What's your background, and what led you into engineering leadership at Allstate?
I have worked at Allstate for nearly 24 years! I joined my current team in December 2007 as a developer. We support regulatory and legal data requests for U.S. insurance oversight bodies and internal stakeholders. This work is critical to maintaining compliance and supporting Allstate's ability to operate across multiple jurisdictions. Being on the team so long means I have been exposed to many areas of the claim business and also built up the technical knowledge on how to derive that data, so that, coupled with my willingness to move into a leadership role has led me to my current Managing Engineer role. It's a good mixture for me because I enjoy the technical side of things and have been able to continue with this work as well as taking on managerial duties.
What's the most fun or unexpected part of designing and delivering technical solutions?
Finding out new technical or business things you didn't know, even after having worked on the team and systems for so long, is always a surprise. You think you've seen it all and then you realise you still have some things to learn.
The most unexpected part for me so far has been having to attend a deposition style meeting for a class action I have been working on and off for several years. I was involved in a formal legal review meeting related to a long-running data request, where I had to confidently explain and stand over the accuracy of the work delivered by our team. This is about as close as I have made it to wanting to be on LA Law in the 90s.
How does your team balance engineering discipline with creativity and experimentation?
This is a big focus area for us right now as we look at new ways to modernise how we deliver data and insights across the business. I have a host of ideas on how to implement this over the coming year and I am excited to be able to start streamlining a lot of work we have and start delivering it in ways that are new to us and our business clients. Our team is amazing at sharing any technical or business info we discover as well as any tips or tricks to make life easier. Due to data integrity being so crucial to our requests, someone peer reviews everything we do and we share feedback and alternatives that way too. We have also built up a knowledge repository that we are constantly adding to which means we don't have to research and rebuild data elements and any calculations each time they are needed.
What's one thing you've learned from a teammate that has really stuck with you?
Insurance companies are also insured — something that often surprises people. Our work has helped recover significant losses following major catastrophe events, reinforcing just how important accurate data and strong engineering discipline are at scale. A significant portion of our work is related to CAT events, and we've learned that when an incident is large enough to make the news, it often leads to new requests for our team. Seeing that direct link play out can be quite surreal, and it's always sobering to be reminded of the real-world impact these events have on the people affected.
What's your favourite team ritual or inside joke?
When the work intake dips a bit or something on a project is going better than expected, never say it out loud 😋
