Principal Engineer - Agentic AI for IT Operations

Ally and Your Career Ally Financial only succeeds when its people do - and that’s more than some cliché people put on job postings. We live this stuff! We see our people as, well, people - with interests, families, friends, dreams, and causes that are all important to them. Our focus is on the health and safety of our teammates as well as work life balance and diversity and inclusion. From generous benefits to a variety of employee resource groups, we strive to build paths that encourage employees to stretch themselves professionally. We want to help you grow, develop, and learn new things. You’re constantly evolving, so shouldn’t your opportunities be, too? Work Schedule Ally designates roles as (1) fully on-site, (2) hybrid, or (3) fully remote. Hybrid roles are generally expected to be in the office a certain number of days per week as indicated by your manager. Your hiring manager will discuss this role's specific work requirements with you during the hiring process. All work requirements are subject to change at any time based on leader discretion and/or business need. The Opportunity At Ally, you get a startup feel, but experience the benefits of a company that has worked out the kinks and is fulfilling its purpose. We are always evolving and see that as a good thing. From owning our work to seeing its impact in the real world, our team is relentless in finding new ways technology can help make experiences better and help people. We are problem solvers, we value diverse thinking, we support one another, and we challenge ourselves to think bigger in the journey to deliver customer obsessed tech solutions. To read more about what our tech team does, be sure to visit our tech blog at ally.tech We are seeking a Principal Engineer to lead the design, implementation, and adoption of agentic AI solutions that transform how our Corporate Technology organization manages incidents, changes, and problems across complex, production environments including SaaS, COTS and homegrown applications which are on-prem and the cloud. This role is a key technical leader driving operational reliability, automation, and risk aligned engineering practices across the enterprise. You will work closely with Security, Enterprise Operations, Risk and Compliance, and application teams to architect solutions, ensure compliance with mandates, and accelerate delivery. You’ll bring deep technical expertise, a collaborative mindset, and a passion for modernizing IT operations with AI driven automation. Ally will not sponsor a new applicant for employment authorization for this position. The Work Itself Agentic AI Engineering & Architecture Architect, develop, and evolve agentic AI solutions that automate incident management, change management, and problem management workflows. Build intelligent agents for detection, triage, diagnostics, communication, and remediation across production applications for SaaS, COTS and homegrown applications. Design and implement scalable integration patterns with monitoring, logging, ticketing, automation, and observability platforms. Operational Excellence & Production Support Partner with production support, SRE, and application teams to improve reliability, reduce MTTR, and automate operational runbooks. Establish engineering standards for safe deployment, testing, and monitoring of AI enabled automation. Provide technical leadership during major incidents, ensuring agent driven tooling and guidance supports consistent recovery. Governance, Risk, and Compliance Leadership Drive completion of corporate tech risk and compliance mandates across application teams. Define technical controls, ensure alignment with regulatory requirements, and guide teams through implementation. Track program execution, identify gaps, and elevate risks with clarity and data. Cross Functional Partnership Serve as a key technical liaison across Security, Enterprise Operations, Infrastructure, Risk, and Compliance. Lead technical discussions, influence architectural decisions, and gain alignment across multiple stakeholder groups. Communicate complex concepts in a clear, approachable, and outcomes focused way. Leadership & Team Culture Mentor engineers, champion best practices, and set a high bar for engineering quality and accountability. Foster a collaborative, approachable, team first culture—modeling communication, ownership, and transparency. Help shape long term strategies for AI driven IT operations across the enterprise. Skills The Skills You Bring Minimum Qualification 7+ years of relevant experience or equivalent combination of education and experience High School Diploma or GED equivalent Preferred Qualifications 5+ years software engineering experience with strong depth in distributed systems, enterprise operations, or SRE. Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or similar field or equivalent experience. Hands on experience building automation or AI driven operational tooling (e.g., agent based systems, LLM apps, observability driven automation, self healing systems). Expertise with incident, change, and problem management processes in large enterprise environments. Strong understanding of governance, risk, and compliance frameworks (technology control standards, audit readiness, policy implementation). Proven ability to lead cross functional technical initiatives with diverse partners. Excellent communication skills; approachable, practical, and team oriented working style. Ability to influence without authority and drive execution at scale. Highly Preferred Skills Awareness of the latest on AI technology Experience with LLM frameworks, multi agent orchestration, or retrieval augmented automation. Experience with Claude Code, IDEs with AI agents like Cursor, VSCode with Agents etc. Familiarity with ServiceNow, APM/log platforms (Dynatrace, Splunk), CI/CD, and cloud platforms. Background in FinTech or regulated industries. How We’ll Have Your Back Ally's compensation program offers market competitive base pay and pay for performance incentives (bonuses) based on achieving personal and company goals. Our Total Rewards program includes industry leading compensation and benefits plus additional incentives that are designed to meet your needs and those of your family so you can get the most out of your career and your life, including: Time Away: Program starts at 20 paid time off days in addition to 11 paid holidays and 8 hours of volunteer time off yearly (time off days are prorated based on start date and program varies based on full or part time status and management level). Planning for the Future: Plan for the near and long term with an industry leading 401K retirement savings plan with matching and company contributions, student loan pay downs and 529 educational save up assistance programs, tuition reimbursement, employee stock purchase plan, and financial learning center and financial coach access. Supporting your Health & Well being: Flexible health and insurance options including medical, dental and vision, employee, spouse and child life insurance, short and long term disability, pre tax Health Savings Account with employer contributions, Healthcare FSA, critical illness, accident & hospital indemnity insurance, and a total well being program that helps you and your family stay on track physically, socially, emotionally, and financially. Building a Family: Adoption, surrogacy, and fertility assistance as well as paid parental and caregiver leave, Dependent Day Care FSA back up child and adult/elder care days and childcare discounts. Work Life Integration: Other benefits including Mentally Fit Employee Assistance Program, subsidized and discounted Weight Watchers program and other employee discount programs. Other compensations: Depending on the role for which you are considered, you may be eligible for travel allowances, relocation assistance, a signing bonus and/or equity. To view more detailed information about Ally’s Total Rewards, please visit this link: Who We Are Ally Financial is a customer centric, leading digital financial services company with passionate customer service and innovative financial solutions. We are relentlessly focused on "Doing it Right" and being a trusted financial services provider to our consumer, commercial, and corporate customers. For more information, visit Ally is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, sex, religion, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy status, marital status, military or veteran status, genetic disposition or any other reason protected by law. We are committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodation to applicants with physical or mental disabilities. For accommodation requests, email us at View email address on click.appcast.io. Ally will not discriminate against any qualified individual who is capable of performing the essential functions of the job with or without reasonable accommodation. Base Pay Range : $90,000 - $150,000 USD Incentive Compensation: This position is eligible to participate in our annual incentive plan. #J-18808-Ljbffr Ally