Principal Software Engineer

Company Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Federal Reserve Financial Services (FRFS) delivers a suite of payments services to financial institutions via FedLine® Solutions, FedNowSM, Fedwire®, National Settlement Service (NSS), FedCash®, FedACH® (Automated Clearing House), and Check Services. We are currently leading a strategic effort to transform FRFS to a national, enterprise-focused organization. Through our evolved structure, we will meet the needs of the marketplace for new products and services more quickly, seek to provide a more robust and unified customer experience across our financial service offerings, and create new career growth opportunities for FRFS staff. The Federal Reserve has developed a new interbank 24x7x365 real-time gross settlement (RTGS) service with integrated clearing functionality, called the FedNow Service. This service enables financial institutions to provide their customers with the ability to send and receive payments any time, any day, and have full access to those funds within seconds. This position is a unique opportunity to be part of this mission-critical Federal Reserve initiative that is transforming the payments landscape in the United States. Top level technical expert in one or more highly specialized areas of applications systems analysis and programming. Responsible for software design, coding, testing, debugging, and documentation. Has full technical knowledge of all phases of applications systems analysis and development. Provides technical leadership on complex projects. Interacts with internal project teams and work groups regularly. Level of work required is considered highly advanced and staff must be able to work under minimal supervision. This job does not have any direct reports. You have an appetite to learn, and a passion for technology, innovation, and developing new skills on evolving technologies. What will be expected of you- Serves as a Principal Software Engineer: to design, develop and implement new complex solutions in accordance with FedNow and Fed Standards Develops software solutions in Java, Spring, Terraform, NoSQL and RDS in the Cloud Develop end to end Infrastructure-as-Code solutions in Cloud Provides input into strategic and tactical planning of software solutions and software development lifecycle changes In addition to being able to engineer across numerous areas of technology, you’ll serve as subject matter expert in one or more areas Trains and consults cross functionally within the organization on troubleshooting/resolving highly complex and/or highly time critical problems Collaborates with analysts as part of an integrated Agile team to define user requirements and conduct design review for the development of complex and innovative cloud applications using modern internet-scale technologies and Serverless architecture in Cloud Demonstrates skill dexterity; seeking to continuously adapt and employ new technical skills alongside proven staples Ensures that the quality of software developed, maintained and enhanced in-house and installed into production is sufficient to prevent the occurrence of catastrophic defects that cause the customer significant problems, missed deadlines, or interruption to the production environment Ensure compliance with Fed policies, procedures and standards Provides primary or backup production support for applications and components, including but not limited to timely resolution to production problems and processing issues Expertise you will bring- 8+ years of Java Development 4+ years working with AWS cloud-based platforms in an enterprise environment. Demonstrated experience engineering software with cloud-first architectures 10+ years software engineering experience in a team-based environment Experience with building and deploying solutions in Cloud Experience with Serverless architecture for building software solutions in Cloud Experience with CI/CD build tools, and DevOps processes Experience developing high performance, high volume, highly available (24/7/365) environments Experience with Agile software engineering (Scrum, Kanban, Lean etc) Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Logistics& Requirements- Deep expertise in Java and proficient knowledge of programming languages (JavaScript, XML, JSON, HTML, CSS etc. Python a bonus) Understanding of object-oriented design principles (ex: SOLID) to create maintainable, extensible code and knowledge of design patterns, inheritance hierarchies, polymorphism, composition over inheritance, effective interface design, encapsulation and immutability as well as experience with modern Java features like generics, streams and lambdas. Comprehensive knowledge of Spring Boot's core fundamentals, including auto-configuration, starter dependencies, and its opinionated approach to application setup that eliminates much of the boilerplate configuration required in traditional Spring applications. Understanding of dependency injection, the IoC container, bean lifecycle management as well as proficiency in using annotations like @Component, @Service, @Repository, and @Autowired. Expertise in building RESTful APIs with Spring Boot, including knowledge of @RestController, @RequestMapping, request/response handling, content negotiation, and exception handling. Understand data access patterns using Spring Data JPA, including repository interfaces, custom queries, and declarative / programmatic transaction management. Experience using JUnit 5+ to write integration and unit tests and use its lifecycle interfaces and annotations to handle related setup and teardown tasks. Experience with a build automation tool / project management tool like Apache Maven or Gradle to handle tasks such as compilation, dependency management, testing, packaging and deployment. Proficient knowledge of operating systems (Linux, Unix, Windows) Proficient knowledge of database development (SQL, Oracle, DB2) Ideally, you’ll have experience with AWS services, and integrating them into an application Ideally you’ll have experience with leading edge Cloud technologies, such as Kafka, in-memory and NoSQL databases, messaging platforms, memcache etc). Demonstrates independent thinking and decision-making abilities Demonstrates excellent written and oral communication abilities Proficient knowledge of cloud security for application development and delivery Advanced knowledge of object-oriented programming Ideally, Infrastructure as Code (IAC); Terraform Nice to Have- Experience with API Development and consumption and microservices architecture Proficient in unit testing with JUnit, Mockito and AssertJ as well as integration testing with @SpringBootTest. Understanding of how to use JUnit's extension and lifecycle annotations and interfaces to create tools that enhance its default functionality and monitor test plan execution results. Knowledge of Apache Maven's build lifecycles phases, experience with custom plugin development and how to map a custom plugin's goals to Maven lifecycle phases Familiarity with database migration tools like Flyway or Liquibase. Experience using Spring Security to handle security concerns in Spring Boot apps. Understanding Spring Boot’s various application properties configurations (profiles, YAML vs properties files) and externalized configuration management. Knowledge of monitoring and observability through Spring Boot Actuator, including custom health checks and metrics. Proficiency working with XML Schema Definition (XSD) schemas and XSLT (Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations) templates, including XML schema design principles, validation techniques, Java-XML binding via JAXB, namespace management, XSLT processing models, template creation, XPath expressions, and transformation patterns for converting XML to various output formats. Experience as an Agile product owner with a strong technical background, capable of creating detailed feature specifications and user stories that junior to mid-level developers can implement with minimal clarification as well as the ability to set up and facilitate collaborative planning sessions, coordinate story mapping across iterations and manage daily stand-up meetings. Proficient with unit testing, integration testing between system components, performance testing to identify bottlenecks, soak testing for long-term stability verification and API testing. Experience with agile development methodology Knowledge of technology project and secure coding standards Strong interpersonal, teamwork and negotiation skills Strong customer service skills Strong problem solving and critical thinking skills Familiarity with usability techniques and best practices Infrastructure as Code (IAC); Terraform Salary The salary range for this position is $173,400.00 - $216,700.00 - $260,000.00. The Boston Fed believes in salary transparency. The final salary and offer will be determined by the applicant’s background, skills, internal equity, and alignment with market data. Whether you’re developing into the job or are a more seasoned candidate, we aim to pay competitively. The position and job description posted is for a Principal Software Engineer however, candidates will be placed in an appropriate level within the Software Engineer job family based on the extent of their experience. If you reside outside of the 1st District, you may be hired by your local Federal Reserve District and compensation will follow hiring District's range and policy. The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston is committed to provide equal employment opportunities to all persons without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, genetic information, disability, or military service. All employees assigned to this position will be subject to FBI fingerprint/ criminal background and Patriot Act/ Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) watch list checks at least once every five years. For this job, any offer of employment is contingent upon successfully passing a two-phase security screening. The first phase consists of the satisfactory completion of a physical examination (including a drug screening), reference checks, and a security investigation consisting of credit and criminal history checks. The second phase, which might not be complete until after you begin working at the Reserve Bank, is an additional risk-based security screening determined by the risk rating of the position. Depending upon the sensitivity of the position, this phase may include, and is not limited to, work and residency eligibility verification, and personal interviews with the candidate, references, and prior employers. All applicants must have resided in the United States for at least three (3) years Full Time / Part Time Full time Regular / Temporary Regular Job Exempt (Yes / No) Yes Job Category Information Technology Family Group Work Shift First (United States of America) The Federal Reserve Banks are committed to equal employment opportunity for employees and job applicants in compliance with applicable law and to an environment where employees are valued for their differences. Always verify and apply to jobs on Federal Reserve System Careers ( or through verified Federal Reserve Bank social media channels. Privacy Notice OUR BANK has one of the most recognizable brands around the world. The Federal Reserve is the central bank of the United States—one of the world's most influential, trusted and prestigious financial organizations. The Federal Reserve is charged with the important mission of promoting a strong economy and a stable financial system and fulfills this responsibility by formulating national monetary policy, supervising and regulating banks and bank holding companies, and providing financial services for banks and the U.S. government. OUR PEOPLE are diverse in background and ideas, which allows for ongoing creativity and innovation. Ultimately, they are the ones who push our high-performance, exchange-driven culture forward. Why Our People Choose Us: Our reputation precedes us There will always be room for personal growth Our people are first You’ll find the right balance Your responsibilities will be meaningful We hope that you will be our future colleague. Always verify and apply to jobs on Federal Reserve System Careers or through verified Federal Reserve Bank social media channels. Please check back later for more information on available job opportunities.