Principal Engineer for GCF - Security Services

Greetings,

Job Role

Abu Dhabi

About Company

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Role Summary

• The Principal Engineer – Technical Expert (Application Platforms) is a senior individual‑contributor role that acts as the deep technical authority within the Securities Services domain.
• Works in close partnership with Domain Architects, Application Owners, IT Operations, Risk, and Compliance teams to:
• provide expert technical judgement at the application level,
• introduce innovation and modern engineering practices, and
• embed AI‑driven improvements across the SDLC to materially enhance speed, quality, and resilience.
• The incumbent intervenes directly in complex engineering topics, influences outcomes through technical credibility, and helps elevate overall engineering maturity across the domain.

Role Positioning & Interfaces

• This role:
• Does provide application‑level technical leadership and innovation
• Does not own enterprise‑wide architecture standards (handled by Architects)
• Does not run day‑to‑day IT operations (handled by Operations teams)
• Key interfaces include:
• Application Owners – primary delivery and prioritization counterparts
• Domain / Application Architects – enterprise architecture and design alignment
• IT Operations – stability, incidents, releases, and observability
• Risk & Compliance – secure‑by‑design, regulatory, audit readiness
• Vendors – technical quality, engineering standards, delivery assurance

1. Deep Technical Expertise & Advisory

• Act as the application‑level subject‑matter expert across assigned platforms.
• Provide authoritative guidance on application architecture, design patterns, performance, security, resilience, and scalability.
• Perform hands‑on design reviews, code reviews, root‑cause analysis, and complex troubleshooting where deep expertise is required.

2. Partnership with Application Owners & Architects

• Work closely with Application Owners to strengthen technical decisions, estimates, and delivery outcomes.
• Collaborate with Architects to ensure solutions align with enterprise architecture and target‑state direction.
• Translate architectural intent into practical, implementable application designs.

3. SDLC Improvement & Engineering Excellence

• Actively identify bottlenecks, quality gaps, and inefficiencies across the SDLC.
• Embed modern engineering practices covering design quality, testability, automation, and release readiness.
• Support SIT/UAT through defect analysis, prevention strategies, and design corrections.

4. AI‑Enabled SDLC Transformation

• Accelerate SDLC, improve quality, and reduce rework.
• Accelerate technical analysis and documentation.
• Improve code quality and first‑time‑right delivery.
• Strengthen testing depth and coverage.
• Reduce cycle time across build, test, and release phases.
• Embeds AI responsibly within regulated, audit‑ready engineering practices

5. Migration, Modernization & Decommissioning Enablement

• Provide technical expertise for legacy modernization, cloud or platform migrations, COTS transitions, and application decommissioning.
• Use structured analysis (including AI‑based insights) to identify dependencies, risks, and migration complexity.
• Support cutover planning, stabilization, and post‑migration optimization.

6. Run‑the‑Bank & Stability Support

• Support IT Operations during major production incidents with deep technical diagnostics.
• Identify recurring failure patterns and recommend engineering‑led preventive fixes.
• Influence improvements in observability, resilience, and recoverability (without owning operations).

7. Innovation & Continuous Improvement

• Actively bring new ideas, tools, and techniques into the domain.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and AI use‑cases for practical adoption.
• Drive a culture of engineering craftsmanship, learning, and forward‑thinking design.

Experience & Background

• 10+ years of hands‑on engineering experience within Banking, Financial Services, or large‑scale enterprise technology environments.
• Proven credibility as a go‑to technical expert handling complex systems, migrations, and production‑grade platforms.
• Demonstrated experience driving engineering innovation and SDLC improvements, including AI‑assisted practices.
• Experience operating in vendor‑led or hybrid delivery models.