Senior Principal Software Development Engineer

Regional Finance (Regional Management Corp.); Greer (SC); On-site; USD 230,000 - 290,000; Full time

Job summary

Regional Finance (Regional Management Corp.) seeks a Senior Principal Software Development Engineer to lead architecture, development, and modernization of mission-critical FinTech platforms. You will set technical direction across lending, payments, and financial operations, while ensuring secure, scalable, and compliant solutions in a highly regulated financial services environment.

You will mentor senior engineers, define coding standards, promote CI/CD, and drive modernization initiatives

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, or related field.
• 8+ years of progressive software engineering experience, including leadership roles such as Staff/Principal Engineer or Architect.
• Proven success delivering enterprise-scale FinTech, banking, lending, payments, or financial services platforms.
• Deep expertise in cloud-native architectures using AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud Platform.
• Strong experience with distributed systems, microservices, API development, and event-driven architecture.
• Lead adoption of AI-enabled software engineering practices and intelligent automation.
• Design architectures supporting generative AI, agent frameworks, knowledge retrieval, and decision intelligence.
• Hands-on experience with Kafka or similar event-streaming technologies.
• Proficiency in Java, C#, Python, Go, or similar languages.
• Experience with relational and NoSQL databases, including PostgreSQL and MongoDB.
• Hands-on expertise with CI/CD pipelines, Kubernetes, containerization, and IaC.

Responsibilities

• Define and evolve long-term technology strategy for customer-facing and backend financial platforms.
• Lead architecture decisions across distributed systems, APIs, event-driven services, cloud infrastructure, and data platforms.
• Drive modernization initiatives to improve scalability, performance, resiliency, and developer productivity.
• Define engineering standards, patterns, and development best practices across teams.
• Provide technical leadership across engineering teams, platforms, and product domains.
• Drive improvements in scale, reliability, and operational excellence.
• Architect and develop high-volume, mission-critical applications for lending, payments, and financial operations.
• Lead design of microservices, APIs, workflow orchestration, and real-time processing systems.
• Ensure solutions meet enterprise standards for availability, security, resiliency, and compliance.
• Review complex designs and contribute hands-on development when needed.
• Champion modern CI/CD, IaC, automated testing, and DevSecOps.
• Partner with Product, Risk, Data Science, Compliance, and Operations to deliver FinTech solutions.
• Evaluate and integrate third-party fintech platforms, APIs, and cloud services.
• Lead technical initiatives supporting digital transformation and future-state platform strategies.
• Ensure adherence to financial regulations and security standards.
• Incorporate secure coding practices and privacy-by-design principles.
• Support audits, technology risk reviews, and regulatory examinations.
• Strengthen enterprise cyber resilience with Security teams.
• Mentor senior engineers and influence hiring for high-performing teams.
• Promote code quality, architecture reviews, observability, and operational excellence.
• Foster a culture of innovation and continuous learning.

Skills

Cloud-native architectures

Distributed systems

Microservices

API development

CI/CD

Kubernetes

Security & compliance

Java

Python

PostgreSQL

Kafka

Education

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

Master's degree (preferred)

Tools

AWS

Azure

Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

CI/CD tools

Job description

Take your career to the next level! In the last few years our goal has been expansion, creating growth opportunities for many of our team members. Not only are we serious about growth, but we are also serious about helping our customers during hard financial times.

We take pride in providing solutions and offering a helping hand, not only to our customers but also to the communities we serve. As we continue to expand and grow into a national leader in consumer financing, we invite you to consider joining our team.

If you're passionate about making a meaningful impact in people's lives and bringing a personal touch to finance, we'd love to have you on board!

We are seeking a Senior Principal Software Development Engineer to lead the architecture, development, and modernization of mission-critical FinTech platforms. This role serves as a senior technical authority, driving innovation across digital lending, payments, customer experiences, and financial systems while ensuring solutions are secure, scalable, resilient, and compliant within a highly regulated environment.

Key Responsibilities

Enterprise Architecture & Technical Leadership

• Define and evolve the long-term technology strategy for customer-facing and backend financial platforms.
• Lead architecture decisions across distributed systems, APIs, event-driven services, cloud infrastructure, and data platforms.
• Drive modernization initiatives that improve scalability, performance, reliability, and developer productivity.
• Define and promote engineering standards, software design patterns, and development best practices.
• Provide technical leadership across multiple engineering teams, platforms, and product domains.
• Drive improvements in scalability, performance, resiliency, maintainability, and operational excellence.

Software Development & Delivery

• Architect and develop high-volume, mission-critical applications supporting lending, payments, customer servicing, and financial operations.
• Lead the design of microservices, APIs, workflow orchestration, and real-time transaction-processing systems.
• Ensure solutions meet enterprise standards for availability, security, resiliency, and compliance.
• Review complex system designs and contribute hands-on development for critical initiatives when needed.
• Champion modern engineering practices including CI/CD, infrastructure as code, automated testing, and DevSecOps.

FinTech Platform Innovation

• Partner with Product, Risk, Data Science, Compliance, and Operations teams to deliver innovative financial technology solutions.
• Drive adoption of AI-enabled development tools, intelligent automation, and emerging technologies.
• Evaluate and integrate third-party financial technology platforms, APIs, and cloud services.
• Lead technical initiatives supporting digital transformation and future-state platform strategies.

Security, Compliance & Risk Management

• Ensure adherence to financial services regulatory requirements and security standards.
• Incorporate secure coding practices, data protection controls, and privacy-by-design principles.
• Support audits, technology risk reviews, and regulatory examinations.
• Partner with Information Security teams to strengthen enterprise cyber resilience.

Engineering Excellence & Talent Development

• Mentor senior engineers, architects, and technical leaders.
• Establish best practices for code quality, architecture reviews, observability, and operational excellence.
• Foster a culture of innovation, accountability, continuous learning, and engineering excellence.
• Influence hiring decisions and help build high-performing engineering organizations.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field.
• 8+ years of progressive software engineering experience, including experience serving as a Staff Engineer, Principal Engineer, Architect, or Technical Lead.
• Proven success delivering enterprise-scale FinTech, banking, lending, payments, or financial services platforms.
• Deep expertise in cloud-native architectures using AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud Platform.
• Strong experience with distributed systems, microservices, API development, and event-driven architecture.
• Lead adoption of AI-enabled software engineering practices and intelligent automation.
• Design architectures supporting generative AI, agent frameworks, knowledge retrieval, and decision intelligence.
• Hands-on experience with Kafka or similar event-streaming technologies.
• Proficiency in Java, C#, Python, Go, or similar modern programming languages.
• Experience with relational and NoSQL databases, including PostgreSQL, MongoDB, and other enterprise data platforms.
• Hands-on expertise with CI/CD pipelines, Kubernetes, containerization, and infrastructure automation.
• Strong understanding of software security, regulatory compliance, and risk management.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, or a related field.
• Experience supporting digital lending, consumer finance, banking, card processing, or payments ecosystems.
• Expertise in high-volume transaction processing and real-time decisioning platforms.
• Experience implementing AI/ML-enabled products and AI-assisted software development practices.
• Familiarity with Kafka or other event-streaming technologies.
• Knowledge of PCI-DSS, SOX, GLBA, CFPB regulations, and other financial services compliance frameworks.
• Experience leading large-scale cloud transformation and modernization initiatives.

Regional is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, transgender status, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, uniform service, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law (“Protected Characteristics”). Regional’s policy of non-discrimination applies to all phases of the employment process and relationship, including, but not limited to, recruitment and selection; compensation and benefits; professional development and training; promotions and opportunities; transfers; social and recreational programs; layoff; and terminations.