Software Engineer Principal - Ansible/Python

Position Overview

At PNC, our people are our greatest differentiator and competitive advantage in the markets we serve. We are all united in delivering the best experience for our customers. We work together each day to foster an inclusive workplace culture where all of our employees feel respected, valued and have an opportunity to contribute to the company's success. As a Software Engineer Principal - Ansible/Python within PNC's Technology organization, you will be based in Pittsburgh, PA.

PNC is an in-office company that fosters a supportive culture where employees can thrive and achieve balance. We encourage candidates to connect with their recruiter and hiring manager to understand workplace expectations and ensure the role aligns with their goals.

PNC will not provide sponsorship for employment visas or participate in STEM OPT for this position.

Job Description

The Software Engineer Principal is a part of a team responsible for modernizing legacy technology by moving to an Ansible-based backend and Python-driven automation, with a strong emphasis on reliability and operational readiness.

Focused on technology and business resiliency, They will own and build systems that support high availability, disaster recovery, and automated failover between data centers.

This is a hands-on individual contributor role with technical leadership responsibilities. The engineer spends most of the time building and operating systems, while also guiding technical direction and supporting team members.

Core Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain backend infrastructure that supports high availability and automated failover between data centers
• Architect and implement resiliency solutions for distributed systems, including failover and failback workflows
• Develop and manage automation for recovery operations using Ansible and Python
• Lead disaster recovery testing and validate system resiliency and readiness
• Collaborate closely with architects to align designs with long-term resiliency goals
• Partner with product owners to plan work, refine requirements, and size epics and user stories
• Work within an Agile delivery environment, contributing to planning and execution
• Establish and promote best practices for reliability, recovery, and continuity engineering
• Mentor junior engineers through technical guidance and hands-on collaboration
• Contribute directly to backend development and operational improvements as needed
• Operate as a senior individual contributor with a player-coach mindset, spending most time on hands-on development while providing technical leadership

Preferred Technical Skills

• Hands-on expertise with Ansible for infrastructure automation and orchestration of failover workflows
• Strong Python experience building automation, services, and resiliency tooling
• Strong experience with backend engineering in distributed systems
• Experience with distributed task processing using Celery, including asynchronous workflows, retries, and scheduling
• Solid understanding of high availability, disaster recovery, and resiliency architectures
• Experience designing systems that handle failure scenarios gracefully
• Experience building application programming interfaces using FastAPI
• Familiarity with relational database access using SQLAlchemy or SQLModel

Preferred Experience

• Operating at a senior or principal engineering level in scope and impact
• Experience collaborating closely with product owners, architects, and engineering peers
• Experience contributing to Agile planning, estimation, and delivery
• Ownership of outcomes and drives work from design through implementation and validation

• Aligns business strategy with software solutions.
• Proposes, designs & codes software solutions to address complex business needs. Oversees technical and procedural documentation required.
• Leads complex problem solving.
• Provides technical guidance and support to colleagues and solution development.
• Displays an innovative approach to apply modern principles, methodologies and tools to advance business initiatives and capabilities.

PNC Employees take pride in our reputation and to continue building upon that we expect our employees to be:

• Customer Focused - Knowledgeable of the values and practices that align customer needs and satisfaction as primary considerations in all business decisions and able to leverage that information in creating customized customer solutions.
• Managing Risk - Assessing and effectively managing all of the risks associated with their business objectives and activities to ensure they adhere to and support PNC's Enterprise Risk Management Framework.

Qualifications

Successful candidates must demonstrate appropriate knowledge, skills, and abilities for a role. Listed below are skills, competencies, work experience, education, and required certifications/licensures needed to be successful in this position.

Preferred Skills
Ansible (Software), Application Development, Back-End Development, Business Management, Customer Solutions, Design, Group Problem Solving, Process Improvements, Python (Programming Language), Release Management, Software Solutions, User Experience (UX) Design

Competencies
Application Design, Architecture, Packaged Application Integration, Product and Vendor Evaluation, Software Process Improvement (SPI), System Development Life Cycle, Technical Troubleshooting

Work Experience
Roles at this level typically require a university / college degree, with 5+ years of industry-relevant experience. Specific certifications are often required. In lieu of a degree, a comparable combination of education, job specific certification(s), and experience (including military service) may be considered.

Education
Bachelors

Certifications
No Required Certification(s)

Licenses
No Required License(s)

Benefits

PNC offers a comprehensive range of benefits to help meet your needs now and in the future. Depending on your eligibility, options for full-time employees include: medical/prescription drug coverage (with a Health Savings Account feature), dental and vision options; employee and spouse/child life insurance; short and long-term disability protection; 401(k) with PNC match, pension and stock purchase plans; dependent care reimbursement account; back-up child/elder care; adoption, surrogacy, and doula reimbursement; educational assistance, including select programs fully paid; a robust wellness program with financial incentives.

In addition, PNC generally provides the following paid time off, depending on your eligibility: maternity and/or parental leave; up to 11 paid holidays each year; 9 occasional absence days each year, unless otherwise required by law; between 15 to 25 vacation days each year, depending on career level; and years of service.

To learn more about these and other programs, including benefits for full time and part-time employees, visit pncthrive.com.

Disability Accommodations Statement

If an accommodation is required to participate in the application process, please contact us via email at View email address on click.appcast.io. Please include "accommodation request" in the subject line title and be sure to include your name, the job ID, and your preferred method of contact in the body of the email. Emails not related to accommodation requests will not receive responses. Applicants may also call View phone number on click.appcast.io and say "Workday" for accommodation assistance. All information provided will be kept confidential and will be used only to the extent required to provide needed reasonable accommodations.


At PNC we foster an inclusive and accessible workplace. We provide reasonable accommodations to employment applicants and qualified individuals with a disability who need an accommodation to perform the essential functions of their positions.

Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO)

PNC provides equal employment opportunity to qualified persons regardless of race, color, sex, religion, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, veteran status, or other categories protected by law.

This position is subject to the requirements of Section 19 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act (FDIA) and, for any registered role, the Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act of 2008 (SAFE Act) and/or the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), which prohibit the hiring of individuals with certain criminal history.

California Residents

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