Principal AI & Cloud Engineer — Lead Scalable Systems

Morningstar Credit Ratings, LLC; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 117,957 - 123,010; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k) match

Stock ownership potential

Life insurance

Medical/dental/vision benefits

HSA contributions

Sabbatical program

Parental leave

Tuition reimbursement

Volunteer program

Mentorship opportunities

Flexible stipends for education/well‑b

Job summary

Morningstar Credit Ratings, LLC is seeking a senior software engineering leader to architect and drive scalable AI and cloud-native solutions across AWS, Azure, and OpenAI. You will design AI-powered transcription platforms and guide cross‑functional teams to align technical efforts with business goals.

With 8+ years in software engineering and 3+ years mentoring, you will advance performance, reliability, and security while fostering innovation in a hybrid work environment that blends in‑office

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Technology, or related field, or a Master’s degree with equivalent experience.
• 8 years of software engineering experience in a Lead, Principal, Senior, Associate Software Engineer, Developer, or related role (6 years with a Master’s degree).
• 5 years of experience designing scalable AI and cloud‑native solutions using AWS, Azure, OpenAI or similar cloud platforms.
• 5 years of experience developing commercial‑quality software products focused on distributed and real‑time systems.
• 5 years of experience with Python and Java, and performance, reliability, scalability, security, and reusability tactics.
• 5 years of experience defining, refining, and maintaining application architectures for sophisticated end‑user products.
• 5 years of troubleshooting and debugging skills.
• 3 years of mentoring and leading engineering teams.
• 3 years of experience in machine learning, including model development and deployment in production environments.
• 3 years of experience building and delivering proof‑of‑concepts (POCs) to validate technical solutions.
• 3 years of experience with AWS cloud platforms and SaaS architectures.
• 3 years of experience in DevOps, implementing CI/CD pipelines, containerizing with Docker, and orchestrating with Kubernetes/AWS Fargate.
• 3 years in agile development practices (scrum and scaled agile).
• Unrestricted right to work in the U.S.

Responsibilities

• Architect and lead scalable AI and cloud‑native solutions using AWS, Azure, and OpenAI.
• Design AI‑powered transcription platforms, driving improvements in speed and efficiency.
• Design, code, debug, maintain, and upgrade high‑performance software systems, ensuring performance, reliability and maintainability.
• Provide technical leadership across multiple engineering teams, guiding day‑to‑day development activities and architectural decision‑making.
• Lead cross‑functional collaboration with Application Architects, Systems Engineers, DevOps/SRE, and business stakeholders to align technical solutions with business objectives.
• Advocate and enforce global best practices for product performance, reliability, scalability, security, and code reusability.
• Conduct architectural design and system planning, ensuring scalable solutions that meet technical excellence and financial sector business needs.
• Enforce coding standards and software engineering best practices across development teams.
• Lead DevOps efforts with Docker, Kubernetes, and AWS Fargate; implemented CI/CD pipelines with SonarQube and automated infrastructure deployments.
• Make strategic infrastructure decisions, monitor operational costs, and implement optimizations to reduce spend and improve system efficiency.
• Facilitate team meetings to foster innovation and technical rigor.

Skills

Python

Java

Machine Learning

DevOps

Cloud architectures

Distributed systems

Leadership

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science/Engineering/IT

Master’s degree with equivalent experience

Tools

AWS

Azure

OpenAI

Docker

Kubernetes

AWS Fargate

CI/CD

SonarQube

Job description

Morningstar Credit Ratings, LLC is seeking a senior software engineering leader to architect and drive scalable AI and cloud-native solutions across AWS, Azure, and OpenAI. You will design AI-powered transcription platforms and guide cross‑functional teams to align technical efforts with business goals.

With 8+ years in software engineering and 3+ years mentoring, you will advance performance, reliability, and security while fostering innovation in a hybrid work environment that blends in‑office