Principal Engineer Jobs in Chicago, IL

About Northern Trust

As a global leader in innovative wealth management, asset servicing, asset management and banking services, Northern Trust (Nasdaq: NTRS) is proud to guide the world’s most successful individuals, families, corporations and institutions.

Since 1889, we have aligned our efforts with our three guiding Principles That Endure: Service, Expertise, and Integrity. Together, they reflect the three cornerstones of business conduct which we strive to instill in our employees, whom we call partners, and to provide to our clients and the communities we serve worldwide.

With more than 135 years of financial experience and over 24,000 partners, we serve the world’s most sophisticated clients using leading technology and exceptional service.

About the Role:

Northern Trust's FX Technology group builds and runs the platforms behind our global FX business, including pricing, execution, trade processing and client connectivity. We're modernizing these systems. That means breaking up legacy monoliths, moving to event-driven services and changing how we build software with AI.

We're looking for a Principal Engineer who still writes code and wants to help change how our team works. You'll design and build the next generation of our front-office trading systems and trade flow. You'll also help build an engineering culture that's curious, open to new ideas and comfortable challenging how things have always been done. You'll lead through your designs, your code and how you work with people.

What You'll Do

• Design and build front-office trading services covering pricing, order flow and trade capture, with a focus on low latency, resiliency and scale.
• Lead the breakup of existing monolithic applications into smaller, independently deployable microservices. Define service boundaries, contracts and a migration path that keeps production running throughout.
• Design event-driven trade flows using Kafka, including event models, topic design, schema management and replay/recovery patterns.
• Build and deploy cloud-native services on Azure using Azure Container Apps or AKS, Event Hubs and Key Vault, and integrate them with on-prem systems.
• Write production code in Java or C++ every week. Review code, set engineering standards and raise the bar for the team.
• Use AI throughout the development lifecycle. That includes AI-assisted code analysis of legacy systems, test generation, refactoring, migration and defect triage. Turn what works into tools and practices the rest of the team can use.
• Own CI/CD and automated testing for your services, so that deploying to production is routine.
• Work directly with traders, product owners and architects to turn business needs into technical designs and working software.
• Produce design documentation that gets through architecture and governance reviews without rework.
• Bring new ideas forward. Find better ways to build, test and deliver, make the case for them and help the team adopt them.
• Help shape team culture. Encourage open discussion, knowledge sharing and experimentation, and make it normal for engineers at every level to question the status quo.
• Mentor engineers across onshore and offshore teams through pairing, design reviews, demos and hands-on example.

What You Bring

• 10+ years building production software, with strong hands-on coding in Java or C++.
• Proven experience breaking monolithic systems into microservices in a live production environment.
• Deep experience with Kafka and event-driven architecture.
• Hands-on experience with Azure: Container Apps or AKS, Event Hubs, Key Vault and related services.
• Strong CI/CD experience, with test automation built into the pipeline.
• Practical experience using AI coding tools such as GitHub Copilot or agent-based workflows to speed up delivery. You should have real examples to show, not just interest.
• Solid relational database skills (SQL Server, Postgres or similar).
• A track record of driving change on a team, whether by introducing new practices, tools or ways of working and getting others to adopt them.
• Clear, confident communication with both engineers and business stakeholders. You're comfortable presenting ideas, leading technical discussions and pushing back constructively.
• A collaborative, energetic approach. You build relationships across teams and get people excited about where we're headed.

Nice to Have

• Experience with trading systems or other real-time, low-latency domains. FX experience is a plus but not required.
• Familiarity with FIX, market data or order management systems.
• Experience with observability tooling (Application Insights, Log Analytics or similar).

Why This Role

You'll be working on a multi-year modernization of a trading platform that supports a growing global FX business. The work is hands-on and visible, and you'll be close to the trading desk. You'll also have a real hand in shaping how this group works, from how we use AI to how we share ideas and make decisions as engineers. If you want to build systems and help build a team culture at the same time, this role gives you both.

Salary Range:

Salary range is a good faith estimate of base pay. Northern Trust provides a comprehensive benefits package including retirement benefits (401k and pension), health and welfare benefits (medical, dental, vision, spending accounts and disability), paid time off, parental and caregiver leave, life & accident insurance, and other voluntary and well-being benefits. Northern Trust also provides a discretionary bonus program that may include an equity component.

Work Authorization

Applicants must be authorized to work in the U.S. without the need for employment-based visa sponsorship now or in the future. Northern Trust will not sponsor applicants for U.S. work visa status for this opportunity (no sponsorship is available for H-1B, L-1, TN, O-1, E-3, H-1B1, F-1, J-1, OPT, CPT or any other employment-based visa).

Working with Us

As a Northern Trust partner, you will be part of a flexible and collaborative work culture, which has a strong history of financial strength and stability. Movement within the organization is encouraged, senior leaders are accessible, and you can take pride in working for a company committed to an inclusive workplace and assisting the communities we serve.

Philanthropy is deeply rooted in Northern Trust’s history and is an essential element of our culture. Employees around the world give their time and talent to work for the greater good of their communities.

Reasonable Accommodation

Northern Trust is committed to working with and providing adjustments to individuals with health conditions and disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process, please email our HR Service Center at MyHRHelp@ntrs.com, or alternatively you can discuss your individual requirements with the recruiter you are working with.