Principle Software Engineer - Service Development

Fifth Third; Cincinnati (OH); On-site; USD 140,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Fifth Third Bank seeks a Principal Software Engineer to drive architectural direction and engineering excellence across squads. You will mentor engineers, shape standards, and guide solution design in a multi-domain environment.

Lead cross-squad delivery with a customer-first mindset, champion observability, security, and modern engineering practices in a fast-paced, innovation-driven bank tech ecosystem.

Qualifications

• Expert-level proficiency in software architecture, system design, and integration patterns.
• Deep experience with cloud-native development using AWS services (Lambda, API Gateway, ECS, RDS, DynamoDB, IAM, VPC).
• Strong command of backend frameworks: Java / Spring Boot and JavaScript / NodeJS.
• Advanced knowledge of microservices, domain-driven design, and event-driven architecture.

Responsibilities

• Design and implementation of complex, scalable software solutions across multiple squads and domains.
• Influence enterprise architecture to ensure secure, scalable systems aligned with strategy.
• Provide architectural guidance and serve as Tech Lead when needed.
• Mentor engineers and elevate technical capability across squads.

Skills

Software architecture

System design

Cloud-native AWS

Java Spring Boot

JavaScript NodeJS

Microservices

Terraform

CI/CD (Jenkins)

Observability (Splunk/Dynatrace)

Security & compliance

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Terraform

Jenkins

JFrog Artifactory

Splunk

Dynatrace

Job description

Make banking a Fifth Third better® We connect great people to great opportunities. Are you ready to take the next step? Discover a career in banking at Fifth Third Bank.

GENERAL FUNCTION

The Principal Software Engineer serves as a senior technical leader responsible for driving architectural direction, engineering excellence, and cross‑squad technical coordination across multiple domains. This role designs and oversees implementation of complex, scalable systems while mentoring engineering teams, shaping engineering standards, and ensuring alignment with enterprise architecture. The Principal Software Engineer partners with product owners, architects, and engineering leadership to guide solution design, improve engineering practices, and support strategic technology initiatives. This role works across squads to solve complex multi‑team challenges, rapidly assess unfamiliar systems, and provide technical continuity across efforts. This position is accountable for following all policies, procedures, security controls, and risk frameworks while maintaining a strong customer‑first mindset and supporting high‑quality delivery across teams.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Technical Architecture & Delivery Lead

Design and implementation of complex, scalable software solutions across multiple squads and domains. Influence and contribute to enterprise architecture to ensure systems are secure, scalable, reliable, and aligned with organizational strategy. Create or extend architecture diagrams, sequence diagrams, and technical flows to support solution design across domains. Provide architectural guidance to squads, helping teams evaluate trade‑offs and make sound technical decisions. Serve as the Tech Lead for a development squad when needed, guiding technical execution and ensuring alignment with architectural standards.

Engineering Excellence

Drive and uphold engineering standards across the development practice, ensuring consistency, code quality, observability maturity, and best practices adoption. Proactively identify gaps in engineering standards, patterns, or tools; work across teams to define and implement improvements. Mentor engineers across squads and job levels, elevating overall technical capability. Rapidly assess unfamiliar codebases or systems to assist with troubleshooting, architecture evolution, or accelerated delivery. Champion modern engineering methodologies, including microservices, cloud‑native design, CI/CD automation, and domain‑driven architecture.

Cross‑Squad Technical Leadership

Act as a trusted leader within the Chapter, helping shape strategic direction and serving as a go‑to expert for engineers and leads. Provide technical continuity across squads during transitions, escalations, or delivery challenges. Guide cross‑functional teams through complex, multi‑squad problem solving and technical decision‑making. Act as a stabilizing force during production incidents or outages, supporting recovery efforts across teams.

Observability & Operational Excellence

Drive observability standards across squads, ensuring consistent logging, metrics, dashboards, and alerting practices. Collaborate with SRE and monitoring teams to define critical metrics, logging schemas, and operational visibility standards. Promote reliability engineering practices and ensure operational readiness for all delivered solutions.

AI‑Assisted Engineering Leadership

Define and evolve team‑wide standards for AI‑assisted development. Evaluate AI tooling (including Copilot) for alignment with longer‑term architectural goals and engineering quality. Mentor Leads and Senior Engineers on using AI responsibly while maintaining developer growth and architectural integrity. Ensure AI use supports strategic platform direction (e.g., OpenShift, microservices, automation, observability).

Compliance, Training & Continuous Learning

Maintain required documentation, architectural decisions, and compliance artifacts. Complete all required training and HR documentation without reminders. Stay current with emerging technologies and industry best practices.

MINIMUM KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES REQUIRED

Hard Skills

Expert‑level proficiency in software architecture, system design, and integration patterns. Deep experience with cloud‑native development using AWS services (Lambda, API Gateway, ECS, RDS, DynamoDB, IAM, VPC). Strong command of backend frameworks: Java / Spring Boot and JavaScript / NodeJS. Advanced knowledge of microservices, domain‑driven design, and event‑driven architecture. Skilled with Terraform, CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins, and artifact management via JFrog Artifactory. Expertise with observability platforms such as Splunk and Dynatrace, including metric design, logging strategies, and cross‑system dashboards. Strong understanding of security, compliance, and performance optimization practices.

Soft Skills

Excellent communication skills with the ability to simplify complex technical concepts for technical and non‑technical audiences—including executives. Highly collaborative across squads, departments, and external partners. Adaptable and resilient, able to pivot quickly in fast‑changing business and technology environments. Proactive mentor and coach who elevates others. Strong advocate for continuous improvement and innovation.

Problem Solving

Solves complex technical problems spanning multiple squads, domains, or systems. Able to quickly diagnose issues in unfamiliar codebases and lead resolution efforts.

Leadership

Drives architectural design and technical strategy across squads. Leads by example in engineering standards, communities of practice, and cross‑squad initiatives. Mentors engineers across job families, fostering a culture of growth and excellence. Acts as a servant leadership focused on enabling teams to make strong technical decisions. Demonstrates exceptional situational awareness and adaptability, providing immediate value in new or challenging environments. Acts as a stabilizing force during outages, escalations, or delivery challenges. Serves as a primary technical liaison with Product, Architecture, and engineering leadership.

Position not available for immigration sponsorship #LI-MB1. Principle Software Engineer - Service Development At Fifth Third, we understand the importance of recognizing our employees for the role they play in improving the lives of our customers, communities and each other.

Our Total Rewards include comprehensive benefits and differentiated compensation offerings to give each employee the opportunity to be their best every day.

The base salary for this position is reflective of the range of salary levels for all roles within this pay grade across the U.S. Individual salaries within this range will vary based on factors such as role, relevant skillset, relevant experience, education and geographic location.

In addition to the base salary, this role is eligible to participate in an incentive compensation plan, with any such payment based upon company, line of business and/or individual performance.

Our extensive benefits programs are designed to support the individual needs of our employees and their families, encompassing physical, financial, emotional and social well-being. You can learn more about those programs on our 53.com Careers page at: https://www.53.com/content/fifth-third/en/careers/benefits.html or by consulting with your talent acquisition partner.

LOCATION -- Cincinnati, Ohio 45202

Fifth Third Bank, National Association is proud to have an engaged and inclusive culture and to promote and ensure equal employment opportunity in all employment decisions regardless of race, color, gender, national origin, religion, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, military status, veteran status or any other legally protected status.

Introduce yourself to our team to stay connected on future opportunities. We look forward to finding the right place for you. Are you ready to take the next step?

Fifth Third is a bank that’s as long on innovation as it is on history. Since 1858, we’ve been helping individuals, families, businesses and communities grow through smart financial services that improve lives. With a commitment to taking care of our customers, employees, communities and shareholders, our goal is not only to be the nation’s highest performing regional bank, but to be the bank people most value and trust.