Principal Engineer Jobs in Columbus, OH

Wells Fargo is seeking a Principal Engineer to lead large scale modernization initiatives that transform legacy banking capabilities into resilient, cloud native, and AI enabled platforms. In this role, you will provide technical leadership across complex modernization programs, driving the evolution of critical business capabilities into scalable microservices, event driven architectures, and modern data platforms. You will define target state architectures, guide engineering teams through legacy transformation, leverage AI driven engineering practices to accelerate delivery, and ensure solutions are designed for resilience, scalability, and long-term maintainability. This role requires deep expertise in distributed systems, cloud native technologies, modernization strategies, and the ability to translate complex legacy business processes into modern, future ready architectures.

Required Qualifications:

• 7+ years of Engineering experience, or equivalent demonstrated through one or a combination of the following: work experience, training, military experience, education
• 7+ years of hands-on experience in Java and Spring Boot based application development
• 5+ years of microservices architecture, API design, and distributed systems
• 3+ years of experience designing and implementing event driven architectures using Kafka or similar messaging platforms
• 2+ years of experience with containerization and cloud native deployment patterns using Kubernetes, OpenShift, Docker, or similar platforms

Desired Qualifications:

• Experience leading or contributing to large-scale mainframe modernization and cloud-native transformation initiatives
• Experience implementing CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and DevSecOps best practices
• Proven ability to reverse engineer complex legacy systems and business rules to design target-state microservices and domain-driven architectures
• Experience modernizing mission-critical banking or financial services applications
• Knowledge of domain-driven design (DDD), event sourcing, and scalable distributed systems patterns
• Experience working in hybrid legacy and cloud environments while maintaining synchronization and operational resilience across platforms
• Experience leveraging AI-assisted engineering tools to accelerate modernization, code analysis, testing, and developer productivity.
• Experience working with both relational databases (Oracle, PostgreSQL, SQL Server or similar) and NoSQL databases (MongoDB, Cassandra, DynamoDB, or similar)
• Strong analytical, problem solving, and troubleshooting skills in large scale enterprise environments
• Excellent collaboration and communication skills with the ability to work effectively across engineering, product, and business teams

Job Expectations:

• This position is not eligible for Visa sponsorship
• This position offers a hybrid work schedule
• Relocation assistance is not available for this position

Pay Range

Reflected is the base pay range offered for this position. Pay may vary depending on factors including but not limited to demonstrated examples of prior performance, skills, experience, or work location. Employees may also be eligible for incentive opportunities.

Posting End Date:

• Job posting may come down early due to volume of applicants.

We Value Equal Opportunity

Wells Fargo is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, status as a protected veteran, or any other legally protected characteristic.

Employees support our focus on building strong customer relationships balanced with a strong risk mitigating and compliance-driven culture which firmly establishes those disciplines as critical to the success of our customers and company. They are accountable for execution of all applicable risk programs (Credit, Market, Financial Crimes, Operational, Regulatory Compliance), which includes effectively following and adhering to applicable Wells Fargo policies and procedures, appropriately fulfilling risk and compliance obligations, timely and effective escalation and remediation of issues, and making sound risk decisions. There is emphasis on proactive monitoring, governance, risk identification and escalation, as well as making sound risk decisions commensurate with the business unit’s risk appetite and all risk and compliance program requirements.

Applicants with Disabilities

To request a medical accommodation during the application or interview process, visit Disability Inclusion at Wells Fargo.

Drug and Alcohol Policy

Wells Fargo maintains a drug free workplace. Please see our Drug and Alcohol Policy to learn more.

Wells Fargo Recruitment and Hiring Requirements:

a. Third-Party recordings are prohibited unless authorized by Wells Fargo.

b. Wells Fargo requires you to directly represent your own experiences during the recruiting and hiring process.