Sr. Principal Engineer, Employee Experience (Hybrid - Seattle, WA)

Nordstrom•Seattle, WA

6d•$200,500 - $332,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Nordstrom is seeking a Sr. Principal Engineer - Employee Experience to define and drive technical strategy, architecture, and engineering standards for systems supporting financial operations, people processes, and workplace collaboration. The scope includes enterprise finance and ERP systems, HR and talent platforms, and productivity and collaboration tools used by Nordstrom employees. This strategic, influence-driven role shapes how engineering teams design, secure, and scale technology supporting Finance, HR, and the workplace experience. The engineer partners with executives and leaders across Finance, HR, Nordstrom Technology, and business functions to translate enterprise priorities into technical roadmaps and establish architectural foundations for operational excellence, employee experience, and AI-enabled productivity.

Requirements

15+ years of experience in software engineering, systems architecture, or platform engineering, with demonstrated progression to strategic, enterprise-scope technical leadership.
Hands-on experience architecting or engineering solutions across enterprise finance systems such as ERP, GL, and procure-to-pay; HR/HCM platforms; and productivity/collaboration tools.
Deep expertise in enterprise integration patterns, APIs, event-driven architecture, and data flows connecting core business systems.
Demonstrated ability to lead through influence rather than authority and build consensus with engineering, product, and business stakeholders.
Working knowledge of security, privacy, and regulatory considerations relevant to financial and employee data systems, including Segregation of Duties, SOC, data privacy, and access governance.
Expertise with multiple cloud platforms, modern application architectures, and enterprise SaaS ecosystems sufficient to evaluate build-versus-buy tradeoffs.
Ability to connect technical architecture to business outcomes and communicate value to executive stakeholders across Finance, HR, and Technology.
Track record of developing engineering talent and building cross-functional partnerships across teams not directly managed.

Nice To Haves

Experience with Workday or similar HR/HCM platforms.
Experience with Microsoft 365, ServiceNow, Slack, or similar productivity and collaboration tools.
Experience with AWS and GCP cloud platforms.

Responsibilities

Develop and communicate a multi-year technical vision and roadmap for Finance, HR, Productivity, and Collaboration systems, aligned with enterprise architecture, cloud strategy, and AI ambitions.
Own architecture and design patterns across financial systems, HR systems, and productivity and collaboration platforms.
Establish SaaS integration patterns, API standards, event schemas, and data contracts connecting core systems to the broader enterprise.
Lead design and delivery of large-scale initiatives, including platform modernizations, vendor migrations, technical-debt deprecations, and system consolidations spanning multiple engineering teams and business functions.
Define architecture patterns for identity, access control, and data protection appropriate for sensitive financial and HR data.
Partner with security, privacy, and compliance teams to meet PCI, SOC, data privacy, and audit requirements.
Identify opportunities to apply AI, AI-native automation, SaaS AI features, and self-service capabilities to finance, HR, and workplace processes.
Guide teams evaluating AI-enabled tools, including conversational assistants, intelligent document processing, and workflow automation for productivity and collaboration use cases.
Set technical standards and best practices across the Finance, HR, and Productivity & Collaboration engineering portfolio.
Mentor senior and principal engineers, participate in architecture reviews, and advise on technical career growth and promotions.