Principal Application Engineer-Digital Platform Engineering

Navy Federal Credit Union•Vienna, VA

3d•$133,000 - $208,500•Onsite

About The Position

Navy Federal Credit Union is seeking an experienced Digital Engineer to provide technical leadership and direction across Digital, with a focus on security, technology strategy, architecture, and cross-functional collaboration. The role serves as a technical liaison between Digital and partner technology teams, including Security, Architecture, Infrastructure, Cloud, and Engineering. It helps align complex technical initiatives, influence security efforts, and shape Digital’s technology strategy and direction. The position emphasizes technical leadership, strategic direction, security, and cross-team collaboration over day-to-day hands-on development. The successful candidate will bring broad engineering experience and strong technical credibility, with the ability to understand complex technologies, guide technical decisions, communicate across organizational boundaries, and influence outcomes. The position also contributes to secure, scalable, reliable, and innovative solutions; reviews proposed architectures and technologies; supports integration with existing applications and platforms; and coaches and mentors technical staff. The role is based at one of the listed Navy Federal locations in Vienna or Winchester, Virginia; Pensacola, Florida; or San Diego, California. Hours are Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM. Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States without current or future sponsorship. Navy Federal notes that the role may be filled at a higher or lower grade based on business need.

Requirements

Ability to guide complex technical decisions, influence engineering direction, and provide technical leadership across teams.
Strong understanding of secure engineering practices and ability to lead and influence security-related initiatives.
Strong understanding of Microsoft Azure, APIs, microservices, CI/CD, cloud-native architecture, and modern application platforms.
Significant experience providing technical leadership and direction across complex technology initiatives.
Demonstrated ability to evaluate technical solutions and make recommendations relating to architecture, security, reliability, scalability, and engineering standards.
Experience contributing to or influencing technology strategy, technical roadmaps, architectural direction, and engineering practices.
Experience providing technical guidance and mentoring engineers on complex technology challenges.
Strong knowledge of application and platform security, secure engineering principles, vulnerability management, and security best practices.
Experience partnering with Security and Engineering teams to identify technology risks, guide remediation, and incorporate security into solution design and delivery.
Understanding of DevSecOps practices and integrating security into engineering.
Strong understanding of modern application and platform architecture, including APIs, microservices, integrations, distributed systems, and cloud-native architectures.
Experience with Microsoft Azure and understanding of cloud architecture, security, scalability, reliability, and operational considerations.
Experience with CI/CD and modern engineering practices using tools and technologies such as Azure DevOps, GitHub, Jenkins, SonarQube, Docker, and Kubernetes/AKS.
Working knowledge of modern application development technologies such as Java/Spring Boot, JavaScript/TypeScript, Angular, or comparable technologies and frameworks.
Understanding of observability, application performance, reliability, and production support principles.
Demonstrated ability to work effectively across Security, Architecture, Infrastructure, Cloud, Engineering, business teams, and other technology organizations.
Experience working effectively with all levels of staff, management, stakeholders, and vendors.
Advanced relationship-building skills, including the ability to establish rapport and trust and influence across organizational boundaries.
Strong verbal and written communication skills, including communicating complex technology and security concepts to technical and non-technical audiences.
Significant experience managing multiple priorities independently and/or within a team environment to achieve goals.
Strong analytical, conceptual, problem-solving, and decision-making skills.
Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education, training, and experience.
Authorization to work in the United States without the need for current or future sponsorship.

Nice To Haves

Experience working within banking, financial services, or another highly regulated technology environment.
Experience with Azure technologies such as AKS, Azure SQL, Redis, Key Vault, Microsoft Entra ID, and Application Insights.
Experience with Java, Spring Boot, Angular, JavaScript/TypeScript, or other modern application development technologies.
Knowledge of API management, Kafka or other asynchronous messaging technologies, and event-driven architecture.
Experience with containerization and orchestration technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes.
Experience with application security assessments, vulnerability remediation, security architecture, or security risk management.
Experience establishing or influencing engineering standards, architectural patterns, DevSecOps practices, or technology roadmaps.
Experience evaluating emerging technologies and conducting or guiding proof-of-concepts and technical assessments to inform technology decisions.
Ten years of overall relevant experience.
Understanding of modern mobile, web, backend, API, and platform engineering.
Working knowledge of banking/financial industry standards and practices.
Working knowledge of Navy Federal functions, philosophy, operations, and organizational objectives.

Responsibilities

Provide technical leadership and engineering insight on complex Digital initiatives to support secure, scalable, reliable, and innovative solutions.
Serve as a liaison between Digital and cross-functional teams, including Security, Architecture, Infrastructure, Cloud, and Engineering, to drive alignment and resolve technical challenges.
Lead and direct Digital security initiatives, partnering with appropriate teams to identify risks, guide technical solutions, and strengthen secure engineering practices.
Contribute technical expertise and recommendations to Digital’s technology strategy, architecture, engineering standards, and technology roadmaps.
Analyze applications, platforms, cloud capabilities, and emerging technologies to identify improvements to security, reliability, scalability, and engineering effectiveness.
Collaborate on technical and architectural reviews to assess the integrity, security, quality, and effectiveness of proposed solutions.
Coordinate solution integration with existing applications and platforms and help identify and resolve technical dependencies and conflicts.
Advocate for adaptive planning, evolutionary development, continuous improvement, automation, and modern engineering practices.
Evaluate emerging technologies, architectural approaches, and industry trends and recommend their applicability within Digital.
Work across business and technology teams and share technical knowledge, standards, and best practices.
Develop and recommend improvements to Digital platforms, engineering practices, security, reliability, and technology capabilities.
Coach, mentor, and provide technical guidance to Digital Engineers and other technical team members.
Communicate complex technical and security concepts to engineering teams, business partners, stakeholders, and leadership.
Perform other duties as assigned.
Remain cognizant of and adhere to Navy Federal policies, procedures, and regulations pertaining to the Bank Secrecy Act.