Principal Engineer at Wells Fargo in Charlotte, NC

Principal Engineer Location: ISELIN, NJ Wells Fargo is seeking a Principal Engineer to serve as a hands‑on technical authority within the Prime Brokerage and Equity Finance & Futures (EF&F) Technology organization. This role is responsible for shaping and delivering next‑generation Prime Services trade processing and clearing platforms, with a focus on high‑throughput Market Maker Clearing, financing workflows, and end‑to‑end lifecycle automation. The successful candidate will provide engineering leadership through direct contribution, owning system architecture, critical design decisions, and delivery of scalable, resilient, and secure microservices and platform frameworks operating at enterprise scale. Deep expertise in Java, server‑side architecture, and distributed systems design is required. This role demands strong technical judgment and accountability for platform quality, performance, resiliency, security, risk controls, and regulatory compliance across supported applications. The Principal Engineer will actively engage in complex production issue resolution, lead design and code reviews, drive engineering standards, and influence continuous improvement in testing automation, SDLC practices, and platform modernization. Candidates must bring experience building front‑to‑back systems for Sales & Trading, Prime Brokerage, or Prime Financing, with the ability to clearly communicate complex margin, financing, and risk workflows to senior technology and business leadership. Exceptional communication skills and the ability to translate complex technical and domain concepts into clear, strategic guidance are essential. Learn more about the career areas and business divisions at wellsfargojobs.com. In this role, you will: Lead complex initiatives on selected domains Ensure systems are monitored to increase operational efficiency and managed to mitigate risk Define opportunities to maximize resource utilization and improve processes while reducing cost Lead, design, develop, test and implement applications and system components, tools and utilities, models, simulation, and analytics to manage complex business functions using sophisticated technologies Resolve coding, testing and escalated platform issues of a technically challenging nature Lead team to ensure compliance and risk management requirements for supported area are met and work with other stakeholders to implement key risk initiatives Mentor less experienced software engineers Collaborate and influence all levels of professionals including managers Lead team to achieve objectives Partner with production support and platform engineering teams effectively AI‑Enabled Engineering and Platform Responsibilities Define and govern standard patterns for AI‑assisted and LLM‑based software development, including prompt‑driven development, automated test generation, diagnostics, documentation, and developer productivity tooling Architect and guide enterprise‑standard LLM integrations, including MCP‑based services, used across development tooling, system observability, and controlled automation Establish and enforce guardrails for reliable, explainable, auditable, and secure AI usage within electronic trading technology Partner with platform, security, risk, and compliance teams to ensure AI‑enabled engineering workflows meet Wells Fargo standards for data protection, regulatory compliance, and model risk management Continuously evaluate advances in GenAI, agentic AI, and applied machine learning to refine engineering practices and platform capabilities where appropriate (AI‑enabled development is considered a baseline capability across the engineering organization; this role ensures architectural consistency, operational safety, and enterprise scale.) 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 experience in building prime brokerage or capital markets applications 7+ years of high-performance programming techniques in Java 5+ years of experience in Java, Spring Boot, JPA, Microservices, SQL and NoSQL 2+ years of experience in Kubernetes/OpenShift & cloud technologies 5+ years of experience in Apache Kafka/Solace/MQ 5+ years of Experience with SDLC and Agile tools such as JIRA, GitHub, Jenkins, Confluence etc. 2+years of experience on GenAI enabled solutions, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) and agentic workflows, with a strong understanding of prompt engineering, grounding, and extensibility 2+years hands-on experience with major GenAI platforms (e.g., Microsoft VS Code, GitHub Copilot) Desired Qualifications: 2+ years of direct experience in Prime Brokerage, Equity Finance, Delta‑1, Synthetic Financing, or Margin/Risk technology SME on Equities and Equity derivatives securities Familiarity with FIX connectivity and clearing broker/service bureau integrations Knowledge of core computer science design concepts, algorithms, and data structures Familiarity with Model Context Protocol (MCP), enterprise-grade agentic workflows is highly desirable Experience with risk, margin and regulatory calculators and reporting capabilities Knowledge building high capacity, high volume, low latency technology for margin workflow supporting various business units in Commercial Investment Banking Deep knowledge of LLM and API integration, including RESTful API design. Job Expectations: This position is not eligible for Visa sponsorship Relocation assistance is not available for this position Position offers a hybrid work schedule Locations: 300 S Brevard St., Charlotte, North Carolina 28202 194 Wood Ave S, Iselin, New Jersey 08830 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. $159,000.00 - $305,000.00 Benefits Wells Fargo provides eligible employees with a comprehensive set of benefits, many of which are listed below. Visit Benefits - Wells Fargo Jobs for an overview of the following benefit plans and programs offered to employees. Health benefits 401(k) Plan Paid time off Disability benefits Life insurance, critical illness insurance, and accident insurance Parental leave Critical caregiving leave Discounts and savings Commuter benefits Tuition reimbursement Scholarships for dependent children Adoption reimbursement Posting End Date: 10 May 2026 *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. Additional Locations: CHARLOTTE, NC