Principal Engineer I - Copilot Studio Administration & Operational Support

Western Alliance Bank; Dallas (TX); On-site; USD 160,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

401(k) matching program

Tuition assistance

Employee volunteer program

Wellness program

Job summary

Western Alliance Bank is seeking a Principal Engineer I to lead Copilot Studio governance and enterprise-wide AI initiatives in Dallas. You will deliver standards, guardrails, and runbooks for secure, compliant agent development and partner with security, risk, and legal teams to ensure regulatory alignment.

You will mentor engineers, drive governance programs, and communicate strategic IT considerations to stakeholders while advancing platform capabilities and adoption across the bank.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of related experience.
• Bachelor's degree required; Masters/MBA preferred.
• Leadership experience in cross-functional settings.
• Expertise in Intelligent Automation concepts (OCR/ICR, tagging, extraction, summarization, sentiment).
• Strong knowledge of Generative AI and Agentic AI concepts and development practices.
• Familiarity with financial services regulatory obligations and governance.

Responsibilities

• Establish governance standards, development frameworks, and operational procedures for Copilot Studio aligned with enterprise architecture, security, compliance, and SDLC requirements.
• Define and enforce guardrails for agent development, including environment strategy, solution management, connector usage, and prompt engineering standards.
• Partner with Enterprise Architecture, Information Security, Risk, Legal, and Compliance to review and approve Copilot Studio solutions for regulatory adherence.
• Develop and maintain governance artifacts: reference architectures, design patterns, templates, and runbooks for AI solutions.
• Monitor industry trends and AI governance practices to improve platform controls and adoption strategies.
• Define Responsible AI controls including monitoring, data protection, and transparency.
• Establish agent lifecycle management and certification processes, including production readiness reviews.
• Develop standards for prompt management, knowledge source validation, and conversation logging.
• Ensure AI solutions comply with enterprise policies and responsible AI principles.
• Mentor engineers and lead communities of practice to accelerate adoption with governance.
• Act as SME for Copilot Studio capabilities, guiding business and technology stakeholders.

Skills

Leadership

Cross-functional collaboration

Governance and security

AI governance

Regulatory compliance

Strategic alignment

Mentoring

Effective communication

Project management

Architectural oversight

Education

Bachelor's degree in related field

Master's degree or MBA preferred

Tools

Copilot Studio

Power Platform

OpenAI / Azure OpenAI

Blue Prism

Nintex K2/Apps

Automation Anywhere

Job description

Job Title

Principal Engineer I - Copilot Studio Administration & Operational Support

Location

TX - Dallas/Irving

What You'll Do

As a Principal Engineer I you'll provide SME expertise for Copilot Studio and Power Platform for the Enterprise Application Services to ensure solutions are safe, secure, compliant and reliable. You'll identify standards, guardrails, 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 or more junior engineers.

• Establish and maintain governance standards, development frameworks, and operational procedures for Microsoft Copilot Studio, ensuring alignment with enterprise architecture, security, compliance, risk management, and SDLC requirements.
• Define and enforce guardrails for agent development, including environment strategy, solution management, connector usage, plugin integration, prompt engineering standards, knowledge source management, and deployment processes.
• Partner with Enterprise Architecture, Information Security, Risk, Legal, and Compliance teams to review and approve Copilot Studio solutions, ensuring adherence to banking regulatory requirements and enterprise governance standards.
• Develop and maintain governance artifacts including reference architectures, design patterns, reusable templates, implementation standards, support models, and operational runbooks for agentic AI solutions.
• Monitor industry trends, Microsoft roadmap updates, and emerging AI governance practices to continuously improve platform controls, standards, and adoption strategies.
• Define and implement Responsible AI controls, including monitoring, evaluation, content safety, data protection, model transparency, and human oversight requirements.
• Establish governance processes for agent lifecycle management, agent certification, production readiness reviews, and ongoing compliance monitoring.
• Develop standards for prompt management, agent testing, knowledge source validation, conversation logging, and AI output quality assurance.
• Ensure AI solutions are developed and operated in accordance with enterprise policies, regulatory obligations, and responsible AI principles.
• Mentor engineers, administrators, developers, and solution architects on Copilot Studio architecture, governance, operational best practices, and agent development methodologies.
• Lead communities of practice, knowledge-sharing initiatives, and technical training programs that accelerate adoption while maintaining governance and compliance standards.
• Act as the primary subject matter expert for Copilot Studio platform capabilities, providing strategic guidance to business and technology stakeholders.

What You'll Need

• 8+ years of related experience.
• Bachelor's degree in related field required; Masters or MBA in related field preferred.
• Previous leadership experience preferred.
• Advanced to expert knowledge of Intelligent Automation concepts including document processing (OCR/ICR, tagging, extraction, summarization, sentiment, etc.), Robotics Process Automation (RPA), automated workflows and is preferred.
• Advanced to expert knowledge of Generative AI (e.g., OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, Copilot Studio, etc.) and Agentic AI concepts and development practices are preferred.
• Advanced to expert knowledge of Microsoft Power Platform and Copilot Studio or similar low-code automation platforms (Blue Prism, Nintex K2/Apps, Automation Anywhere, etc.) is preferred.
• 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 with published procedures and standards.
• Advanced speaking and writing communication skills.
• Occasional travel is required.

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 [e-mail] 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.

© Western Alliance Bancorporation