Principal Engineer I

Relha LLC; Phoenix, Northern (AZ, KY); Hybrid; USD 130,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

401k matching

Medical and dental insurance

Tuition assistance

Employee volunteer program

Wellness program

Job summary

Western Alliance Bank seeks a Principal Engineer I to act as SME across multiple banking domains, guiding design, security, and reliability of core platforms. You’ll lead complex projects, coordinate with architecture teams, and drive cloud-native solutions, primarily on Azure.

Expect strong collaboration with stakeholders to align roadmaps with regulatory and risk requirements. This role requires 8+ years of enterprise experience, a technical degree, and demonstrated ability to lead

Qualifications

• 8+ years of related experience including enterprise engineering in banking domains.
• Bachelor’s degree required; Master’s preferred in a technical field.
• Proven leadership across cross-functional teams and multiple projects.

Responsibilities

• Lead design and implementation of secure, scalable banking integrations.
• Provide SME guidance across domains and ensure regulatory compliance.
• Build dashboards and oversee complex deployments with minimal risk.
• Partner with stakeholders to align roadmaps with business priorities.
• Develop and enforce engineering standards and security controls.

Skills

Leadership

Azure

Cloud Architecture

Security & Compliance

Cross-functional Leadership

CI/CD

Agile methodologies

Data analysis

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/IT/Engineering

Master's degree preferred

Tools

PowerShell

Python

SQL Server

Oracle

BMC Control M

ELK

MFT

Twilio

Cleo Harmony

Job description

As a Principal Engineer I, within the Enterprise Application Services (EAS) department, you'll serve as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) in multiple functional areas/domains on system processes and data structures that support multiple technology disciplines. In this role you'll support the Common Services teams and deliver complex projects in designated domain(s) or functional area(s) to maintain the security posture on time and on budget. This role is technically responsible for oversight of ~10 key applications including BMC Control M job scheduler, File Exchange/Account Extract, Cleo Harmony SFTP, Babel Messaging-Email Services, Twilio-SendGrid platform, ELK Application Logging and Reporting Platform, and Event Management. This is a key role which helps the bank deliver about 50% of total production customer reconciliation, statements, and reporting in a high-pressure environment. You'll partner closely with business stakeholders and product owners, including partners across business segments to understand evolving business needs and translate them into technical solutions. A core expectation is to develop deep expertise in each platform's product capabilities and to design, build, and deliver solutions and enhancements to existing products and services in Common Services portfolio. Through this engagement, you'll help ensure that platform roadmaps, enhancements, and day-to-day delivery remain tightly aligned with stakeholder priorities and the bank's operational and compliance objectives. As a Principal Engineer I you'll provide SME expertise in your respective domain as well as adjacent domains to ensure solutions are safe, secure, compliant, and reliable. You'll identify development and support needs as well as take on large and complex design responsibilities supporting project tasks. You'll also engage with project and business sponsors refining requirements and objectives of targeted solutions. As a Principal Engineer I, you also facilitate dialogue and activities, and work to ensure team collaboration including teams outside of your domain. You'll develop effective presentations and narratives for IT audiences. In this role, you'll also develop the technical skills of one more junior engineer.

Build the solution design of efforts that can be handed off to lower-level engineers for execution assuring reuse of platforms where possible.

Review technical plans developed by lower-level engineers and analysts to assure quality designs prevail which can support the volumetrics of our business partners objectives.

Build comprehensive measurement dashboards that give performance insight into key applications of the bank which can feed operational results of our business partners.

Work independently or sometimes with architecture team counterparts to lay out the final documentation required for proper ongoing reference of the given solution, including physical and logical layouts with cross reference to use case models while enforcing standards, as well as assisting in the modification or buildout of procedures that support areas of operations across IT.

Serve as the technology leader for foundational banking services supporting mission-critical money movement processes, ensuring platform reliability, scalability, security, and operational readiness.

Provide technical leadership and guidance to engineering teams, enabling effective decision-making, removing delivery impediments, and ensuring adherence to engineering standards, security requirements, and enterprise architecture principles.

Lead and coordinate complex production deployments, release activities, and cutover implementations, delivering seamless go-live executions with minimal risk and no disruption to business operations or customer services.

Ensure adequate risk management and security processes/controls are established and maintained in alignment with the risk appetite for the Bank, as well as applicable regulatory and enterprise risk management expectations.

Implement safety procedures and data recovery plans. Develop user manuals, as well as policies, procedures, and safety protocols.

Design and implement cloud-native solutions (preferably Azure) to migrate, replace, and enhance existing applications.

Troubleshoot and resolve complex technical issues related to Azure Functions, serverless integrations, and cloud infrastructure.

What you'll need:

8+ years of related experience including enterprise engineering supporting mission-critical banking platforms, integration technologies, cloud services, automation, and regulatory-compliant technology operations.

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related technical field required; Master's degree or MBA preferred.

Advanced to expert experience in leading cross-functional teams and managing multiple projects simultaneously with an established expertise in one or more key domains of the bank (Deposits, Loans, Operations or Reporting)with the ability to walk-through top-level process design. Capable of working with regulatory partners like the CFPB, OCC and FRB through audits and collaboration efforts as situations arise.

Advanced to expert familiarity with the capability model across IT and the applications and infrastructures available for engagement in solutioning across the bank to develop results that leverage existing capabilities in addition to implementing new solutions when required. Experience in the design, enhancement, and compliance to all governance frameworks across the IT organization to ensure proper compliance to published procedures and standards.

Advanced speaking and writing communication skills.

Working knowledge of enterprise integration patterns, event-driven architectures, APIs, secure file transfer technologies, and distributed systems is required.

Experience managing and supporting enterprise platforms such as workload automation, managed file transfer (MFT), messaging systems, API integrations, observability platforms, or comparable mission-critical middleware technologies is required.

Experience with cloud platforms and services, preferably Microsoft Azure, including integration, monitoring, identity management, security controls, and automation is preferred.

Experience with relational database platforms (SQL Server, Oracle, etc.) and the ability to assemble and run complex queries preferred.

Understanding of Scripting commands, techniques, and its usages including technologies such as PowerShell, Python, Perl, etc.

Experience with CI/CD, agile development methodologies and iterative product enhancement is preferred.

Intermediate to advanced experience with the execution KPIs and timelines with proven ability to analyze a variety of data and summarize findings in applicable reports or other communication mediums. Utilize data to identify areas of improvement and opportunities for growth by collaborating with business and tech leads.

Advanced to expert knowledge of general Financial Services or Banking is preferred.

Advanced to expert knowledge of applicable regulatory and legal compliance obligations, rules and regulations, industry standards, and practices.

Advanced to expert experience in leading cross-functional teams and managing multiple projects simultaneously with an established expertise in one or more key domains of the bank (Deposits, Loans, Operations or Reporting)with the ability to walk-through top-level process design. Capable of working with regulatory partners like the CFPB, OCC and FRB through audits and collaboration efforts as situations arise.

Advanced to expert familiarity with the capability model across IT and the applications and infrastructures available for engagement in solutioning across the bank to develop results that leverage existing capabilities in addition to implementing new solutions when required. Experience in the design, enhancement, and compliance to all governance frameworks across the IT organization to ensure proper compliance to published procedures and standards.

Advanced speaking and writing communication skills

Working knowledge of enterprise integration patterns, event-driven architectures, APIs, secure file transfer technologies, and distributed systems is required.

Experience managing and supporting enterprise platforms such as workload automation, managed file transfer (MFT), messaging systems, API integrations, observability platforms, or comparable mission-critical middleware technologies is required.

Experience with cloud platforms and services, preferably Microsoft Azure, including integration, monitoring, identity management, security controls, and automation is preferred.

Experience with relational database platforms (SQL Server, Oracle, etc.) and the ability to assemble and run complex queries preferred.

Understanding of Scripting commands, techniques, and its usages including technologies such as PowerShell, Python, Perl, etc.

Experience with CI/CD, agile development methodologies and iterative product enhancement is preferred.

Intermediate to advanced experience with the execution KPIs and timelines with proven ability to analyze a variety of data and summarize findings in applicable reports or other communication mediums. Utilize data to identify areas of improvement and opportunities for growth by collaborating with business and tech leads.

Previous leadership experience preferred.

May require up to 25% travel.

Benefits you’ll love:

We offer all the important things you'd want — like competitive salaries, an ownership stake in the company, medical and dental insurance, time off, a great 401k matching program, tuition assistance program, an employee volunteer program, and a wellness program. In addition, you’ll have the opportunity to bolster your business knowledge, learning the ins and outs of how successful companies operate and manage their finances, giving you invaluable hands-on experience to help grow your career!

About the company:

Western Alliance Bank, Member FDIC, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Western Alliance Bancorporation. Serving clients nationwide, Western Alliance Bank includes six legacy bank brands — Alliance Association Bank, Alliance Bank of Arizona, Bank of Nevada, Bridge Bank, First Independent Bank and Torrey Pines Bank — that remain part of the company’s heritage, as well as AmeriHome Mortgage, a Western Alliance Bank Company.

Western Alliance Bancorporation is committed to equal employment and will consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, sex, color, religion, age, nation origin, marital status, disability, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or genetic information. Western Alliance Bancorporation is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities. If you are an individual with a disability and require a reasonable accommodation to complete any part of the application process and/or need an alternative method of applying, please email [emailprotected] or call 602-386-2488. When contacting us, please provide your contact information and state the nature of your accessibility issue. We will only respond to inquiries concerning requests that involve a reasonable accommodation in the application process.