Software Engineer Principal (Solution Architect / Full Stack Engineering)

PNC; Pittsburgh (Allegheny County); On-site; USD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical/prescription drug coverage

401(k) with match

Paid time off

Wellness program with financial incentives

Job summary

PNC is seeking a skilled software architect to lead complex, distributed systems for Corporate & Institutional Banking. This role requires hands-on technical authority in designing scalable solutions, strong proficiency in Java, microservices, and event-driven architectures.

Successful candidates will collaborate with business and technology stakeholders and mentor engineers across teams. A Bachelor's degree and over 5 years of relevant experience are required.

Join PNC for a dynamic work environment offering comprehensive benefits and professional growth opportunities.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of industry experience with a focus on software development.
• Strong understanding of software architecture principles.
• Hands-on experience with Java and frameworks like Spring Boot.

Responsibilities

• Serve as technical authority for complex, distributed systems.
• Lead architecture decisions for scalable and secure solutions.
• Drive end-to-end technical ownership of software solutions.

Skills

Java

Microservices

Event-driven architecture

RESTful services

Problem-solving

Mentoring

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Spring Boot

Hibernate

SQL

Kafka

OpenShift

Kubernetes

Job description

Learning Mindset & Adaptability

• Demonstrated curiosity and interest in learning new technologies, frameworks, and problem domains.
• Comfort working across unfamiliar systems or codebases and ramping up quickly through hands on contribution.
• Ability to balance depth in core technologies with a broad working understanding of adjacent platforms and tools.
• Willingness to challenge existing approaches while remaining pragmatic and focused on delivery.

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as a technical authority and hands on contributor for complex, distributed systems supporting Corporate & Institutional Bank and Treasury Management business capabilities.
• Partner with business and technology stakeholders to evaluate options, influence decisions, and achieve consensus on architectural and design approaches.
• Lead architecture and design decisions for microservices and event driven platforms, ensuring solutions are scalable, secure, resilient, and aligned with enterprise standards.
• Drive end to end technical ownership—from solution design through implementation, deployment, and operational support.
• Strong problem solving skills, including the ability to break down complex problems, evaluate alternatives, and recommend sound solutions.
• Mentor and coach engineers across multiple teams, providing guidance on system design, coding practices, and technical growth.
• Establish and promote engineering best practices around code quality, testing, performance, security, and observability.
• Identify and proactively address technical debt, architectural risks, and performance bottlenecks.
• Ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly and effectively to audiences at all levels of the organization, including senior executives.
• Champion a DevSecOps mindset, ensuring CI/CD, automation, reliability, and operational readiness are treated as first class concerns.

Required Technical Expertise

• Strong understanding of software architecture principles, including microservices, event driven architectures, and domain driven design concepts.
• Broad foundational knowledge across networking, operating systems, and application security.
• Strong proficiency in Java, with deep hands on experience using Spring Boot, Hibernate, RESTful services, and microservices based architectures.
• Experience designing and developing solutions using:
  • Core Java
  • SQL (MySQL or equivalent relational databases)
  • Messaging and streaming platforms such as ActiveMQ and Kafka
  • Hands on experience with authentication and authorization mechanisms, API frameworks (REST; GraphQL a plus), and persistence layers.
  • Proven experience in database design, optimization, and data modeling across both relational and NoSQL data stores.

Preferred / Desired Skills

• Interest in and exposure to a broad range of modern technologies, such as:
• Agentic or applied AI use cases
• Microsoft 365 Copilot and productivity focused AI tools
• OpenShift and Kubernetes
• Cloud platforms such as Azure or AWS
• Knowledge of performance tuning, application security, and scalability best practices.
• Experience with DevOps and cloud native practices, including:
• CI/CD pipelines
• Containerization and orchestration (OpenShift, Kubernetes)
• Hands on experience with CI/CD tooling such as Bitbucket, Jenkins, or similar platforms.

Job Description

• Aligns business strategy with software solutions.
• Proposes, designs & codes software solutions to address complex business needs. Oversees technical and procedural documentation required.
• Leads complex problem solving.
• Provides technical guidance and support to colleagues and solution development.
• Displays an innovative approach to apply modern principles, methodologies and tools to advance business initiatives and capabilities.

Qualifications

Successful candidates must demonstrate appropriate knowledge, skills, and abilities for a role. Listed below are skills, competencies, work experience, education, and required certifications/licensures needed to be successful in this position.

Preferred Skills

Application Development, Business Management, Customer Solutions, Design, Group Problem Solving, Java Full Stack Development, MongoDB, Process Improvements, Release Management, Software Solutions, User Experience (UX) Design

Competencies

Application Design, Architecture, Packaged Application Integration, Product and Vendor Evaluation, Software Process Improvement (SPI), System Development Life Cycle, Technical Troubleshooting

Work Experience

Roles at this level typically require a university / college degree, with 5+ years of industry-relevant experience. Specific certifications are often required. In lieu of a degree, a comparable combination of education, job specific certification(s), and experience (including military service) may be considered.

Education

Bachelors

Certifications

No Required Certification(s)

Licenses

No Required License(s)

Benefits

• Medical/prescription drug coverage (with a Health Savings Account feature), dental and vision options; employee and spouse/child life insurance; short and long-term disability protection; 401(k) with PNC match, pension and stock purchase plans; dependent care reimbursement account; backup child/elder care; adoption, surrogacy, and doula reimbursement; educational assistance, including select programs fully paid; a robust wellness program with financial incentives.
• Paid time off: maternity and/or parental leave; up to 11 paid holidays each year; 9 occasional absence days each year (unless otherwise required by law); between 15 to 25 vacation days each year, depending on career level; and years of service.
• Additional program details available at pncthrive.com.

Disability Accommodations Statement

If an accommodation is required to participate in the application process, please contact us via email at [e-mail]. Please include “accommodation request” in the subject line title and be sure to include your name, the job ID, and your preferred method of contact in the body of the email. Emails not related to accommodation requests will not receive responses. Applicants may also call 877-968-7762 and say "Workday" for accommodation assistance. All information provided will be kept confidential and will be used only to the extent required to provide needed reasonable accommodations. At PNC we foster an inclusive and accessible workplace. We provide reasonable accommodations to employment applicants and qualified individuals with a disability who need an accommodation to perform the essential functions of their positions.

Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO)

PNC provides equal employment opportunity to qualified persons regardless of race, color, sex, religion, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, veteran status, or other categories protected by law. This position is subject to the requirements of Section 19 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act (FDIA) and, for any registered role, the Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act of 2008 (SAFE Act) and/or the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), which prohibit the hiring of individuals with certain criminal history.

California Residents

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