Software Engineer

About the Team


The Casper team builds and operates Morningstar Direct's internal developer platform. Our mission is to streamline the software development lifecycle so application developers can quickly and easily deploy, monitor, scale, and secure applications. We provide teams with standardized, self-service paths to production while abstracting much of the underlying complexity of Kubernetes, cloud infrastructure, and CI/CD.


Our work spans the complete developer experience - from our tooling used to configure and deploy applications to the infrastructure that runs them. We support cloud-native workloads of all types and aim to provide advanced cloud-native production capabilities out-of-the-box like multi-region deployments, disaster recovery, and autoscaling.


Looking ahead, we'll evaluate how agentic engineering can improve developer productivity across the software development lifecycle. We'll explore applications of generative AI that help platform users configure, deploy, troubleshoot, and operate their applications more efficiently, while ensuring these capabilities meet our standards for security, reliability, and responsible use. Our goal is to thoughtfully integrate AI where it can reduce friction, accelerate delivery, and make advanced cloud-native capabilities more accessible.


We operate with a strong engineering culture centered on practical solutions, production reliability, and continuous improvement. We work closely with application developers and other platform engineers, balancing new capabilities with the security, scalability, and operational needs of a platform used across Morningstar.


About the Role


As a Software Engineer on the Casper team, you will help build and operate the services, developer tools, and infrastructure that make it easier for Morningstar teams to run applications in AWS.


You will own well-scoped features through the development lifecycle - from understanding a user's needs and contributing to the design through implementation, testing, deployment, and production monitoring. With guidance from experienced teammates, you will work across different parts of the platform, including command-line tooling, deployment automation, and cloud infrastructure.


You will use modern development practices and AI tools, while maintaining high standards for code quality, testing, documentation, and technical judgment. This role is well suited to someone who enjoys solving practical engineering problems, learning across application and infrastructure domains, and building tools that improve the experience of other developers.


What You'll Do

• Design, build, and enhance capabilities across the Casper ecosystem, deployment automation, and supporting platform services

• Own well-scoped features from initial requirements through implementation, testing, release, and production monitoring

• Work with application developers and platform engineers to understand pain points and improve the developer experience

• Contribute to the reliability, scalability, security, and maintainability of a production platform

• Write clean, maintainable, and well-tested code, including unit, integration, and regression tests

• Diagnose issues across application code, CI/CD pipelines, AWS resources, and Kubernetes workloads

• Use logging, metrics, alerts, and other observability tools to understand system behavior and improve reliability

• Contribute to technical designs and architecture decisions with support from senior engineers

• Improve automation and engineering practices that make changes safer and more consistent across environments

• Create and maintain clear technical documentation, runbooks, and developer-facing guidance

• Use AI-assisted development tools thoughtfully to accelerate implementation, testing, troubleshooting, and documentation

What We're Looking For

• Strong collaboration and communication skills, with an ability to discuss technical decisions directly and thoughtfully

• 2+ years of professional software engineering experience using at least one modern programming language

• Solid understanding of software engineering fundamentals, including data structures, APIs, testing, debugging, and common design patterns

• Experience building, testing, and maintaining production-grade software

• Ability to take ownership of well-defined work, identify risks, and ask for guidance when requirements or technical decisions are unclear

• Experience troubleshooting systems using logs, metrics, error reports, and debugging tools

• Familiarity with cloud computing, containerization, or modern application deployment concepts

• An interest in learning across software development, cloud infrastructure, and platform operations

• Experience working collaboratively through code reviews, version control, and iterative development practices

Nice to Have

• Experience with AWS services

• Experience with containers and container orchestrators, particularly Kubernetes

• Experience with infrastructure as code using Terraform

• Experience with CI/CD systems such as Harness

• Familiarity with GitOps tools like Helm or ArgoCD

Compensation and Benefits

At Morningstar we believe people are at their best when they are at their healthiest. That's why we champion your wellness through a wide range of programs that support all stages of your personal and professional life. Here are some examples of the offerings we provide:

• Financial Health
  
  • 100% 401k match up to 6% of salary
  • Stock Ownership Potential
  • Company provided life insurance - 1x salary + commission
• Physical Health
  
  
  • Comprehensive health benefits (medical/dental/vision) including potential premium discounts and company-provided HSA contributions (up to $500-$2,000 annually) for specific plans and coverages
  • Additional medical Wellness Incentives - up to $300-$600 annual
  • Company-provided long- and short-term disability insurance
• Emotional Health
  
  
  • Trust-Based Time Off
  • 6-week Paid Sabbatical Program
  • 6-Week Paid Family Caregiving Leave
  • Competitive 8-24 Week Paid Parental Leave
  • Adoption Assistance
  • Leadership Coaching & Formal Mentorship Opportunities
  • Annual Flex Stipend - $1000 annually to cover personal education & well-being expenses
  • Tuition Reimbursement
• Social Health
  
  
  • Charitable Matching Gifts program
  • Dollars for Doers volunteer program
  • Paid volunteering days
  • 15+ Employee Resource & Affinity Groups

Total Cash Compensation Range
$89,625.00-131,441.66
Inclusive of annual base salary and target incentive

Morningstar's hybrid work environment gives you the opportunity to collaborate in-person each week as we've found that we're at our best when we're purposely together on a regular basis. In most of our locations, our hybrid work model is four days in-office each week. A range of other benefits are also available to enhance flexibility as needs change. No matter where you are, you'll have tools and resources to engage meaningfully with your global colleagues.

001_MstarInc Morningstar Inc. Legal Entity