Principal Engineer I - AI Full Stack Engineer

Job Title:
Principal Engineer I - AI Full Stack Engineer

Location:
Block 23

What you'll do:
As a Principal Engineer I, you will serve as a senior technical contributor within your domain, applying deep expertise across multiple engineering disciplines to design and deliver complex solutions. This role is embedded within the Lending and Card Operations technology teams, with a primary focus on supporting the Lending Service Fabric (LSF) through modern, AI enabled full stack solutions. In this role, you will partner closely with architects, product owners, and business stakeholders to translate requirements into secure, compliant, and scalable designs. You will apply AI forward engineering practices, guide technical implementation decisions, and help establish reusable patterns that improve delivery efficiency while aligning with WAB engineering and governance standards.

• Provide senior-level technical leadership for Lending and Card Operations initiatives, contributing to solution architecture and engineering decisions aligned to business and regulatory requirements.
• Design and deliver AI-enabled, cloud-native full-stack solutions that support loan and card processing, servicing, operations, and reporting, ensuring scalability, security, and compliance.
• Design and implement AI-forward capabilities, including Prompt Engineering, MCP, and RAG-based patterns, under established architectural guidance to improve automation, decisioning, and developer productivity.
• Design, build, and maintain enterprise APIs using Azure API Management (APIM), ensuring consistent security, versioning, throttling, observability, and lifecycle management.
• Own assigned portions of end-to-end technical solution design, producing clear and executable designs that can be delivered by engineering teams while adhering to WAB architecture standards and reuse of enterprise capabilities.
• Lead hands-on full-stack development across Azure, .NET, Python, React (Vite), SQL, and ETL pipelines, following modern DevOps practices using GitHub, Azure DevOps, and Azure Pipelines.
• Apply AI-assisted development practices (e.g., GitHub Copilot and approved internal LLMs) to improve development speed and code quality while adhering to governance and security controls.
• Contribute to observability, performance, and reliability practices to ensure Lending and Card systems meet operational, security, and audit requirements.
• Review technical designs, code, and delivery plans developed by engineers to ensure solutions meet performance, resilience, and compliance expectations.
• Partner with business, architecture, security, and risk teams to translate Lending and Card requirements into compliant technical solutions, communicating effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Mentor engineers and promote adoption of AI-forward, cloud-first, and platform-driven engineering practices within the Lending and Card Operations technology teams.

What you'll need:

• 8 years of experience in software engineering or IT development, with demonstrated experience supporting Lending, Card, or Financial Services platforms.
• Hands-on experience designing and developing cloud-native applications on the Azure platform, including APIs, data integrations, and full-stack solutions.
• Practical experience applying AI-assisted development techniques (e.g., Prompt Engineering, RAG patterns, or GenAI development tools) in an enterprise environment.
• Strong experience with .NET, Python, modern JavaScript frameworks (React preferred), SQL, and ETL technologies.
• Bachelor's degree in a related field required; Master's degree or MBA preferred.
• Previous technical leadership or lead-engineer experience preferred.
• Advanced knowledge of Financial Services or Banking, with exposure to Lending or Card Operations strongly preferred.
• Working knowledge of regulatory and legal compliance obligations, industry standards, and secure software development practices in a regulated environment.
• Proven experience collaborating with cross-functional teams and delivering multiple initiatives concurrently within an Agile or DevOps environment.
• Familiarity with enterprise capability models, IT governance frameworks, and architectural review processes.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to clearly explain technical concepts to business and technology stakeholders.
• May require up to 25% travel.

Benefits you'll love:
We offer all the important things you'd want - like competitive salaries, an ownership stake in the company, medical and dental insurance, time off, a great 401k matching program, tuition assistance program, an employee volunteer program, and a wellness program. In addition, you'll have the opportunity to bolster your business knowledge, learning the ins and outs of how successful companies operate and manage their finances, giving you invaluable hands-on experience to help grow your career!

About the company:

Western Alliance Bank, Member FDIC, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Western Alliance Bancorporation. Serving clients nationwide, Western Alliance Bank includes six legacy bank brands - Alliance Association Bank, Alliance Bank of Arizona, Bank of Nevada, Bridge Bank, First Independent Bank and Torrey Pines Bank - that remain part of the company's heritage, as well as AmeriHome Mortgage, a Western Alliance Bank Company.

Western Alliance Bancorporation is committed to equal employment and will consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, sex, color, religion, age, nation origin, marital status, disability, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or genetic information. Western Alliance Bancorporation is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities. If you are an individual with a disability and require a reasonable accommodation to complete any part of the application process and/or need an alternative method of applying, please email or call . When contacting us, please provide your contact information and state the nature of your accessibility issue. We will only respond to inquiries concerning requests that involve a reasonable accommodation in the application process.

Western Alliance Bancorporation