060143},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=2060143"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fsouthern-cross-principal-quality-engineer"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fsouthern-cross-principal-quality-engineer"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fsouthern-cross-principal-quality-engineer"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/southern-cross-principal-quality-engineer\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fsouthern-cross-principal-quality-engineer"}]}