A credit union serving US military families is seeking a Principal Systems Engineer to provide senior technical leadership and hands-on systems engineering expertise supporting its Financial Group portfolio. This role is responsible for enabling secure, scalable, resilient, and compliant technology solutions across Digital Investing, Wealth Management, Lead Management, Compliance, and Customer Relationship Management platforms.
Operating with a high degree of autonomy, the Principal Systems Engineer will lead end-to-end solution planning, architecture, implementation, integration, and operational readiness across complex enterprise systems and third-party technologies. The role serves as a recognized technical authority responsible for modernizing platforms, improving operational resiliency, supporting regulatory compliance, and delivering innovative capabilities that enhance both member and employee experiences.
Key Responsibilities:
Enterprise Solution Architecture & Systems Engineering
- Own end-to-end solution architecture and systems engineering activities for Financial Group initiatives from discovery through operational support
- Translate complex business, operational, and regulatory requirements into target-state architectures, logical designs, physical architectures, and actionable technology roadmaps
- Lead architecture planning, systems integration, implementation strategy, and operational readiness initiatives across enterprise platforms
Platform Engineering & Integration
- Design, implement, configure, and maintain complex systems across:
- Cloud infrastructure
- Core financial platforms
- CRM systems
- Wealth management technologies
- Third-party vendor ecosystems
- Define and implement scalable, resilient, observable, and high-performing integration patterns and APIs across channels, core systems, data platforms, and vendor technologies
- Ensure seamless interoperability between enterprise systems and external technology providers
Technical Leadership & Delivery Execution
- Lead technical decision-making across design, development, configuration, testing, release management, and operational support activities
- Provide hands-on technical guidance to engineering and support teams throughout the solution lifecycle
- Identify architectural gaps, operational risks, and support process deficiencies while driving remediation and continuous improvement efforts
- Guide complex debugging, root cause analysis, infrastructure support, and production issue resolution activities
Engineering Standards, Security & Compliance
- Define, enforce, and continuously improve engineering standards and non-functional requirements related to:
- Security
- Data governance
- Scalability
- Availability
- Resilience
- Disaster recovery
- Ensure compliance-by-design for regulatory and surveillance requirements including:
- Records retention
- Legal hold
- Audit trails
- Operational controls
- Support audits, regulatory examinations, and evidence requests as required
Strategic Modernization & Innovation
- Evaluate, recommend, and implement best-fit technologies and platforms delivering secure, scalable, and cost-effective solutions
- Partner closely with business and technology stakeholders to modernize platforms and accelerate delivery of member-facing and employee-facing capabilities
- Solve complex technical and operational challenges with material organizational impact
- Support enterprise modernization, cloud transformation, and operational resiliency initiatives
Required Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or related technical field
- Extensive experience in systems engineering, enterprise architecture, or infrastructure engineering within financial services or regulated environments
- Strong expertise in:
- Cloud infrastructure and distributed systems
- Systems integration and API architectures
- Enterprise platforms and third-party technologies
- CRM and Wealth Management systems
- Operational resiliency and infrastructure support
- Proven ability to translate business and regulatory requirements into scalable technical architectures
- Experience designing and supporting highly available, resilient, and secure enterprise systems
- Strong understanding of engineering standards, governance, change management, and operational controls
- Experience leading complex technical troubleshooting and root cause analysis activities
- Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills across technical and business teams
- Ability to operate independently while driving enterprise-wide technical initiatives
Preferred Skills:
- Experience supporting Digital Investing, Wealth Management, or Financial Services technology ecosystems
- Familiarity with regulatory compliance frameworks and surveillance requirements within financial services environments
- Experience with cloud-native architectures, integration middleware, and modern API ecosystems
- Knowledge of DevOps, CI/CD pipelines, observability platforms, and infrastructure automation practices
- Strong understanding of enterprise data governance and disaster recovery planning
- Experience supporting large-scale modernization and transformation initiatives
Work Arrangement:
Hybrid
Location:
Pensacola, FL / Vienna, VA
Compensation:
$128,300 – $187,500 per year
Contract Details:
- Employment Type: Full-Time
Type of Project: Core Banking Operations and Systems Administration
Work Arrangement: Hybrid
Work Type: Full-Time
State: Pensacola FL Vienna VA