Sr. Lead, Software Engineering

About Northern TrustAs a global leader in innovative wealth management, asset servicing, asset management and banking services, Northern Trust (Nasdaq: NTRS) is proud to guide the world’s most successful individuals, families, corporations and institutions. Since 1889, we have aligned our efforts with our three guiding Principles That Endure: Service, Expertise, and Integrity. Together, they reflect the three cornerstones of business conduct which we strive to instill in our employees, whom we call partners, and to provide to our clients and the communities we serve worldwide. With more than 135 years of financial experience and over 24,000 partners, we serve the world’s most sophisticated clients using leading technology and exceptional service. Role OverviewThe Senior Lead Software Engineer is responsible for providing hands-on technical leadership across the design, development, modernization, and delivery of digital solutions supporting the Client Onboarding & Enrollments portfolio.This role combines deep software engineering expertise with architecture influence, cloud engineering, DevOps, AI-assisted development, and team enablement. The Senior Lead partners closely with Product, Architecture, Engineering, QA, SRE, and business stakeholders to deliver secure, scalable, resilient, and high-performing digital products.The role serves as a senior technical leader across engineering teams, driving engineering standards, mentoring engineers, addressing complex technical challenges, and ensuring solutions align with enterprise architecture, security, risk, and governance requirements.Key ResponsibilitiesTechnical Leadership & EngineeringLead the design, development, implementation, and modernization of complex enterprise digital solutions.Remain hands-on with Java/JEE, Spring Boot, REST APIs, microservices, event-driven architectures, and modern web applications.Provide technical direction across multiple applications, components, and engineering teams.Lead technical design and architecture reviews to ensure scalability, security, performance, resiliency, and maintainability.Establish and promote clean-code practices, reusable engineering patterns, Test-Driven Development (TDD), and spec-driven/contract-first development.Perform and guide code reviews, technical deep dives, proof-of-concepts, and resolution of complex engineering challenges.Partner with architects and senior engineers to define and continuously improve engineering standards and reference patterns.Cloud, Platform & ModernizationDesign and deliver cloud-native solutions leveraging Microsoft Azure and modern engineering practices.Provide technical leadership across Azure compute, networking, storage, integration, security, and cloud database capabilities.Drive modernization of legacy applications and services toward scalable, API-first, event-driven, and cloud-native architectures.Ensure solutions are designed for availability, observability, scalability, performance, resiliency, and operational supportability.Provide technical guidance for data architecture, integration patterns, Oracle/SQL, Elasticsearch, MQ/Solace, and related enterprise technologies.DevOps, Quality & AutomationChampion Agile, DevOps, CI/CD, automated testing, and infrastructure automation practices.Drive Test-Driven Development and comprehensive automation across unit, integration, regression, and system testing.Strengthen CI/CD pipelines and release practices to improve deployment reliability, quality, and delivery velocity.Partner with DevOps and SRE teams to improve monitoring, logging, alerting, dashboarding, incident response, and production readiness.Identify recurring operational issues and drive engineering improvements that reduce technical debt and improve application stability.AI-Assisted EngineeringChampion responsible adoption of AI-assisted software engineering tools and practices to improve developer productivity, quality, and engineering effectiveness.Identify opportunities to incorporate AI-assisted development, intelligent automation, code generation, testing, documentation, and engineering productivity capabilities into development workflows.Establish effective engineering practices that combine AI-assisted development with appropriate code review, testing, security, and governance controls.Engineering Excellence & Team EnablementMentor and develop engineers across design, coding, testing, cloud engineering, DevOps, and production support disciplines.Provide technical guidance to Lead and Senior Software Engineers while promoting strong engineering ownership and accountability.Foster a culture of engineering excellence, continuous learning, innovation, and continuous improvement.Lead by influence across engineering teams and help drive alignment on technology decisions, standards, and strategic technical priorities.Promote reusable engineering capabilities and patterns that improve consistency and accelerate delivery across the portfolio.Application Reliability, Risk & GovernanceMonitor application and platform health and lead resolution of complex stability, performance, scalability, and resiliency issues.Identify, assess, and mitigate technology, operational, security, and engineering risks.Ensure appropriate controls are incorporated into application design, development, deployment, and operational processes.Proactively address vulnerabilities, technical debt, and production risks to maintain application reliability and resilience.Ensure solutions comply with organizational architecture standards, security policies, technology controls, regulatory expectations, and governance requirements.Collaboration & Strategic InfluencePartner closely with Product, Business, Architecture, QA, SRE, Security, Infrastructure, and other technology teams.Translate business requirements and strategic priorities into scalable technical solutions and engineering roadmaps.Communicate complex technology decisions clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders.Influence technology direction and engineering priorities through technical expertise and data-driven recommendations.Collaborate effectively with globally distributed teams across North America, EMEA, and India.Proactively identify dependencies, constraints, technology risks, and opportunities while recommending pragmatic solutions.Required QualificationsTechnical Skills8+ years of professional software engineering experience, with significant hands-on development and technical leadership experience.Deep expertise in Java/JEE, Spring Boot, REST APIs, microservices, and enterprise application development.Strong experience designing and developing cloud-native solutions on Microsoft Azure.Strong experience with Oracle, SQL, Elasticsearch, MQ/Solace, and enterprise integration technologies.Solid understanding of distributed systems, API design, event-driven architecture, data modeling, and application performance optimization.Strong experience with CI/CD, DevOps, automated testing, and modern software delivery practices.Practical experience with Test-Driven Development (TDD) and spec-driven/contract-first development.Experience with Linux, networking, cloud infrastructure, monitoring, observability, and application security.Understanding of application architecture, cloud architecture, security, scalability, availability, and resiliency principles.Leadership & Professional SkillsProven ability to provide hands-on technical leadership across complex engineering initiatives.Demonstrated ability to mentor engineers and elevate engineering practices across teams.Ability to lead and influence technology decisions without relying on direct reporting authority.Strong analytical, troubleshooting, design, and problem-solving capabilities.Excellent written and verbal communication skills.Ability to communicate architecture and engineering decisions clearly to both technical and business stakeholders.Comfortable operating in complex, fast-paced, globally distributed enterprise environments.Education & ExperienceBachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field.8+ years of software engineering experience, including experience leading complex application development initiatives.Experience working within Agile product and engineering organizations.Experience delivering enterprise-grade systems in regulated environments.Experience with digital products, workflow automation, transaction processing, client onboarding, or financial services platforms is preferred.Preferred QualificationsMicrosoft Azure certification, particularly Azure architecture or development certifications.Experience with AI-assisted software development and engineering productivity tools.Experience with large-scale application modernization and cloud migration.Experience designing highly available distributed and event-driven systems.Experience establishing reusable engineering patterns, frameworks, or platform capabilities across multiple teams.Experience operating mission-critical applications in highly regulated enterprise environments.What Success Looks LikeEngineering teams consistently deliver secure, resilient, scalable, and high-quality digital products.Technical solutions align with long-term architecture strategy while meeting immediate business and client needs.CI/CD, automation, testing, observability, and DevOps practices improve delivery reliability and time-to-market.Cloud-native and modernization initiatives measurably improve application scalability, maintainability, and operational resilience.Engineers grow in technical capability, ownership, design thinking, and engineering discipline.AI-assisted development is adopted responsibly to improve engineering productivity while maintaining quality, security, and governance.Architecture and engineering decisions effectively balance innovation, delivery speed, operational stability, risk, and long-term maintainability.Salary Range:$114,500 - 194,700 USDSalary range is a good faith estimate of base pay. Northern Trust provides a comprehensive benefits package including retirement benefits (401k and pension), health and welfare benefits (medical, dental, vision, spending accounts and disability), paid time off, parental and caregiver leave, life & accident insurance, and other voluntary and well-being benefits. Northern Trust also provides a discretionary bonus program that may include an equity component.Work AuthorizationApplicants must be authorized to work in the U.S. without the need for employment-based visa sponsorship now or in the future. Northern Trust will not sponsor applicants for U.S. work visa status for this opportunity (no sponsorship is available for H-1B, L-1, TN, O-1, E-3, H-1B1, F-1, J-1, OPT, CPT or any other employment-based visa). Working with UsAs a Northern Trust partner, you will be part of a flexible and collaborative work culture, which has a strong history of financial strength and stability. Movement within the organization is encouraged, senior leaders are accessible, and you can take pride in working for a company committed to an inclusive workplace and assisting the communities we serve.Philanthropy is deeply rooted in Northern Trust’s history and is an essential element of our culture. Employees around the world give their time and talent to work for the greater good of their communities. Reasonable Accommodation Northern Trust is committed to working with and providing adjustments to individuals with health conditions and disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process, please email our HR Service Center at View email address on click.appcast.io, or alternatively you can discuss your individual requirements with the recruiter you are working with. SummaryLocation: Chicago, ILType: Full time