What are the responsibilities and job description for the Lead Software Engineer position at Fifth Third Bank?
Make banking a Fifth Third better®
We connect great people to great opportunities. Are you ready to take the next step? Discover a career in banking at Fifth Third Bank.
GENERAL FUNCTION
As a Lead Software Engineer, you will serve as both a Tech Lead and a hands-on developer within an agile squad. You will design and implement software solutions, guide technical execution, and mentor engineers while actively contributing to the squad’s delivery. This role blends strategic leadership with deep technical execution, ensuring scalable, secure, and high-quality software aligned with enterprise architecture.
You will participate in all agile ceremonies, drive activities from design to delivery, and collaborate across teams to ensure alignment with architectural standards and business goals. You will also contribute to communities of practice to refine and document engineering standards.
You will be expected to operate within the organization’s risk framework by adhering to established policies, procedures, and controls. This includes identifying and managing risks appropriately throughout the software development lifecycle, ensuring compliance with audit and regulatory requirements, and contributing to a secure and resilient technology environment.
Essential Duties And Responsibilities
Technical Leadership
TECHNICAL STACK & QUALIFICATIONS
Lead Software Engineer
At Fifth Third, we understand the importance of recognizing our employees for the role they play in improving the lives of our customers, communities and each other. Our Total Rewards include comprehensive benefits and differentiated compensation offerings to give each employee the opportunity to be their best every day.
The base salary for this position is reflective of the range of salary levels for all roles within this pay grade across the U.S. Individual salaries within this range will vary based on factors such as role, relevant skillset, relevant experience, education and geographic location. In addition to the base salary, this role is eligible to participate in an incentive compensation plan, with any such payment based upon company, line of business and/or individual performance.
Our extensive benefits programs are designed to support the individual needs of our employees and their families, encompassing physical, financial, emotional and social well-being. You can learn more about those programs on our 53.com Careers page at: https://www.53.com/content/fifth-third/en/careers/benefits.html or by consulting with your talent acquisition partner.
LOCATION -- Cincinnati, Ohio 45202
Fifth Third Bank, National Association is proud to have an engaged and inclusive culture and to promote and ensure equal employment opportunity in all employment decisions regardless of race, color, gender, national origin, religion, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, military status, veteran status or any other legally protected status.
We connect great people to great opportunities. Are you ready to take the next step? Discover a career in banking at Fifth Third Bank.
GENERAL FUNCTION
As a Lead Software Engineer, you will serve as both a Tech Lead and a hands-on developer within an agile squad. You will design and implement software solutions, guide technical execution, and mentor engineers while actively contributing to the squad’s delivery. This role blends strategic leadership with deep technical execution, ensuring scalable, secure, and high-quality software aligned with enterprise architecture.
You will participate in all agile ceremonies, drive activities from design to delivery, and collaborate across teams to ensure alignment with architectural standards and business goals. You will also contribute to communities of practice to refine and document engineering standards.
You will be expected to operate within the organization’s risk framework by adhering to established policies, procedures, and controls. This includes identifying and managing risks appropriately throughout the software development lifecycle, ensuring compliance with audit and regulatory requirements, and contributing to a secure and resilient technology environment.
Essential Duties And Responsibilities
Technical Leadership
- Serve as the Tech Lead for the squad, guiding technical execution and ensuring alignment with architectural standards.
- Define and drive architecture across multiple services and applications.
- Mentor engineers across experience levels and enforce engineering standards.
- Lead incident response and act as a stabilizing force during production issues.
- Guide communities of practice and contribute to long-term technical strategy.
- Design and implement new features while continuously improving technical product and application quality.
- Deliver APIs and real-time data streams for each domain. Strong understanding of Restful standards, but also some knowledge on SOAP.
- Async API and Event Driven architecture utilizing Kafka.
- Develop microservices using Java/Spring Boot and infrastructure as code in AWS using Terraform.
- Practice test-driven development and write maintainable, supportable, and testable code.
- Achieve operational excellence through automation and observability.
- Create and maintain system architecture and flow diagrams for squad-owned features.
- Actively explore and integrate AI into software design and development workflows.
- Promote responsible AI adoption within the squad, ensuring AI-generated code adheres to the enterprise standards.
- Encourage use of AI tools for scaffolding, documentation, and test generation—while maintaining human oversight.
- Push the boundaries of how AI can enhance productivity, code quality, and innovation across the squad.
- Actively participate in agile ceremonies, release planning, and change management processes.
- Collaborate with product owners, architects, and monitoring teams to define observability strategies and implement dashboards.
- Maintain effective partnerships with operations and engineering teams to drive service improvement.
- Maintain appropriate controls and documentation to ensure compliance with audit requirements.
- Stay current on IT trends relevant to your area of practice.
- Assist with problem resolution for end users and customers.
- Create and update operational procedures for routine management processes.
TECHNICAL STACK & QUALIFICATIONS
- Expertise in Java 17 , Spring Boot, and REST API development.
- Experience with AWS services and Terraform for infrastructure as code.
- Familiarity with containerization and Elastic Container Service (ECS).
- Strong understanding of software development best practices and methodologies.
- Experience with Git/GitHub, JUnit, and developing on Mac / OSX.
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or related field.
- 8 years of software engineering experience with demonstrated leadership.
- Experience with 12-factor applications and greenfield development.
- Microservices development using Node.js/Express.js.
- Familiarity with HashiCorp Vault, Tomcat Embedded tuning, and Jenkins CI/CD.
- Kafka experience.
- Knowledge of security best practices in software development.
- None. This is a technical leadership role without direct people management responsibilities.
Lead Software Engineer
At Fifth Third, we understand the importance of recognizing our employees for the role they play in improving the lives of our customers, communities and each other. Our Total Rewards include comprehensive benefits and differentiated compensation offerings to give each employee the opportunity to be their best every day.
The base salary for this position is reflective of the range of salary levels for all roles within this pay grade across the U.S. Individual salaries within this range will vary based on factors such as role, relevant skillset, relevant experience, education and geographic location. In addition to the base salary, this role is eligible to participate in an incentive compensation plan, with any such payment based upon company, line of business and/or individual performance.
Our extensive benefits programs are designed to support the individual needs of our employees and their families, encompassing physical, financial, emotional and social well-being. You can learn more about those programs on our 53.com Careers page at: https://www.53.com/content/fifth-third/en/careers/benefits.html or by consulting with your talent acquisition partner.
LOCATION -- Cincinnati, Ohio 45202
Fifth Third Bank, National Association is proud to have an engaged and inclusive culture and to promote and ensure equal employment opportunity in all employment decisions regardless of race, color, gender, national origin, religion, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, military status, veteran status or any other legally protected status.