Junior Automation Engineer

Title: Junior Automation Engineer

Location: London / Leicester / Bexhill- Hybrid

Welcome to Hastings Direct

We’re a digital insurance provider with a clear strategy to become the best and biggest player in the UK market. As a company, we’ve made huge investments in our technology, pricing, data and analytics capabilities over the past few years, along with nurturing our 4Cs culture and substantial investment in our people. And as a Finance team, we're doing exactly the same – building a market leading finance technology platform, investing in our team and our approach to leadership development, with a real focus on commercially adding value to the business.

The fact you’re now reading this job advert means we’ve tempted you to find out more about . If you like what you see, we hope you'll consider joining our team.

We have high standards and understand some people may not apply for jobs unless they feel they tick every box. If you’re excited about joining us and think you have some of what we are looking for, even if you’re not 100% sure, we would love to hear from you.

Overview

Our mission is to build the strongest suite of technical and data products in the industry – enabling our pricing, data and analytics teams to move faster, deliver more, and create meaningful commercial impact.

We’re looking for engineers, who are at the beginning of their career or looking for a change from a previous role. Your focus will be on developing and optimising our recasting capability – A high performance solution that can score hundreds of millions of records at speed for back testing and impact analysis, used by colleagues all over Underwriting.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Work at the intersection of data, technology and commercial decision making to support pricing, trading and automation outcomes.
• Develop and optimise recasting capability to enable highspeed scoring, back testing and largescale impact analysis.
• Build, test and refine automation pipelines, validating outputs and resolving discrepancies with pricing, modelling and analytics teams.
• Develop and operationalise data pipelines, pricing logic and model features using Python (essential), with SQL and git desirable.
• Liaise with our customer base to onboard new users and debug existing users with any problems.
• Monitor performance and automation stability across multiple workstreams, identifying opportunities to improve speed, scalability and commercial impact.
• Produce clear documentation and tutorials for users who are using our recasting tooling.

What Skills You Require

• Python – You have experience using python to solve problems & complete basic data driven tasks. Some experience with automation and analysis would also be beneficial but not required.
• Strong accountability – You take ownership, solve problems confidently, and aren’t afraid to challenge the status quo to drive better outcomes.
• A brilliant communicator – You’re able to engage, influence and share information clearly with anyone, regardless of their technical background.
• Collaborative by nature – You enjoy partnering with others and helping internal teams get the very best out of our automated trading and testing technology.
• Responsive and adaptable – You’re comfortable moving between multiple workstreams, adjusting your focus quickly without losing momentum.
• A lifelong learner – You bring curiosity, a growth mindset and the drive to continually expand your skills — whether guided or self-led

The Interview Process

Our interview process involves the below:

• At home online assessment
• 30 mins screening call with hiring leader
• 1-hour Interview (30-minute technical & 30-minute competency)

As a Disability Confident employer, we’re committed to ensuring our recruitment processes are fully inclusive – what this means to you is if you’re applying for a job with us, you’ll have fair access to support and adjustments throughout your recruitment journey. We also welcome applications through the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS). For more information on the DCS, please visit our inclusive business page on our careers website

Regrettably we are unable to offer sponsorship for this role

Benefits: In addition to a competitive salary, you will also receive…

Flexible working – we champion a flexible hybrid working approach – please speak to your recruiter to discuss in more detail

Competitive bonus scheme - all colleagues are eligible for our annual 4Cs performance bonus

Financial wellbeing – as well as providing you with 4x your salary with our life assurance cover, income protection at no extra cost, and matched pension contributions up to 10%, we are proud to provide you with an award winning package which includes – discounts, cashback, free independent mortgage advice and free access to financial wellbeing support

Mental wellbeing programme – we have the thrive mental health app, our colleague assistance programme available 24/7, our own in-house mental health firs