Principal Software Engineer

Commonwealth Bank; Sydney; On-site; AUD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Commonwealth Bank is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to lead hands-on engineering across a large Business Banking tech environment. You’ll shape standards, uplift developer experience and drive modern delivery practices.

You’ll provide technical leadership, design and evolve platforms, tooling and reusable capabilities, champion automation and AI-powered approaches, and partner with squads to deliver secure, reliable outcomes at pace across cloud and on‑premises estate.

Qualifications

• Strong software engineering fundamentals.
• Language-agnostic mindset with deep experience in one or more languages.
• Deep understanding of modern software delivery: DevSecOps, observability, reliability and release practices.
• Experience designing, building and operating cloud solutions (AWS) with IaC and CI/CD pipelines.

Responsibilities

• Provide hands-on technical leadership and mentor senior engineers.
• Design, build and evolve platforms, tools and reusable capabilities.
• Establish engineering standards, guardrails and golden paths.
• Partner with squads to uplift engineering practices and adoption.
• Champion automation and AI-powered approaches across the delivery lifecycle.
• Improve developer experience with self-service and standardized pipelines.
• Collaborate with architecture, security, risk, data and engineering teams.
• Strengthen observability, reliability, performance and cost optimisation.

Skills

Software engineering

Programming languages

DevSecOps

Observability

Reliability

CI/CD pipelines

AWS

Infrastructure as code

Containers

Security engineering

IAM

AI tooling

Job description

• Lead hands-on engineering and platform enablement across a large, complex Business Banking technology environment.
• Shape engineering standards, uplift developer experience and help delivery teams adopt modern ways of working.
• Build with cloud, automation, DevSecOps and AI-powered engineering practices as CommBank advances its technology estate.

Do Work That Matters

Business Banking Technology is on a mission to become Australia’s leading digital business bank. We partner closely with our business colleagues to solve real customer problems through technical innovation and empowered teams.

As a Principal Software Engineer in the Engineering and Platforms Centre of Excellence, you’ll provide hands-on technical leadership across Everyday Business Banking. You’ll build practical engineering solutions, strengthen platforms and practices, and help teams deliver secure, reliable and high-quality outcomes at pace.

See yourself in our team

Be part of a team that's passionate about helping Australian businesses succeed. In CommBank's Business Banking team, you'll partner with customers to support their ambitions, backed by market-leading technology, a collaborative culture and opportunities to grow your career.

You’ll join a team that connects delivery squads with central technology teams, helping close local engineering gaps and turn enterprise platforms, tools and strategies into practical outcomes. The team supports more than 75 delivery squads and 450 engineers, with a broad focus spanning platform enablement, cloud, DevSecOps, observability, automation and AI-powered engineering.

In this role, you will:

• Provide hands-on technical leadership, helping set engineering direction and mentoring senior engineers.
• Design, build and evolve platforms, tools and reusable capabilities that make engineering simpler and more effective.
• Establish engineering standards, patterns, guardrails and golden paths that improve quality and consistency.
• Partner directly with squads to uplift their engineering practices and support meaningful, sustainable adoption.
• Champion automation and AI-powered approaches across the software delivery lifecycle.
• Improve developer experience through self-service capabilities, standardised pipelines and reusable templates.
• Work with architecture, security, risk, data and engineering teams to deliver solutions aligned with enterprise standards.
• Strengthen observability, reliability, performance and cost optimisation as part of everyday engineering.

We’re interested in hearing from people who:

You’re a versatile, hands-on engineer who can move comfortably between software, platforms and infrastructure. You enjoy solving complex problems, building practical solutions and helping other engineers do their best work. We use a broad range of tools, languages and frameworks, so we don’t expect you to know everything. Experience across several of the following areas will set you up for success.

• Strong software engineering fundamentals, with experience designing, coding and operating practical technology solutions.
• A language-agnostic mindset, supported by deep experience in one or more programming languages and the adaptability to work across different technology stacks.
• Deep understanding of modern software delivery, including DevSecOps, quality engineering, observability, reliability and release practices.
• Experience designing, building and operating cloud solutions, preferably on AWS, including infrastructure as code and continuous delivery pipelines.
• Experience with containers, platform runtime patterns, secure engineering, identity and access management, and automated controls.
• Capability using AI tools, patterns or workflows to improve engineering quality, productivity and outcomes.
• The ability to explain complex technical strategy clearly and bring diverse teams together around practical outcomes.
• A collaborative, curious and continuous improvement mindset, with a genuine interest in uplifting engineering capability at scale.

Working with us:

At CommBank, we're committed to creating an accessible, inclusive and respectful workplace. If you require support or adjustments, please let us know. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds and we're particularly committed to making a positive difference for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Peoples. For support, please contact 1800 989 696.

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