Assistant Director - Engineering, Asset Management Digital Experience

Principal Financial Group; United States; Hybrid; USD 145,000 - 185,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Pension Eligible

Job summary

Principal Financial Group is seeking an Assistant Director of Engineering for its Digital Experience team within Asset Management. You will lead an engineering organization building client-facing web experiences and digital tools for global institutional clients.

You will guide multiple agile product teams across regions, translating business priorities into scalable platforms and fostering ownership, collaboration, and continuous improvement while exploring AI-enabled capabilities to enhance

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in a technical field.
• 8+ years of enterprise digital/technical experience with progressive responsibility.
• Formal people leadership experience and building a culture of accountability.
• Strong background in digital experiences, web platforms, or client-facing product delivery.
• Ability to influence across matrixed teams and leaders.
• Strong communication skills bridging technical and business stakeholders.
• Experience operating in a global multi-region environment.

Responsibilities

• Set strategic direction with product, marketing, and business leaders to shape the digital experience strategy across client-facing platforms.
• Lead and inspire engineering teams supporting public websites, secure client portals, and digital tools across multiple agile product teams.
• Translate vision into action, ensuring execution of initiatives that enhance access to investment insights, data, and tools.
• Drive alignment across cross-functional partners to enable coordinated delivery of digital capabilities at scale.
• Identify and advance new digital capabilities, including AI-enabled experiences to improve client engagement and platform scalability.
• Build high-performing teams by coaching and developing engineering talent and fostering ownership and collaboration across a global team.

Skills

Asset Management domain experience

Financial services experience

Technology leadership

UX/CX understanding

Digital platforms scaling

AI exposure

Global/distributed leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree in computer science or related field

Job description

What You’ll Do

We’re looking for an Assistant Director of Engineering to join our Digital Experience team within Asset Management. In this role, you’ll lead an engineering team responsible for building client-facing web experiences and digital tools that support some of our largest global institutional clients.

You’ll have the opportunity to

• Set strategic direction: Partner with product, marketing, and business leaders to shape the digital experience strategy across client-facing platforms, delivering scalable web and portal solutions that support global Asset Management clients
• Lead and inspire: Guide teams supporting public websites, secure client portals, and digital tools, driving high-quality delivery across multiple agile product teams and global regions
• Translate vision into action: Bridge digital, engineering, and business priorities—ensuring seamless execution of initiatives that enhance how clients access investment insights, data, and tools
• Drive alignment: Influence and align cross-functional partners across product families, enabling coordinated delivery of digital capabilities and client experiences at scale
• Innovate for impact: Identify and advance new digital capabilities, including next-generation tools and AI-enabled experiences to improve client engagement, usability, and platform scalability
• Build high-performing teams: Coach and develop engineering talent (both direct and matrixed), fostering a culture of ownership, collaboration, and continuous improvement across a global team
• Stay future-focused: Monitor trends in digital experience, client expectations, and financial services technology to evolve our web and client platform ecosystem for long-term growth

Operating at the intersection of financial services and technology, Principal builds financial tools that help our customers live better lives. We take pride in being a purpose-led firm, motivated by our mission to make financial security accessible to all. Our mission, integrity, and customer focus have made us a trusted leader for more than 140 years.

Who You Are

• Bachelor's degree (preference in a computer science, technology, engineering or math-related field) or equivalent experience
• 8+ years of enterprise-level digital or technical experience, demonstrating progressive responsibility and impact
• Formal people leadership experience, coaching talent, and building build a culture of accountability and collaboration
• Strong background in digital experience, web platforms, or client-facing product delivery
• Proven ability to influence across teams and leaders in a highly matrixed environment
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to translate between technical and business stakeholders
• Comfortable working in a global operating model across multiple regions and time zones

Skills That Will Help You Stand Out

• 4+ years of technology leadership managing and mentoring direct reports; proven ability to build strong teams and a culture of accountability
• Asset Management domain experience
• Proven experience in financial services, with the ability to navigate complex client, product, and regulatory environments
• Experience leading technical direction of global or distributed teams
• Strong understanding of UX/CX and delivering best-in-class client experiences
• Experience building or scaling digital platforms, client portals, or authenticated user experiences
• Exposure to AI or emerging technologies applied to digital experience or client platforms

Salary Range Information

Salary ranges below reflect targeted base salaries. Non-sales positions have the opportunity to participate in a bonus program. Sales positions are eligible for sales incentives, and in some instances a bonus plan, whereby total compensation may far exceed base salary depending on individual performance. Actual compensation for all roles will be based upon geographic location, work experience, education, licensure requirements and/or skill level and will be finalized at the time of offer.

Salary Range (Non-Exempt expressed as hourly; Exempt expressed as yearly)

$145000 - $185000 / year

Time Off Program

Flexible Time Off (FTO) is provided to salaried (exempt) employees and provides the opportunity to take time away from the office with pay for vacation, personal or short-term illness. Employees don’t accrue a bank of time off under FTO and there is no set number of days provided.

Pension Eligible

Yes

Work Environments

This role offers an in-office and hybrid (blending at least three office days in a typical workweek) work arrangement in Des Moines, IA, Charlotte, NC, Raleigh, NC, Chicago, IL or New York, NY.

Our Engineering Culture

Through our product-driven Agile/Lean DevOps environment, we’ve fostered a culture of innovation and experimentation across our development teams. As a customer-focused organization, we work closely with our end users and product owners to understand and rapidly respond to emerging business needs.

Collaboration is embedded into everything we do – from the products we develop to the quality service we provide. We’re driven by the belief that diversity of thought, background, and perspective is critical to creating the best products and experiences for our customers.

Work Authorization/Sponsorship

At this time, we’re not considering applicants that need any type of immigration sponsorship (additional work authorization or permanent work authorization) now or in the future to work in the United States. This includes, but IS NOT LIMITED TO: F1-OPT, F1-CPT, H-1B, TN, L-1, J-1, etc. For additional information around work authorization needs please use the following links.

Nonimmigrant Workers and Green Card for Employment-Based Immigrants

Investment Code of Ethics

For Principal Asset Management positions, you’ll need to follow an Investment Code of Ethics related to personal and business conduct as well as personal trading activities for you and members of your household. These same requirements may also apply to other positions across the organization.

Experience Principal

At Principal, we value connecting on both a personal and professional level. Together, we’re imagining a more purpose-led future for financial services – and that starts with you. Our success depends on the unique experiences, backgrounds, and talents of our employees. And we support our employees the same way we support our customers: with comprehensive, competitive benefit offerings crafted to protect their physical, financial, and social well-being. Check out our careers site to learn more about our purpose, values and benefits.

Principal is an Equal Opportunity Employer

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status.

Posting Window

We will accept applications for 3 full days following the Original Posting Date, after which the posting may remain open or be removed based upon applications received. If we choose to post the job again, we will accept additional applications for at least 1 full day following the Most Recently Posted Date. Please submit applications in a timely manner as there is no guarantee the posting will be available beyond the applicable deadline.

Original Posting Date

9/28/2026

Most Recently Posted Date

9/28/2026

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