Principal - Software Engineer

Ally•Detroit, MI

53d•$110,000 - $180,000

About The Position

Ally Financial is seeking a hands-on Principal Software Engineer to lead the design and delivery of enterprise-scale business automation and AI solutions. The role identifies valuable automation opportunities, architects intelligent workflows, and builds secure, scalable platforms combining software engineering, cloud-native architecture, RPA, APIs, and generative AI to create measurable business impact. The engineer provides technical leadership across strategy, architecture, implementation, and operational excellence; mentors teams; and shapes engineering standards for AI-enabled automation across the enterprise. The position partners with business, product, risk, and engineering stakeholders and guides solutions from proof of concept through production. Ally will not sponsor a new applicant for employment authorization for this position. Work arrangements may be fully on-site, hybrid, or fully remote; the specific requirements will be discussed during hiring and may change based on leader discretion or business needs.

Requirements

At least 7 years of relevant experience.
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
Strong hands-on experience with automation engineering, workflow orchestration, API development and integration, and cloud-native solution development.
Proficiency in modern programming languages, particularly Python and Java, and solid software design, coding, and integration fundamentals for enterprise-grade applications and services.
Experience with cloud platforms such as AWS or Azure and architectural patterns including microservices, serverless, messaging, and event-driven systems.
Ability to establish engineering standards for testing, CI/CD, observability, resiliency, and secure software delivery in regulated or enterprise environments.
Ability to influence technical direction across multiple teams and translate complex business problems into scalable engineering solutions.
Strong communication and stakeholder management skills, including explaining architecture, tradeoffs, and delivery plans to technical and non-technical audiences.

Nice To Haves

At least 8 years of software engineering experience, including deep expertise designing and delivering large-scale enterprise applications and platforms.
Experience building and integrating AI-enabled solutions, including LLM-based workflows, prompt orchestration, intelligent document and process automation, and practical use of AI coding tools.
Experience with enterprise automation platforms such as Robocorp, UiPath, Automation Anywhere, or equivalent workflow and orchestration technologies.
Hands-on experience with agentic workflows, RAG patterns, vector stores, model evaluation, and guardrail strategies for production AI systems.
Experience with Infrastructure as Code, API design and lifecycle management, and platform engineering practices that enable reusable automation across teams.
Hands-on experience using AI coding tools such as GitHub Copilot, Claude, or similar assistants to improve developer velocity, code quality, documentation, testing, and prototyping.
Familiarity with business process optimization, operational analytics, and value measurement to quantify automation and AI outcomes.
Prior experience in financial services or other highly regulated industries.

Responsibilities

Lead architecture and delivery of enterprise automation solutions involving workflow orchestration, RPA, APIs, event-driven integration, and AI-powered decisioning.
Design and implement intelligent automation capabilities using large language models, agent-based patterns, document intelligence, and retrieval-augmented solutions where appropriate.
Partner with business, product, risk, and engineering stakeholders to identify valuable opportunities, define solution approaches, and prioritize use cases based on ROI, feasibility, and speed to value.
Establish scalable engineering patterns for automation platforms, including reusable services, APIs, observability, resiliency, security controls, and CI/CD practices.
Guide end-to-end implementation from proof of concept to production, including architecture reviews, code quality, deployment, monitoring, and operational support.
Incorporate governance, evaluation, security, compliance, and human-in-the-loop controls into production solutions to promote responsible AI and automation.
Mentor engineers, influence technical direction across teams, and improve software design, delivery excellence, and measurable business outcomes.

Benefits

Market-competitive base pay and pay-for-performance incentives based on personal and company goals.
Paid time off starting at 20 days, 11 paid holidays, and 8 hours of annual volunteer time off; time off is prorated based on start date and varies by employment status and management level.
401(k) retirement savings plan with matching and company contributions.
Student loan pay-down and 529 educational savings assistance programs.
Tuition reimbursement.
Employee stock purchase plan.
Financial learning center and financial coach access.
Flexible medical, dental, and vision insurance options.
Employee, spouse, and child life insurance.
Short- and long-term disability insurance.
Health Savings Account with employer contributions and Healthcare FSA.
Critical illness, accident, and hospital indemnity insurance.
Total well-being program supporting physical, social, emotional, and financial well-being.
Adoption, surrogacy, and fertility assistance.
Paid parental and caregiver leave.
Dependent Day Care FSA, backup child and adult/elder care days, and childcare discounts.
Employee Assistance Program.
Subsidized and discounted Weight Watchers® program and other employee discount programs.
Depending on the role, potential travel allowances, relocation assistance, signing bonus, and/or equity.
Annual incentive plan eligibility.