MuleSoft API Principal Engineer I

Western Alliance Bank•Phoenix, AZ

2d•Onsite

About The Position

As a Principal Engineer I you'll provide your expert-level knowledge as the established authority in your domain as well as extensive knowledge across multiple domains to ensure solutions are safe, secure, compliant, and reliable. You'll lead large and complex design efforts supporting critical projects and solutions while engaging with project and business sponsors defining requirements and objectives of targeted solutions. As a Principal Engineer II, you'll also engage in the facilitation of dialogue and large team activities, while ensuring collaboration to include teams outside of your domain. You'll develop effective presentations and narratives for business stakeholders and IT audiences. Build the solution design of efforts that can be handed off to lower-level engineers for execution assuring reuse of platforms where possible. Review technical plans developed by lower-level engineers and analysts to assure quality designs which can support the volumetrics of our business partners objectives. Build comprehensive measurement dashboards that give performance insight into key applications of the bank which can feed operational results of our business partners while enforcing IT standards, and may modify or build procedures that support areas of operations across IT. Work independently or partner with architecture team counterparts to lay out the final documentation required for proper, ongoing reference of the given solution to include physical and logical layouts with cross reference to use case models. Architect, design, and implement MuleSoft APIs for high-performance, scalable, and secure payment processing. Lead the adoption of AI-assisted API design and development using GenAI tools (e.g., MuleSoft AI, GitHub Copilot, internal LLMs) to accelerate API creation, reduce development cycle time, and improve code consistency across the Payments API landscape. Optimize vCore utilization for cost efficiency, resource allocation, and high availability. Develop resilient and fault-tolerant API architectures, ensuring zero-downtime deployments and disaster recovery strategies. Lead full API lifecycle management, from development and security hardening to deployment and maintenance. Implement API security best practices, including OAuth 2.0, JWT, mTLS, certificate-based authentication, and encryption standards for financial transactions. Ensure adherence to FDX (Financial Data Exchange) standards for secure financial data interoperability. Build event-driven architectures utilizing Kafka for high-throughput and low-latency transaction processing. Implement NoSQL database integration (MongoDB, Azure CosmosDB) for flexible and scalable data storage solutions. Develop observability frameworks with ELK to monitor API performance, security, and anomalies. Optimize MuleSoft worker configurations, clustering, and autoscaling strategies for CloudHub deployments. Need to come up with strategy for future hybrid deployments – Cloud hub and On-prem Implement MuleSoft High Availability (HA) clustering and load balancing to ensure resilience and failover capabilities. Enforce security policies and compliance controls specific to MuleSoft API gateways. Design and develop APIs using Azure API Management (APIM) to enforce consistent security, rate limiting, versioning, and lifecycle governance while enabling scalable, reusable, and well‑managed API consumption across platforms.

Requirements

8+ years of related experience.
Bachelor's degree in related field required
Previous leadership experience preferred.
Advanced to expert knowledge of general Financial Services or Banking is preferred.
Advanced to expert knowledge of applicable regulatory and legal compliance obligations, rules and regulations, industry standards and practices.
Advanced to expert experience in leading cross-functional teams and managing multiple projects simultaneously with an established expertise in one or more key domains of the bank (Deposits, Loans, Operations or Reporting) with the ability to walk-through top-level process design.
Capable of working with regulatory partners like the CFPB, OCC and FRB through audits and collaboration efforts as situations arise.
Advanced to expert familiarity with the capability model across IT and the applications and infrastructures available for engagement in solutioning across the bank to develop results that leverage existing capabilities in addition to implementing new solutions when required.
Experience in the design, enhancement and compliance to all governance frameworks across the IT organization to ensure proper compliance to published procedures and standards.
Advanced speaking and writing communication skills.

Nice To Haves

Masters or MBA in related field preferred.
Need to come up with strategy for future hybrid deployments – Cloud hub and On-prem

Responsibilities

Build the solution design of efforts that can be handed off to lower-level engineers for execution assuring reuse of platforms where possible.
Review technical plans developed by lower-level engineers and analysts to assure quality designs which can support the volumetrics of our business partners objectives.
Build comprehensive measurement dashboards that give performance insight into key applications of the bank which can feed operational results of our business partners while enforcing IT standards, and may modify or build procedures that support areas of operations across IT.
Work independently or partner with architecture team counterparts to lay out the final documentation required for proper, ongoing reference of the given solution to include physical and logical layouts with cross reference to use case models.
Architect, design, and implement MuleSoft APIs for high-performance, scalable, and secure payment processing.
Lead the adoption of AI-assisted API design and development using GenAI tools (e.g., MuleSoft AI, GitHub Copilot, internal LLMs) to accelerate API creation, reduce development cycle time, and improve code consistency across the Payments API landscape.
Optimize vCore utilization for cost efficiency, resource allocation, and high availability.
Develop resilient and fault-tolerant API architectures, ensuring zero-downtime deployments and disaster recovery strategies.
Lead full API lifecycle management, from development and security hardening to deployment and maintenance.
Implement API security best practices, including OAuth 2.0, JWT, mTLS, certificate-based authentication, and encryption standards for financial transactions.
Ensure adherence to FDX (Financial Data Exchange) standards for secure financial data interoperability.
Build event-driven architectures utilizing Kafka for high-throughput and low-latency transaction processing.
Implement NoSQL database integration (MongoDB, Azure CosmosDB) for flexible and scalable data storage solutions.
Develop observability frameworks with ELK to monitor API performance, security, and anomalies.
Optimize MuleSoft worker configurations, clustering, and autoscaling strategies for CloudHub deployments. Need to come up with strategy for future hybrid deployments – Cloud hub and On-prem
Implement MuleSoft High Availability (HA) clustering and load balancing to ensure resilience and failover capabilities.
Enforce security policies and compliance controls specific to MuleSoft API gateways.
Design and develop APIs using Azure API Management (APIM) to enforce consistent security, rate limiting, versioning, and lifecycle governance while enabling scalable, reusable, and well‑managed API consumption across platforms.

Benefits

competitive salaries
an ownership stake in the company
medical and dental insurance
time off
a great 401k matching program
tuition assistance program
an employee volunteer program
a wellness program
opportunity to bolster business knowledge
learning the ins and outs of how successful companies operate and manage their finances
invaluable hands-on experience to help grow your career