Principal - Software Engineer

1611 Ally Bank; Charlotte (NC); Hybrid; USD 110,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Ally Financial is seeking a hands-on Principal Software Engineer to lead the design and delivery of enterprise-scale automation and AI solutions. You will identify high-value opportunities, architect intelligent workflows, and build scalable platforms combining software engineering, cloud-native architecture, and AI to drive measurable business impact.

You will mentor teams, set engineering standards for AI-enabled automation, and guide end-to-end delivery from concept to production, including

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 5+ years of relevant experience.
• Deep expertise in designing and delivering large-scale enterprise applications.
• Hands-on experience with automation engineering, workflow orchestration, API development, and cloud-native solutions.
• Proficiency in Python and Java; strong software design and integration fundamentals.
• Experience with AI-enabled solutions including LLM workflows and guardrails.
• Experience with AWS or Azure and microservices/serverless architectures.
• Ability to establish engineering standards for testing, CI/CD, observability, and security.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and delivery of enterprise automation and AI solutions.
• Identify high-value automation opportunities and architect intelligent workflows.
• Mentor engineers and shape engineering standards for AI-enabled automation.
• Guide end-to-end implementation from proof of concept to production.
• Drive governance, security, and compliance in production AI solutions.

Skills

Strong communication

Stakeholder management

Leadership

Mentoring teams

Architectural design

Problem solving

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science/Engineering

Equivalent practical experience

Tools

Python

Java

AWS/Azure

CI/CD

Observability tools

APIs

Job description

Ally and Your Career Ally Financial only succeeds when its people do - and that’s more than some cliché people put on job postings. We love this stuff! We see our people as, well, people - with interests, families, friends, dreams, and causes that are all important to them. Our focus is on the health and safety of our teammates as well as work-life balance and diversity and inclusion. From generous benefits to a variety of employee resource groups, we strive to build paths that encourage employees to stretch themselves professionally. We want to help you grow, develop, and learn new things. You’re constantly evolving, so shouldn’t your opportunities be, too?

Work Schedule: Ally designates roles as (1) fully on‑site, (2) hybrid, or (3) fully remote. Hybrid roles are generally expected to be in the office a certain number of days per week as indicated by your manager. Your hiring manager will discuss this role's specific work requirements with you during the hiring process. All work requirements are subject to change at any time based on leader discretion and/or business need.

The Opportunity

We are seeking a hands‑on Principal Software Engineer to lead the design and delivery of enterprise‑scale business automation and AI solutions. This role will identify high‑value automation opportunities, architect intelligent workflows, and build secure, scalable platforms that combine software engineering, cloud‑native architecture, RPA, APIs, and generative AI to drive measurable business impact. As a principal‑level engineer, you will provide technical leadership across strategy, architecture, implementation, and operational excellence while mentoring teams and shaping engineering standards for AI‑enabled automation across the enterprise.

The Work Itself

Work with architecture and delivery of enterprise automation solutions spanning workflow orchestration, RPA, APIs, event‑driven integration, and AI‑powered decisioning. Design and implement intelligent automation capabilities using large language models, agent‑based patterns, document intelligence, and retrieval‑augmented solutions where appropriate. Partner with business, product, risk, and engineering stakeholders to identify high‑value opportunities, define solution approaches, and prioritize use cases based on ROI, feasibility, and speed to value. Establish scalable engineering patterns for automation platforms, including reusable services, APIs, observability, resiliency, security controls, and CI/CD practices. Guide end‑to‑end implementation from proof of concept to production, including architecture reviews, code quality, deployment, monitoring, and operational support. Drive responsible AI and automation practices by incorporating governance, evaluation, security, compliance, and human‑in‑the‑loop controls into production solutions. Mentor engineers, influence technical direction across teams, and raise the bar on software design, delivery excellence, and measurable business outcomes.

The Qualifications

We’re Looking For

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience
• 5+ years of relevant experience
• Software engineering experience, including deep expertise in designing and delivering large‑scale enterprise applications and platforms.
• Hands‑on experience with automation engineering, workflow orchestration, API development and integration, and cloud‑native solution development.
• Proficiency in modern programming languages, with particular depth in Python and Java, and solid software design, coding, and integration fundamentals for enterprise‑grade applications and services.
• Experience building and integrating AI‑enabled solutions, including LLM‑based workflows, prompt orchestration, intelligent document and process automation, and practical usage of AI coding tools to accelerate development, code generation, refactoring, and engineering productivity.
• Experience with cloud platforms such as AWS or Azure and modern architectural patterns including micro‑services, serverless, messaging, and event‑driven systems.
• Proven ability to establish engineering standards for testing, CI/CD, observability, resiliency and secure software delivery in regulated or enterprise environments.
• Experience influencing technical direction across multiple teams and translating complex business problems into scalable engineering solutions.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to explain architecture, tradeoffs, and delivery plans to technical and non‑technical audiences.

Highly Preferred

• Experience with enterprise automation platforms such as Robocorp, UiPath, Automation Anywhere, or equivalent workflow and orchestration technologies.
• Hands‑on experience with agentic workflows, RAG patterns, vector stores, model evaluation, and guardrail strategies for production AI systems.
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code, API design and lifecycle management, and platform engineering practices that enable reusable automation capabilities across teams.
• Hands‑on experience using AI coding tools such as GitHub Copilot, Claude, or similar assistants to improve developer velocity, code quality, documentation, testing, and solution prototyping.
• Familiarity with business process optimization, operational analytics, and value measurement to quantify automation and AI outcomes.
• Prior experience in financial services or other highly regulated industries is a plus.

How We’ll Have Your Back

Ally’s compensation program offers market‑competitive base pay and pay‑for‑performance incentives (bonuses) based on achieving personal and company goals. Our Total Rewards program includes industry‑leading compensation and benefits plus additional incentives that are designed to meet your needs and those of your family so you can get the most out of your career and your life, including:

• Time Away: Program starts at 20 paid time off days in addition to 11 paid holidays and 8 hours of volunteer time off yearly (time off days are prorated based on start date and program varies based on full or part‑time status and management level).
• Planning for the Future: plan for the near and long term with an industry‑leading 401K retirement savings plan with matching and company contributions, student loan pay downs and 529 educational save up assistance programs, tuition reimbursement, employee stock purchase plan, and financial learning center and financial coach access.
• Supporting your Health & Well‑being: flexible health and insurance options including medical, dental and vision, employee, spouse and child life insurance, short‑and‑long‑term disability, pre‑tax Health Savings Account with employer contributions, Healthcare FSA, critical illness, accident & hospital indemnity insurance, and a total well‑being program that helps you and your family stay on track physically, socially, emotionally, and financially.
• Building a Family: adoption, surrogacy and fertility assistance as well as paid parental and caregiver leave, Dependent Day Care FSA back‑up child and adult/elder care days and childcare discounts.
• Work‑Life Integration: other benefits including Mentally Fit Employee Assistance Program, subsidized and discounted Weight Watchers program and other employee discount programs.
• Other Compensations: depending on the role for which you are considered, you may be eligible for travel allowances, relocation assistance, a signing bonus and/or equity.

To view more detailed information about Ally’s Total Rewards, please visit this link: https://www.ally.com/content/dam/pdf/corporate/ally-total-rewards-snapshot.pdf

Who We Are

Ally Financial is a customer‑centric, leading digital financial services company with passionate customer service and innovative financial solutions. We are relentlessly focused on “Doing it Right” and being a trusted financial‑services provider to our consumer, commercial, and corporate customers. For more information, visit www.ally.com.

Ally is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, sex, religion, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy status, marital status, military or veteran status, genetic disposition or any other reason protected by law.

In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, if after review of the position expectations, you believe that you may need a medical accommodation to fulfill the duties of this role, please email [e-mail] with details of your accommodation request.

Base Pay Range $110,000.00 - $180,000.00 An individual's position in the range is determined by the specific role, the scope and responsibilities of the role, work experience, education, certification(s), training, and additional qualifications. We review internal pay, the competitive market, and business environment prior to extending an offer.

Incentive Compensation: This position is eligible to participate in our annual incentive plan.

We all work better as allies. Join a team that thrives on doing it right — whether we're helping people live their best financial lives or helping each other grow in our careers. We're a leading financial services company serving over 11M customers through banking, auto financing, insurance and investment services. Our team's approach of celebrating differences and lifting each other up is consistently recognized on Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For list. Here, you'll find people who care about doing work that matters and making an impact in the communities we serve. Good enough is never enough for us — we're always looking for ways to be better, together.

CCPA Notice