Principal Software Engineer - Platform (hybrid) at Enova · Chicago

We are interested in every qualified candidate who is eligible to work in the United States. However, we are not able to sponsor visas or take over sponsorship at this time. About the Role The Tech Platform team is the backbone of Enova's engineering organization — building, maintaining, and evolving the foundational platform components that power our products, brands, and engineering teams across the company. Spanning IT, Tech Ops, and Platform Software Engineering, we operate at the intersection of infrastructure, tooling, and developer experience. As a Principal Engineer on Tech Platform, you will set the technical direction for platform-wide initiatives, drive the adoption and responsible use of AI across the engineering organization, and ensure our architecture evolves to meet the demands of a growing, innovative FinTech company. This is a highly visible role: you will influence how Enova builds software, how engineers experience their tools, and how AI becomes a durable part of our engineering culture. Responsibilities AI Leadership & Advocacy Identify, evaluate, and champion new applications for AI that improve platform reliability, developer productivity, and engineering velocity. Represent engineering in cross-functional AI governance and vendor discussions, ensuring platform and engineering perspectives are well-represented. Build internal expertise and advocacy around AI — running demos, sharing learnings, and helping teams understand where and how to apply AI responsibly. Technical Strategy & Architecture Identify gaps in architecture, technology, tooling, and process — and take ownership of addressing them. Ensure that new platform systems and services are sensible, secure, scalable, and aligned with Enova-wide design principles. Conduct or lead proof-of-concept efforts with the goal of widening Enova's technology advantages. Cross-Team Leadership & Influence Partner with technical leads across teams to translate strategy into actionable, prioritized work. Manage timeline feasibility and proactively communicate changes and pivots to stakeholders and leaders. Actively participate in large cross-team forums and enterprise-level initiatives. Mentorship & Engineering Culture Provide guidance, mentorship, and oversight to Tech Leads and engineers, particularly during incident resolution and complex project work. Establish and evangelize Enova-wide design principles and coding standards to ensure consistently high-quality technical solutions. Provide perspective on leading industry trends and offer insight into emerging technologies relevant to the platform. Requirements 7+ years of software engineering experience designing, implementing, and supporting systems and software in large, complex environments. 2+ years operating as an architect or principal-level engineer across multiple connected systems or teams. Demonstrated experience building with, advocating for, or deploying AI — including LLMs, agentic tools, or AI-assisted development workflows. Strong familiarity with distributed systems architecture, domain-driven design (DDD), and service-oriented architecture (SOA) principles. Ability to influence and direct technical strategy across multiple teams without direct authority. Excellent analytical and communication skills — comfortable tailoring your message to engineers, product partners, and senior leadership alike. Experience working with Lean and Agile development concepts across multiple teams and products. Experience with message-oriented middleware, queueing services, or event-driven architectures. Proficiency in one or more of Enova's core languages and technologies: Go, Ruby, or AWS. Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent experience. Nice to Have Direct experience on a platform, infrastructure, or developer experience team. Experience with cloud platforms, particularly AWS, and infrastructure-as-code tools such as Terraform. Familiarity with containerization and orchestration technologies (Kubernetes, Docker). Contributions to open-source projects, technical publications, or conference presentations. Compensation: The budgeted annual salary range for this position is $147,000 to $210,000. Actual annual salary will be determined based on qualifications, skills, experience, and level assessed during the hiring process and may fall outside of the range shown. Additional compensation for this role may include a bonus and restricted stock units. All full-time employees are eligible to participate in Company benefits, described in more detail here. Benefits & Perks: Our hybrid roles require in-office work Tuesday through Thursday, with remote flexibility on Mondays and Fridays. This schedule fosters collaboration, team connection, and strategic planning, enhancing communication and effectiveness to drive results. Health, dental, and vision insurance including mental health benefits 401(k) matching plus a roth option (U.S. Based employees only) PTO & paid holidays off Sabbatical program (for eligible roles) Summer hours (for eligible roles) Paid parental leave DEI groups (B.L.A.C.K. @ Enova, HOLA @ Enova, Women @ Enova, Pride @ Enova, South Asians @ Enova, APEX @ Enova, and Parents @ Enova) Employee recognition and rewards program Charitable matching and a paid volunteer day…Plus so much more! About Enova Enova International is a leading financial technology company that provides online financial services through our AI and machine learning-powered Colossus™platform. We serve non-prime consumers and businesses alike, while offering world-class technology and services to traditional banks—in order to create accessible credit for millions. Being a values-driven organization is at the core of Enova’s success. We live our values by listening to our customers, challenging assumptions, thinking big, setting high expectations, and hiring and developing the best. Through our values and our commitment to making Enova an awesome place to work, we maintain an environment of inclusion and culture where our employees can thrive. You can learn more about Enova’s values and culture here. It is our policy to provide equal employment opportunity for all persons and not discriminate in employment decisions by placing the most qualified person in each job, without regard to any other classification protected by federal, state, or local law. California Applicants: Clickhere to review our California Privacy Policy for Job Applicants.