Senior AI Software Engineer

Principal Financial Group is seeking a high-agency, AI-native Software Engineer who is passionate about building real-world AI systems that deliver measurable business impact. The role involves leading the development of custom AI agents, driving the delivery of AI solutions, and collaborating with the engineering team to implement innovative AI capabilities.

Responsibilities:

• Lead development of custom AI agents and agentic patterns using AWS Bedrock and related services
• Own proof-of-concept creation for new AI capabilities and innovation initiatives
• Drive end-to-end delivery of AI use case solutions from design through production
• Serve as senior technical execution lead, providing guidance and code review to engineering team members
• Collaborate with the AI Architect to translate architectural decisions into working implementations
• Evaluate and integrate emerging AI tools, frameworks, and patterns
• Contribute to reusable agent patterns, skills, and libraries used across engineering teams

Requirements:

• 8+ years of software engineering experience with increasing technical leadership responsibility
• Hands-on experience building applications with large language models, AI agents, or generative AI services
• Strong experience with agentic patterns (tool use, multi-agent orchestration, MCPs, skills, AI CLI platforms)
• Proficiency with AWS services (Bedrock, Agent Core, Lambda, S3, OpenSearch, or similar)
• Experience with Python, TypeScript, or other languages commonly used in AI/ML development
• Demonstrated ability to lead technical execution — taking initiatives from concept to production
• Strong collaboration skills; able to work across architecture, product, and engineering functions
• MLOps — Docker, Kubernetes, ML lifecycle management, model monitoring
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure-as-code, and DevOps practices
• System design — distributed systems, API design, scalable architectures
• Experience working with distributed or offshore engineering teams
• Background in financial services or regulated industries