Principal Software Engineer Jobs in Seattle, WA

Who We Are

First Fed is a local community bank on an exciting growth trajectory with 17 locations including 12 full-service branches in Western Washington. First Fed was recognized by the Puget Sound Business Journal as a Best Workplace and a Top Corporate Philanthropist. By popular vote, First Fed received awards for Best Bank in The Best of the Northwest, Best Banker in Readers’ Choice by Cascadia Daily News, and Peninsula Daily News named us Best Bank on the Olympic Peninsula. We also received a Best-In-State bank award from Forbes. For over 100 years First Fed has served our customers and communities throughout the PNW. We’ve donated over $9 million to non-profit organizations in the past 8 years through our foundations, sponsorships, direct donations, and matched employee donations. Our amazing team has volunteered over 25,000 hours in the past 5 years – many by using our benefit of 3 paid volunteer days per year! We welcome applicants from all backgrounds – our diversity makes us stronger. Join our award-winning team!

Our Values

Optimism: We are positive and decisive. We believe the future will be better than the past. Our attitude demonstrates persistence which leads to success.
Initiative: We are self-starters and find innovative solutions. We are courageous, entrepreneurial, and passionate. We take action for good.
Respect: We include individuals from diverse backgrounds and with different perspectives. We are committed to honoring and serving others.
Growth: We learn and adapt so we can continually improve. We believe in personal growth through grit and determination.
Ownership: We are invested in our endeavors. We are accountable and take responsibility for our actions and decisions.

Position Purpose

The Principal Full-Stack Software Engineer serves as a senior technical leader responsible for designing, evolving, and scaling critical customer-facing and operational systems across First Fed’s digital banking ecosystem. This hands-on role is focused on delivering high-quality, cloud-native systems with an emphasis on customer experience, frontend development, and platform reliability. The role operates at a systems level—owning complex integrations, improving existing workflows, and modernizing legacy solutions without disrupting the business. This engineer will also help elevate engineering practices and leverage AI-assisted development and intelligent automation to improve delivery speed, system quality, and user outcomes.

Essential Functions

Engineering & System Ownership:

- Design, build, and maintain cloud-native applications and services in Azure.
- Own systems end-to-end across frontend, backend, APIs, and data flows.
- Write high-quality, maintainable production code.

Customer Experience & Frontend:

- Build modern, responsive web applications using React, TypeScript, and modern UI patterns.
- Create intuitive, performant, and accessible user experiences.
- Partner with Product and Design to translate workflows into high-quality digital experiences.

API & Integration Development:

- Design and implement RESTful and event-driven APIs.
- Integrate with core banking systems, fintech partners, and internal platforms.
- Build resilient data flows for ingestion, validation, and reconciliation.

Modernization & Reliability:

- Improve and modernize legacy systems and workflows.
- Strengthen system reliability through monitoring, alerting, and observability.
- Develop internal tools to improve operational visibility and efficiency.

DevOps & Engineering Productivity:

- Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines using GitHub and modern DevOps practices.
- Apply automation and Infrastructure-as-Code for scalable deployments.
- Improve developer experience and delivery velocity.

AI-Augmented Engineering:

- Use AI-assisted tools to improve development speed and code quality.
- Embed practical AI capabilities into systems (e.g., validation, routing, decision support).
- Identify high-impact use cases for AI in customer and operational workflows.

Technical Leadership:

- Set engineering standards and best practices.
- Lead design discussions and influence architecture decisions.
- Mentor engineers and contribute to team growth.

Qualifications & Requirements

- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field.
- 15+ years of software engineering or full-stack development experience.
- Strong experience with Microsoft Azure (Functions, Container Apps, Event Hub, APIM).
- Deep experience with frontend development (React, TypeScript, JavaScript, HTML/CSS).
- Hands-on experience with backend languages (C#, Go, or Node.js).
- Experience with automation and workflow technologies (Power Automate, GitHub Actions).
- Familiarity with SQL/NoSQL databases (PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Azure SQL).
- Experience implementing secure development patterns and OAuth2/Azure AD security.
- Experience with CI/CD, GitHub, Docker, and Terraform.
- Strong understanding of system reliability, scalability, and observability.
- Familiarity with AI-assisted development and applied AI use cases.
- Experience in banking, fintech, or regulated industries.
- Excellent analytical, debugging, communication, and cross-team collaboration skills.

Physical Requirements

The work requires the ability to operate office machines and equipment, such as personal computers, printers, copying machines, and telephones. The work requires the ability to communicate clearly with customers, coworkers, and others in person and on telephones. Work activities involve combinations of sitting/standing for extended periods.

Pay Range

- The pay range for this position is $139,198.78 - $236,637.92
- The typical hiring range for this position is $139,198.78 - $159,730.60
- The incentive plan for this position is the Corporate Incentive plan. It is paid out annually based on meeting both individual and corporate goals.
- Employees will be eligible for our benefits package including medical, dental, and vision insurance, paid time off, retirement plans (401k with company match and Employee Stock Ownership Plan), gym membership reimbursement, discounts on our banking products, and more! Additional information on our benefits package can be viewed at https://www.ourfirstfed.com/careers

As a community Bank, we know the power in bringing people together from all walks of life. Our communities are beautiful and strong because of their diversity, and it’s important to us that all of our locations reflect the unique diversity of the places we live and work. We are passionate about hiring the very best talent and welcome applicants from all backgrounds.

Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities Qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.

First Fed invites all qualified interested applicants to apply for our career opportunities. If you are a person with a disability and need a reasonable accommodation to use our online job search or application tools, please email Human Resources via teresa.yandl@ourfirstfed.com or call 360-460-2605. Note: This contact information is reserved solely for job seekers requesting accessibility assistance or accommodation in the application process. Messages left for other purposes may not receive a response.

We are required to notify all applicants of their rights pursuant to federal employment laws. For further information, please review the Know Your Rights notice from the Department of Labor, and the Employee Polygraph Protection Act.