Principal Software Engineer, Java

About the role

The Dynamic Application Platform is the engine behind Happen Bank's consumer product suite - a graph-driven orchestration platform that lets product teams compose, launch, and evolve application experiences across lending, deposits, and beyond. As a Principal Backend Engineer on this team, you'll set the technical direction for the platform and keep it reliable and performant as consumer volume grows, staying hands-on in the code every day. This is a high-visibility role with impact across every consumer-facing product that builds on the platform.

Responsibilities

• Set the architecture and technical direction for the Dynamic Application Platform, defining the patterns and standards that let it scale across every consumer product that depends on it
• Design and build core platform services in Java and Spring Boot, staying hands-on in production code and setting the bar for quality through the work itself
• Own the reliability, availability, and performance of the platform under growing consumer traffic, hardening the orchestration and graph engine and its integrations across many downstream services
• Lead complex, ambiguous technical initiatives from system design through delivery, including modernizing the platform's foundations where it unlocks better outcomes
• Establish platform-wide engineering standards and guardrails, and drive alignment on shared architecture across multiple consumer product teams
• Raise the bar for how AI shows up in the team's work and in the platform itself - using AI to accelerate design, development, and review, and helping embed AI capabilities into the platform where they improve outcomes, while setting responsible-use standards for quality, data integrity, and maintainability
• Partner with product and engineering leadership to translate business goals into technical strategy and a platform roadmap
• Mentor and grow senior engineers through design review, pairing, and technical coaching, multiplying the team's impact well beyond your own output

Requirements

• 10+ years of backend software engineering experience, and a bachelor's degree or higher, or equivalent combination of education and work experience
• Deep expertise building backend services in Java and Spring Boot, with strong command of AWS, and both relational and NoSQL data stores
• A track record designing distributed systems for high availability and resilience at consumer scale, along with clean, well-versioned APIs and service contracts across many integrated services
• Fluency modeling complex application logic as workflows, graphs, state machines, or configuration, and reasoning clearly about how those models behave at runtime
• You lead with strategy and system design while staying deeply hands-on, setting technical direction that other engineers build on
• You bring sound judgment to high-stakes, ambiguous problems and make decisions that balance speed against long-term maintainability, security, and cost
• You apply AI to complex engineering work to unlock better outcomes, not just speed, and you hold a high bar for responsible use - security, data integrity, model governance, and the long-term cost of decisions made in the name of speed
• You multiply the people around you, mentoring senior engineers, elevating standards, and building alignment across teams through influence rather than authority

Qualifications

• Nice to have experience in financial services, lending, or another regulated domain, along with familiarity with the compliance considerations that come with it
• Hands-on experience building graph-based, workflow, or rules-engine orchestration platforms that other teams build on top of

Skills

• Experience with Java and Spring Boot
• Experience with AWS
• Experience with relational and NoSQL data stores
• Experience with distributed systems for high availability and resilience
• Experience with clean, well-versioned APIs and service contracts
• Experience with modeling complex application logic as workflows, graphs, state machines, or configuration
• Experience with AI to unlock better outcomes

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision plans for employees and their families
• 401(k) match
• Health and wellness programs
• Flexible time off policies for salaried employees
• Up to 16 weeks paid parental leave

Pay

The target base salary range for this position is $197,000 - $232,000. The base salary of the role will be determined by job-related knowledge, experience, education, skills, and location. Base salary is just one part of Happen Bank's Total Rewards package. You may also be eligible for long-term awards (equity) and an annual bonus (which is based on company performance, employee performance and eligible earnings).

Schedule

We utilize a hybrid work model, and our teams are in-office Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. In-person attendance is essential for this role's success, and remote placement will not be considered.

Notice on AI Tool Use

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