Software Engineer Contract Jobs in Austin, TX (NOW HIRING)

Title: Software Engineer

Location: Austin, TX (Hybrid)

Reporting to: Sr. Manager, Engineering

About Hippo:

Hippo was built on a promise: make homeownership effortless. Nearly a decade later, that mission still drives us. We use technology and data to help our customers stay ahead of problems and protect what matters most.  

Today, that same tech-native approach powers our work beyond homeowners. Hippo operates as a diversified carrier platform, partnering with MGAs to deliver tailored program solutions that help them grow and deliver better customer experiences. Behind that work is a team that values ownership, curiosity, collaboration, and continuous improvement. 

If you're energized by building what's next, we'd love to meet you. 

About This Role: 

Hippo is building effortless and trusted customer experiences powered by AI, and this role sits at the center of it. You'll build the integrations that power AI voice, chat, and email agents, connecting conversational AI platforms to Hippo's infrastructure. Your work shows up on live customer interactions : when a policyholder calls in to verify coverage, file a claim, or get routed to the right place, the systems you build are what makes that happen. 

This is not a maintenance role. We are actively shipping new agent capabilities and innovating on the insurance lifecycle with AI. You'll work directly with external AI vendors, own integrations across a growing multi-system stack, and grow into a role where you're an active thought partner into how Hippo thinks about AI implementation.

About You:

You're a backend engineer who gets energized by making complex systems work together. You're comfortable picking up a vendor SDK with incomplete documentation and figuring it out. You move fast in a proof-of-concept phase and still build things that hold up in production. You care about how your code performs over time; you instrument what you ship, track the metrics that matter, and tie your engineering work to real business outcomes. 

You're early in your career but think like an owner. You want to be in a small team where your work is visible, and your growth path is real. You understand that integration engineering means living in the seams between systems. 

This role involves fast-moving vendor ecosystems, running pilots and experiments, and working through ambiguity to deliver for customers and our business.  

What You'll Do 

• Build and extend AI agent capabilities across service, claims, and operations on industry leading conversational AI platforms
• Develop and maintain APIs that connect AI vendors to Salesforce, Snapsheet, NICE, and Auth0
• Participate in vendor evaluation spikes - build proofs-of-concept, document findings, and contribute to go/no-go decisions on new platforms
• Build data export pipelines from AI vendor platforms into the data warehouse, designed with downstream analytics consumption in mind
• Instrument your integrations with meaningful metrics and contribute to cost-to-serve reporting  
• Contribute to go-live operations: routing configuration, traffic management, and fallback validation  
• Participate in OnCall rotation for incidents during US business hours
• Grow under the mentorship of senior and staff engineers you collaborate with daily 

Must Haves 

• 3+ years of backend engineering experience
• Proficiency in TypeScript/Node.js and/or Python - these are the primary languages of the stack
• Demonstrated experience building and consuming RESTful APIs in service-oriented architectures
• Postgres or equivalent relational database experience
• AWS experience (general cloud infrastructure, deployment, and tooling)
• Comfort working with third-party vendor SDKs and APIs, including ones with limited or evolving documentation
• Strong debugging instincts across distributed and multi-service systems
• Familiarity with test-driven development principles; eager to grow into owning integration and contract test coverage
• Metric-driven mindset - you measure the impact of what you ship and design systems with observability in mind
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related technical field 

Nice to Haves 

• Prior experience in insurance, Insurtech, or adjacent regulated industries 
• Salesforce integration experience
• Experience with NICE CXOne or other contact center platforms
• Familiarity with conversational AI platforms  

Benefits and Perks

Hippo treats its team members with the same level of dedication and care as we do our customers, which is why we're fortunate to provide all of our Hippos with:

• Healthy Hippos Benefits - Multiple medical plan options, 100% covered dental and vision for you and your family, and a wellness program that rewards healthy habits. We also offer a 401(k)-retirement plan, short & long-term disability, employer-paid life insurance, Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) for health and dependent care, and an Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• Equity - This position is eligible for equity compensation 
• Training and Career Growth - Training and internal career growth opportunities
• Flexible Time Off - You know when and how you should recharge
• Little Hippos Program - We offer 12 weeks of parental leave for primary and secondary caregivers
• Hippo Habitat - Snacks and drinks available and catered lunches for onsite employees

Hippo is an equal opportunity employer, and we are committed to building a team culture that celebrates diversity and inclusion. Hippo's applicants are considered solely based on their qualifications, without regard to an applicant's disability or need for accommodation. Any Hippo applicant who requires reasonable accommodations during the application process should contact the Hippo's People Team to make the need for an accommodation known.