Principal Software Engineer

The Principal Software Engineer is a strategic professional who closely follows latest trends in own field and adapts them for application within own job and the business. Typically a small number of people within the business that provide the same level of expertise. Excellent communication skills required in order to negotiate internally, often at a senior level. Developed communication and diplomacy skills are required in order to guide, influence and convince others, in particular colleagues in other areas and occasional external customers. Accountable for significant direct business results or authoritative advice regarding the operations of the business. Necessitates a degree of responsibility over technical strategy. Primarily affects a sub-function. Responsible for handling staff management issues, including resource management and allocation of work within the team/project.

Responsibilities:

• Accountable for defining the technology strategy for Digital team in alignment with Citi Technology. As such, collaborate to help create reliable, scalable, and high-performance services and architectures. Through these efforts, develop cohesive interpersonal working relationships with all peers and team members. “It’s all about team work.”
• Utilize comprehensive knowledge of multiple technological disciplines to achieve objectives by providing leadership and guidance to the teams responsible for architecting, implementing and performing continuous improvement to products.
• Work style is very independent, requiring little or no guidance by more senior architects. Decisions will make a significant, measurable impact on the business goals for different lines of business. During team discussions you will play a significant role with PMTs, TPMs and SDEs to determine potential technological designs and approaches.
• Assist in the planning and managing of assignments generally involving large budgets, cross functional and / or multiple projects simultaneously. This includes effectively understanding and analyzing both technical and business risks and impact.
• Be part of the design review board that will focus on the design process, search for generic patterns, and, at the same time, share best practices across the organization. As such, you will identify and define necessary system enhancements to introduce and let SDE teams deploy new products and process enhancements.
• Have a wider understanding of the technical strategy for a particular architecture, platform or solution. Help gain consensus across all of our teams as a leader. You interact with external vendors and look for innovative solutions in the market. Participate in lesson learned sessions and ensure that the outcomes flow back into the software processes. This is one area that can drive incremental improvement.
• This position acts as advisor or coach to new or lower level architects. You will construct and analyze metrics reporting and as such will have a metric-oriented sense of successful delivery of assignments.
• Contribute to brown bags, external publications, user-group leadership, speaking opportunities at industry conferences while raising Citi’s Digital profile and more in the industry,
• In addition to a comprehensive understanding of the business domain, the systems, and the products in your space, you will have a strong knowledge of emerging technologies and best practices. Help to drive cross-team solutions, anticipating and addressing problems ahead of the needs of the scrum teams. Regularly meet with SDE IIIs and IIs to ensure your engineering and operational excellence focuses are addressing the key tactical and strategic issues.
• Understand the business impact of your systems and show good judgment when making technical trade-offs between your team’s short-term technology or operational needs and long-term business needs. Be a key influencer in team strategy. Drive mindful discussions with customers and peers. Bring perspective and provide context for current technology choices and guide future technology choices. Understand that not all problems are new (or require new software). Make appropriate architectural trade-offs (e.g., coarse or fine grained service separation?)
• Code submissions and approach to work are exemplary - your solutions are inventive, secure, easily maintainable, appropriately scalable, and extensible. You write software that is easy for others to contribute to.
• Appropriately assess risk when business decisions are made, demonstrating particular consideration for the firm's reputation and safeguarding Citigroup, its clients and assets, by driving compliance with applicable laws, rules and regulations, adhering to Policy, applying sound ethical judgment regarding personal behavior, conduct and business practices, and escalating, managing and reporting control issues with transparency.

Recommended Qualifications:

• 10+ years of relevant experience in an Enterprise Architecture role with subject matter expertise in one or more areas
• Exhibit expertise in all aspects of technology by understanding broader patterns and techniques as they apply to Citi’s internal and external cloud platforms (AWS, Openshift, Akamai), and internet and mobile frameworks (Angular, JFP, and iOS and Android native).
• Effective leadership experience in working with internal stakeholders and supported by external vendors to enable the best solution: secure, performant and scalable.
• Demonstrated Subject Matter Expert (SME) in area(s) of Applications Development
• Architect and operationalize end-to-end Generative AI solutions by leading the design, development, and deployment of large language model (LLM)-based applications, leveraging frameworks such as LangChain, ADK, RAG pipelines, and prompt engineering techniques to deliver scalable, production-grade capabilities across enterprise technology functions.
• Champion AI-driven digital transformation initiatives by partnering with engineering, product, and business stakeholders to identify high-impact automation and intelligence opportunities, translating complex technical requirements into deployable AI solutions that modernize legacy systems and improve operational efficiency.
• Establish and enforce technical standards for Generative AI and ML platform engineering, including evaluation frameworks for model performance, responsible AI guardrails, data privacy controls, and security best practices, ensuring alignment with Citi's enterprise architecture and regulatory expectations.
• Embed AI-assisted capabilities across the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) by driving adoption of AI-powered tooling for code generation, automated code review, intelligent test generation, and vulnerability detection - leveraging platforms such as GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, Devin, or equivalent - to accelerate delivery velocity, reduce defect rates, and elevate engineering quality standards across the technology organization.

Education:

• Bachelor’s/University degree, Master’s degree preferred

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In addition to salary, Citi’s offerings may also include, for eligible employees, discretionary and formulaic incentive and retention awards. Citi offers competitive employee benefits, including: medical, dental & vision coverage; 401(k); life, accident, and disability insurance; and wellness programs. Citi also offers paid time off packages, including planned time off (vacation), unplanned time off (sick leave), and paid holidays. For additional information regarding Citi employee benefits, please visit citibenefits.com. Available offerings may vary by jurisdiction, job level, and date of hire.

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Automated Processing and AI

We use automated processing, including artificial intelligence, for our legitimate business interests (or our reasonable and appropriate business purposes) to identify and align the candidate's skills and abilities with a specific job opening. Additionally, if you so choose, or consent, we can match your skills and abilities to other suitable roles at Citi.

Importantly, all our hiring processes and decisions, including determining your suitability for a role, are conducted, checked, and decided by individuals. Our automated processing and AI do not involve relying on automatic or autonomous decision-making. Please refer to any Jurisdictional Considerations, with specific provisions for your country (where relevant) for further details.

Illinois residents - AI Notice and Right

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