Principal - Software Engineer

Ally; North Carolina; On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; 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 opportunities, architect intelligent workflows, and build secure, scalable platforms.

As a principal-level engineer, you will mentor teams, set engineering standards for AI-enabled automation, and partner with stakeholders to drive measurable business impact while ensuring governance and security.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of relevant experience in software engineering.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Experience building enterprise-scale applications and platforms.
• Experience with AI-enabled automation and large language models.

Responsibilities

• Lead architecture and delivery of enterprise automation and AI-powered solutions.
• Mentor teams and establish engineering standards for quality, testing, and CI/CD.
• Collaborate with product, risk, and engineering stakeholders to define solutions and prioritize use cases.
• Design scalable, secure, and observable automation platforms using cloud-native patterns.
• Drive governance and responsible AI practices in production environments.

Skills

Python

Java

Cloud platforms (AWS/Azure)

CI/CD

AI/Automation

Leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field

Tools

Kubernetes

Docker

APIs

LLMs

RPA

Job description

General information

Ref # 22513

Remote? No

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 live 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?

The Opportunity

At Ally, you get a startup feel, but experience the benefits of a company that has worked out the kinks and is fulfilling its purpose. We are always evolving and see that as a good thing. From owning our work to seeing its impact in the real world, our team is relentless in finding new ways technology can help make experiences better and help people. We are problem solvers, we value diverse thinking, we support one another, and we challenge ourselves to think bigger in the journey to deliver customer-obsessed tech solutions. To read more about what our tech team does, be sure to visit our tech blog at ally.tech

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.

At this time, Ally will not sponsor a new applicant for employment authorization for this position.

The Work Itself

• Lead the 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 Skills You Bring

Minimum Qualifications:

• 7+ years of relevant experience
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience

Preferred Qualifications:

• 8+ years of software engineering experience, including deep expertise in designing and delivering large-scale enterprise applications and platforms.
• Strong hands-on experience with automation engineering, workflow orchestration, API development and integration, and cloud-native solution development.
• Strong 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.
• Strong 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