Principal Engineer I - Copilot Studio Administration & Operational Support

As a Principal Engineer I you’ll provide SME expertise for Copilot Studio and Power Platform for the Enterprise Application Services to ensure solutions are safe, secure, compliant and reliable. You’ll identify standards, guardrails, development and support needs as well as take on large and complex design responsibilities supporting project tasks. You’ll also engage with project and business sponsors refining requirements and objectives of targeted solutions. As a Principal Engineer I, you also facilitate dialogue and activities, and work to ensure team collaboration, including teams outside of your domain. You’ll develop effective presentations and narratives for IT audiences. In this role, you’ll also develop the technical skills of one or more junior engineers.

• Establish and maintain governance standards, development frameworks, and operational procedures for Microsoft Copilot Studio, ensuring alignment with enterprise architecture, security, compliance, risk management, and SDLC requirements.
• Define and enforce guardrails for agent development, including environment strategy, solution management, connector usage, plugin integration, prompt engineering standards, knowledge source management, and deployment processes.
• Partner with Enterprise Architecture, Information Security, Risk, Legal, and Compliance teams to review and approve Copilot Studio solutions, ensuring adherence to banking regulatory requirements and enterprise governance standards.
• Develop and maintain governance artifacts including reference architectures, design patterns, reusable templates, implementation standards, support models, and operational runbooks for agentic AI solutions.
• Monitor industry trends, Microsoft roadmap updates, and emerging AI governance practices to continuously improve platform controls, standards, and adoption strategies.
• Define and implement Responsible AI controls, including monitoring, evaluation, content safety, data protection, model transparency, and human oversight requirements.
• Establish governance processes for agent lifecycle management, agent certification, production readiness reviews, and ongoing compliance monitoring.
• Develop standards for prompt management, agent testing, knowledge source validation, conversation logging, and AI output quality assurance.
• Ensure AI solutions are developed and operated in accordance with enterprise policies, regulatory obligations, and responsible AI principles.
• Mentor engineers, administrators, developers, and solution architects on Copilot Studio architecture, governance, operational best practices, and agent development methodologies.
• Lead communities of practice, knowledge-sharing initiatives, and technical training programs that accelerate adoption while maintaining governance and compliance standards.
• Act as the primary subject matter expert for Copilot Studio platform capabilities, providing strategic guidance to business and technology stakeholders.

• 8+ years of related experience.
• Bachelor’s degree in related field required; Masters or MBA in related field preferred.
• Previous leadership experience preferred.
• Advanced to expert knowledge of Intelligent Automation concepts including document processing (OCR/ICR, tagging, extraction, summarization, sentiment, etc.), Robotics Process Automation (RPA), automated workflows and is preferred.
• Advanced to expert knowledge of Generative AI (e.g., OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, Copilot Studio, etc.) and Agentic AI concepts and development practices are preferred.
• Advanced to expert knowledge of Microsoft Power Platform and Copilot Studio or similar low-code automation platforms (Blue Prism, Nintex K2/Apps, Automation Anywhere, etc.) is preferred.
• Advanced to expert knowledge of general Financial Services or Banking is preferred.
• Advanced to expert knowledge of applicable regulatory and legal compliance obligations, rules and regulations, industry standards and practices.
• Advanced to expert experience in leading cross-functional teams and managing multiple projects simultaneously with an established expertise in one or more key domains of the bank (Deposits, Loans, Operations or Reporting) with the ability to walk-through top-level process design. Capable of working with regulatory partners like the CFPB, OCC and FRB through audits and collaboration efforts as situations arise.
• Advanced to expert familiarity with the capability model across IT and the applications and infrastructures available for engagement in solutioning across the bank to develop results that leverage existing capabilities in addition to implementing new solutions when required. Experience in the design, enhancement and compliance to all governance frameworks across the IT organization to ensure proper compliance with published procedures and standards.
• Advanced speaking and writing communication skills.
• Occasional travel is required.

Pulled from the full job description

• Tuition reimbursement
• Health insurance
• 401(k) matching
• Dental insurance
• Wellness program, We offer all the important things you’d want - like competitive salaries, an ownership stake in the company, medical and dental insurance, time off, a great 401k matching program, tuition assistance program, an employee volunteer program, and a wellness program. In addition, you’ll have the opportunity to bolster your business knowledge, learning the ins and outs of how successful companies operate and manage their finances, giving you invaluable hands-on experience to help grow your career!

Western Alliance Bank, Member FDIC, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Western Alliance Bancorporation. Serving clients nationwide, Western Alliance Bank includes six legacy bank brands - Alliance Association Bank, Alliance Bank of Arizona, Bank of Nevada, Bridge Bank, First Independent Bank and Torrey Pines Bank - that remain part of the company’s heritage, as well as AmeriHome Mortgage, a Western Alliance Bank Company.