Principal Software Engineering

Transamerica•Cedar Rapids, IA

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Principal Software Engineer is a senior technical leader responsible for defining and driving enterprise-scale architecture, engineering strategy, and delivery excellence across modern web platforms. This role operates at a systems and organizational level—designing, influencing, and governing solutions that span multiple teams and domains—while ensuring the development of secure, scalable, resilient, and high-performing applications using TypeScript, React, and Node.js deployed on cloud platforms. As a recognized technical authority, the Principal Engineer leads through influence, elevates engineering maturity, and establishes standards that enable consistent, high-quality delivery at scale. This role also champions the effective adoption of AI-assisted engineering to accelerate delivery, improve code quality, and standardize practices across the enterprise.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in computer science, information systems, math, engineering, or other technical field, or equivalent experience
Eight years of experience with database design techniques/philosophies, modern distributed applications, and microservices
Understanding of advanced analytics and machine learning concepts and technology implementations
Experience with big data and real time streaming analytics processing architecture
Experience with data warehousing architecture and implementation, including source to target mappings and ETL.
Technology or platform certifications (e.g. AWS, Microsoft)
Expertise in coding platforms/frameworks (e.g. .NET/C#, JAVA, OOD, OOP, Functional Programming, Spring Framework, J2EE Development, OOP, Service Oriented Architecture, Dependency Injection, and Core Architecture)
In-depth knowledge of NoSQL database technologies (e.g. MS Cosmos DB, Apache Cassandra, Amazon DynamoDB)
Five years of development experience with cloud services (e.g. AWS/Azure) utilizing various support tools (e.g. EC2, ECS, S3, Kinesis, VMs, Blob, Cosmos, Data Factory, SQL Data warehouse, ARM Templates, Event Hubs)
Expertise in build and deployment tools - (Visual Studio, Git/Bitbucket, Maven, Jenkins, Nexus, SQL Management Studio, Nunit, Ajax)
Expertise in developing distributed computing (MS HPC, Sagemaker, Spark)
Eight years of experience with integration and service frameworks (e.g. API Gateways, Apache Camel, Swagger API, Zookeeper, Kafka, messaging tools, microservices)
Expertise with Microservices and REST based API development (e.g. Spring Boot, Spring MVC, Entity Framework, IIS, Swagger, Odata, .NET API 2, .NET API Core, AutoMapper)
Experience leveraging continuous integration/development tools (e.g. Jenkins, Docker, Containers, OpenShift, Kubernetes, and container automation) in a Ci/CD pipeline
Familiarity with modern frontend development frameworks (Angular, React, Vue.js, ASP.NET MVC, HTTP, HTML, JS, CSS, Ajax)
Advanced understanding of software development and research tools
Attention to detail and results oriented, with a strong customer focus
Ability to work as part of a team and independently
Analytical and problem-solving skills
Technical communication skills and the ability to present information to all levels of the organization
Problem-solving and technical communication skills
Ability to prioritize workload to meet tight deadlines

Nice To Haves

Experience with TypeScript/React, Node.js, and APIs
Knowledge of AI-Assisted Engineering
Knowledge of the financial services industry
Experience with enterprise modernization.
Experience raising the engineering and operational standards.
Experience coaching engineers in a Scaled Agile environment
Experience with analytics, ML, or streaming architectures.
Financial services knowledge.
Experience with Six Sigma is a plus.

Responsibilities

Define and evolve enterprise-wide architecture patterns for front-end, API, and cloud-native systems, ensuring alignment with long-term business and technology strategy.
Lead design of large-scale, distributed, and highly available systems, driving decisions across multiple teams and platforms.
Establish and govern engineering standards, design principles, and reference architectures for TypeScript/React front ends and Node.js API ecosystems.
Provide technical leadership in modernization initiatives (e.g., monolith to microservices, API-first, event-driven architectures, cloud-native transformation).
Drive delivery of complex, cross-team initiatives with measurable business outcomes (e.g., scalability improvements, performance gains, cost optimization, reduced lead time).
Ensure systems are designed for resilience, observability, and operability (logging, monitoring, tracing, SLOs).
Lead end-to-end system design reviews, architecture governance, and technical decision-making across programs.
Champion engineering quality at scale, including automated testing strategies, CI/CD maturity, and secure SDLC practices.
Act as a technical authority and advisor to engineering leadership, product teams, and stakeholders across the organization.
Mentor and develop senior and staff engineers; raise the bar for technical design, coding standards, and architectural thinking.
Influence organizational direction through technical roadmaps, platform strategy, and investment recommendations.
Lead cross-functional collaboration with product, security, infrastructure, and enterprise architecture teams.
Guide development of enterprise-grade React + TypeScript applications, establishing scalable UI architectures and shared component strategies.
Architect and oversee Node.js API platforms with emphasis on contract-first design (OpenAPI), versioning strategies, and secure integrations.
Define patterns for data access, caching, and API performance optimization across relational and NoSQL systems.
Lead adoption of event-driven and real-time architectures (messaging, streaming, WebSockets) where appropriate.
Design and drive adoption of cloud-native architectures (AWS/Azure), including containers, serverless, and platform services.
Establish scalable patterns for multi-environment deployment, cost optimization, and operational resilience.
Collaborate with platform teams to define golden paths, reusable frameworks, and shared services.
Lead enterprise adoption of AI-assisted development practices, including code generation, test automation, documentation, and design acceleration.
Define standards for safe, secure, and governed use of AI tools, ensuring compliance and quality.
Quantify and drive improvements in developer productivity, code quality, and cycle time through AI-enabled workflows.
Stay at the forefront of emerging technologies, frameworks, and engineering practices and guide their adoption where beneficial.
Represent engineering in executive discussions, architecture reviews, and strategic planning forums.
Drive continuous improvement in engineering processes, tooling, and organizational capabilities.

Benefits

Competitive Pay
Bonus for Eligible Employees
Pension Plan
401k Match
Employee Stock Purchase Plan
Tuition Reimbursement
Disability Insurance
Medical Insurance
Dental Insurance
Vision Insurance
Employee Discounts
Career Training & Development Opportunities
Paid Time Off starting at 160 hours annually for employees in their first year of service.
Ten (10) paid holidays per year (typically mirroring the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) holidays).
Be Well Company holistic wellness program, which includes Wellness Coaching and Reward Dollars
Parental Leave – fifteen (15) days of paid parental leave per calendar year to eligible employees with at least one year of service at the time of birth, placement of an adopted child, or placement of a foster care child.
Adoption Assistance
Employee Assistance Program
Back-Up Care Program
PTO for Volunteer Hours
Employee Matching Gifts Program
Employee Resource Groups
Inclusion and Diversity Programs
Employee Recognition Program
Referral Bonus Programs