Senior Principal Application Engineer

Overview

Design, develop, and optimize software applications that bridge technical teams and end-users, addressing business needs through innovative solutions and enhancing member or internal user experiences. Leverage the full software development lifecycle, including design, coding, testing, and deployment, to improve system efficiency. Work independently to solve unique and highly complex problems that have broad impact on the business. Contribute to the development of functional strategy by recommending best practices and process improvements.

Deep, specialized skill set and proficiency with procedures and techniques. Recognized as an expert both within and beyond own function. Progression to this level is typically restricted on the basis of business requirement.

• Design and implement cloud-native applications and services, leveraging containerization, orchestration, and managed cloud services to enable scalability, resilience, and performance
• Lead complex technical projects and initiatives, driving solutions with significant business impact
• Partner with infrastructure, security, and platform teams to design cloud architectures aligned with enterprise standards, compliance requirements, and business goals
• Guide modernization efforts, including migration from legacy or monolithic systems to cloud-native or hybrid architectures
• Architect, develop, and optimize solutions deployed on major cloud platforms (Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), AWS, Azure, and/or GCP), ensuring security, cost efficiency, and operational excellence
• Proven ability to influence technical decisions across teams and stakeholders without direct authority
• Write clean, scalable, and maintainable code adhering to industry best practices and organizational coding standards
• Implement efficient data structures and algorithms, optimizing code for performance, scalability, and user experience
• Identify, troubleshoot, and resolve highly-complex application functionality and performance issues, working with the team to implement fixes and improvements
• Conduct code reviews and provide constructive feedback to ensure the highest quality codebase while learning from colleagues' expertise
• Lead the development and enhancement of practices, procedures, and instructions to ensure continuous improvement
• Serve as a lead technical resource, mentoring and guiding junior team members on new techniques and strategies, fostering a culture of innovation
• Generate and adhere to systems software engineering policies, standards, and procedures to maintain consistency and best practices

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, a related field or the equivalent combination of education, training or experience
• 15+ years of experience in application or software development engineering.
• Hands-on experience with one or more major cloud platforms:
  Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and/or Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
• Strong understanding of cloud architecture principles, including high availability, disaster recovery, scalability, observability, and cost optimization (Fin Ops)
• Extensive experience designing and supporting integrations across complex enterprise systems, including APIs, event-driven architectures, and data pipelines
• Expert proficiency in programming languages and development tools such as SQL, Python, JavaScript, HTML/CSS, with in-depth knowledge of modern development frameworks and libraries
• Expertise in monitoring, logging, alerting, and performance tuning to ensure system reliability and operational excellence in production environments
• Expert understanding of software development concepts, Agile methodologies, version control systems, and best practices for application performance optimization
• Expert problem-solving and analytical skills to address complex technical issues and implement scalable, high-performance solutions
• Exceptional communication skills, both written and verbal, to effectively explain technical concepts and collaborate with stakeholders across functions
• Extensive experience with customer support tools, ticketing systems, and knowledge base platforms for troubleshooting and resolving user issues
• Expert in data structures and algorithms, applying them to optimize code efficiency, scalability, and system performance
• Expert ability to lead technical projects, mentor junior staff, and contribute to the development of engineering policies, standards, and procedures
• Recognized as a technical expert both within and beyond the function, fostering innovation and continuous improvement across the team

Hours:
Monday - Friday, 8:00AM - 4:30PM

Location: 820 Follin Lane, Vienna VA 22180

Navy Federal provides much more than a job. We provide a meaningful career experience, including a culture that is energized, engaged and committed; and fierce appreciation for our teams, who are rewarded with highly competitive pay and generous benefits and perks. Our approach to careers is…