Principal Software Engineer

Responsible for writing code at the expert level in multiple languages while driving technical solutions and serving as a subject matter expert (SME). Leads development initiatives, influences best practices, and plays a critical role in enterprise technology strategy within the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC). Acts as a knowledge resource and mentor for less experienced engineers across Technology.

• Accountable for the overall code change and review process  to ensure high quality and process optimization.
• Apply and analyze metrics across teams to identify opportunities for SDLC process improvement, peer reviews, and work with their teams to implement solutions.
• Author organized, clean, efficient, and secure source code at the expert level in a minimum of 2 programming languages with the ability to build shared libraries. Coach team members on the appropriate data structure and algorithms to solve business problems.
• Contribute to domain improvement of development operations and coding practices and strategy.
• Contribute and review technical roadmaps that address both strategic requirements and technical debt ensuring compliance with corporate standards and industry best practices.
• Support rollout of engineering capabilities for specific domains and ensure all regulatory requirements are met.
• Lead discussions with business or technical stakeholders and proactively engage other groups on established technical and architectural opportunities in relation to their applications.
• Design, review, and approve system architecture; ensure cross-domain alignment, identify gaps and efficiencies, and drive strategic direction while adhering to architectural design patterns.
• Regularly participate in and present at peer group committees capturing opportunities for improvement and working with senior leadership to act on appropriate improvements.
• Responsible for ensuring code quality is aligned to industry and corporate standards and expectations while also mentoring junior team members' work.
• Drive implementation adherence and recommend patterns and practices related to performance testing, resiliency and optimizations within their domain.
• Drive behavioral change with product owners, architects, and senior leaders in the overall requirements and/or story ingestion process within their domain.
• Understand and adhere to the Company’s risk and regulatory standards, policies and controls in accordance with the Company’s Risk Appetite. Identify risk-related issues needing escalation to management.
• Promote an environment that supports a culture of belonging and reflects the M&T Bank brand.
• Maintain M&T internal control standards, including timely implementation of internal and external audit points together with any issues raised by external regulators as applicable.
• Complete other related duties as assigned.

No supervisory responsibilities.

Education and Experience Required

• Associate's degree and a minimum of 9 years' systems analysis and/or application development experience, or Bachelor's degree and a minimum of 7 years' systems analysis and/or application development experience. In lieu of a degree, a combined minimum of 11 years' education and/or relevant work experience, including a minimum of 7 years' systems analysis and/or application development experience.
• Proven experience serving as a technical lead for large-scale modernization, migration, or platform transformation initiatives involving multiple delivery teams.
• Proven ability to influence engineers, architects, product owners, and senior leaders without direct authority.
• Demonstrated experience designing, developing, and delivering complex enterprise-scale software solutions across multiple technology domains.
• Expert proficiency in at least one relevant programming language and advanced proficiency in at least one additional relevant programming language.
• Experience working with solution architecture, managing architectural change, and aligning technical delivery across multiple applications, platforms, and engineering teams.
• Deep understanding of software engineering practices related to resiliency, availability, security, observability, recoverability, and operational readiness.
• Experience identifying and mitigating technical risks, resolving cross-team dependencies, and driving architectural decisions through implementation.
• Experience designing and governing API-based integrations, distributed systems, data synchronization patterns, and enterprise application architectures.
• Experience working within and enforcing engineering standards related to performance, security, reliability, maintainability, and production support.

Education and Experience Preferred

• Experience working within banking or financial services technology environments, including knowledge of platforms supporting deposits, consumer or commercial lending, branch operations, card and payment processing, customer servicing, and digital banking channels.
• Experience supporting technology solutions within highly regulated environments subject to risk, audit, compliance, and security requirements.
• Familiarity with agile concepts and delivering large complex efforts in an agile framework.
• Experience establishing architecture runway and coordinating technical dependencies across large, multi-year programs.
• Experience partnering with enterprise architecture, cybersecurity, infrastructure, data management, and operational risk organizations.
• Experience defining non-functional requirements and engineering standards related to resiliency, scalability, observability, recoverability, performance, and security.
• Experience mentoring senior engineers and serving as a technical leader across multiple teams and disciplines.
• Experience presenting architecture recommendations, technology strategy, and risk trade-offs to senior leadership and governance committees.
• Proven subject matter expertise in one or more business-critical technology domains.