Principal Engineer – Vice President
About The Position
Citi is seeking a hands-on Principal Engineer to design, build, and evolve high-quality software products addressing business challenges at global scale. The role involves full-stack coding and implementation, with a focus on Java, modern cloud-based software development, agile and Scrum practices, code quality, and engineering tools. The engineer will contribute to software architecture and Citi’s and GFT’s technical user base, deliver sprint-level commitments, mentor engineers, and promote technical excellence. The Principal Engineer is a floating member of multiple engineering teams and reports to an Engineering Manager. The position offers the opportunity to work on software used worldwide, collaborate across Citi’s global engineering community, influence architecture and engineering direction, and pursue ongoing learning and development, including access to emerging technologies such as AI. The role follows a hybrid work model, with three days in the office and two days working remotely.
Requirements
- At least 6 years of software engineering experience building and delivering production-grade Java applications.
- Clear command of data structures and object-oriented design principles.
- Hands-on experience over multiple years with cloud-native development and container orchestration tools such as Docker, Kubernetes, or OpenShift.
- Extensive experience designing and building microservices and service-oriented architectures, including RESTful APIs and GraphQL implementations.
- Strong working knowledge of Java frameworks such as Spring Boot, Quarkus, Micronaut, or Vert.x, applied to real-world software delivery.
- Practical experience with software engineering best practices, including unit testing, automation, design patterns, and peer code review.
- Familiarity with CI/CD pipeline tools such as Tekton, Harness, CircleCI, or Jenkins, in on-premise or public cloud environments.
- Multiple years working within agile and iterative delivery frameworks, with active contributions to sprint execution and Scrum practices.
- Bachelor’s or university degree.
Nice To Haves
- Master’s degree preferred.
- Architecture experience designing horizontally scalable, highly available, low-latency distributed systems in cloud environments such as AWS or OpenShift.
- Exposure to event-driven architecture patterns and streaming technologies such as Kafka, Spark, or Flink.
- Familiarity with Infrastructure as Code tools such as Terraform or CloudFormation, and API management platforms.
- Experience with observability, security, and monitoring tools such as Grafana, Prometheus, Splunk, ELK, or CloudWatch.
- Experience mentoring and providing technical leadership to teams of five or more engineers.
- Exposure to front-end technologies such as React or Angular and database concepts across RDBMS and NoSQL.
Responsibilities
- Design and build critical features and complex full-stack solutions using Java, delivering clean, efficient, maintainable, high-quality code across multiple agile teams.
- Collaborate with other Principal Engineers to define, evolve, and influence system architecture, ensuring solutions are scalable, resilient, and aligned with business requirements.
- Contribute to sprint-level commitments and agile delivery, including planning, code reviews, and Scrum ceremonies across teams.
- Provide technical guidance to engineering teams to help resolve complex challenges, make sound design decisions, and deliver high-quality software.
- Evaluate emerging technologies, tools, and industry trends and recommend adoption to improve engineering capabilities and product outcomes.
- Partner with stakeholders throughout the software development lifecycle to align technical solutions with business goals and deliver measurable impact.
- Promote technical excellence and continuous improvement through knowledge sharing, engineering best practices, and high standards of craft.
- Mentor other engineers and share technical expertise.
Benefits
- Hybrid working model with three days in the office and two days working remotely.
- Access to Citi’s global engineering community and technical forums.
- Ongoing learning and development opportunities, including access to emerging technologies such as AI.
- Competitive financial wellbeing package, including salary and bonus.
- Medical, dental, and vision coverage.
- 401(k).
- Life, accident, and disability insurance.
- Wellness programs.
- Paid time off, including vacation, sick leave, and paid holidays.
- Wellbeing and family support programmes.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
