Sr Software Engineer II (Modernization - Workflow Platform & Integration)

About the Role

We’re looking for a Senior Software Engineer to join our Retirement & Income Solutions (RIS) business. In this role, you’ll serve as an engineering leader providing architectural oversight for the modernization of our process orchestration and workflow platform. You will design scalable solutions, guide architectural decisions, and ensure the successful delivery of mission-critical initiatives that shape the future of our retirement solutions.

Operating at the intersection of financial services and technology, Principal builds financial tools that help our customers live better lives. We take pride in being a purpose-led firm, motivated by our mission to make financial security accessible to all. As Principal continues to modernize its systems, this role will offer you an exciting opportunity to build solutions that directly impact our long-term strategy and tech stack, ensuring our products are robust, scalable, and secure.

Responsibilities

• Drive technological innovation by identifying strategic opportunities to evolve our retirement solutions into a scalable enterprise platform that delivers maximum business impact.
• Design and influence architecture for complex, workflow-driven systems, including business process orchestration across core platforms, APIs, services, and enterprise integrations.
• Assess emerging technologies and architectural patterns, including cloud-native, event-driven, and API-first approaches, and provide guidance on technical direction, ensuring alignment with enterprise-wide strategic initiatives.
• Create and maintain solution architecture artifacts, reference architectures, integration patterns, and technical roadmaps that enable scalable platform modernization, guiding implementation teams.
• Partner with business, product, and technology stakeholders to transform business objectives and operational processes into robust technical solutions, bridging communication between technical and non-technical teams.
• Shape product and platform strategy by establishing a compelling technical vision for configurable, reusable, and extensible enterprise capabilities.
• Champion an exceptional engineering team by fostering innovation, mentoring talent, and supporting a results-driven culture founded on trust and accountability.
• Ensure solutions are designed for scalability, resiliency, security, observability, and business continuity in a highly regulated environment.

Requirements

• Associate or bachelor’s degree (preference in computer science, technology, engineering, or math-related field) or equivalent experience.
• 8+ years of enterprise-level engineering experience, demonstrating progressive responsibility and impact.
• 5+ years of professional experience working with AWS (open to GCP & Azure).
• Experience working in a collaborative, matrixed environment.
• Experience architecting or modernizing SaaS platforms, domain platforms, or highly configurable enterprise applications.
• Experience designing workflow-based systems, business process automation, or orchestration solutions spanning multiple applications and teams.
• Informal team leadership experience, including mentoring and providing strategic direction to a team.
• Excellent communication and problem-solving skills, with the ability to work through complex technical challenges.

Skills That Will Help You Stand Out

• Proven track record in solution architecture and system design.
• Experience with process orchestration, workflow engines, or business process automation platforms.
• Demonstrated ability to modernize while maintaining business continuity.
• Experience in financial services or other highly regulated industries.

Pay

Salary ranges reflect targeted base salaries. Non-sales positions have the opportunity to participate in a bonus program. Sales positions are eligible for sales incentives, and in some instances a bonus plan, whereby total compensation may far exceed base salary depending on individual performance. Actual compensation for all roles will be based upon geographic location, work experience, education, licensure requirements, and/or skill level and will be finalized at the time of offer.

Salary Range: $127,000 - $171,000 / year

Benefits

• Flexible Time Off (FTO): Provided to salaried (exempt) employees for vacation, personal, or short-term illness. Employees don’t accrue a bank of time off under FTO, and there is no set number of days provided.
• Pension Eligible: Yes

Schedule

This role offers in-office or hybrid work (blending at least three office days in a typical workweek). You’ll work with your leader to determine the best option based on several factors.

At this time, we're not considering candidates that need any type of immigration sponsorship (additional work authorization or permanent work authorization) now or in the future to work in the United States.

For Principal Global Investors positions, you’ll need to follow an Investment Code of Ethics related to personal and business conduct as well as personal trading activities for you and members of your household. These requirements may also apply to other positions across the organization.