Software Engineer (Hybrid- Des Moines)

We’re looking for an experienced Software Engineer to join our Sales Compensation Technology area on the accounting and finance team. Our team builds event-driven financial systems on AWS using TypeScript and modern software development approaches.

You’ll join a product-focused engineering team with minimal legacy constraints, a high degree of ownership, and a culture of continuous learning and technical excellence.

If you’re excited by solving complex problems, collaborating closely with product partners, and delivering meaningful outcomes through small, iterative improvements, you’ll feel right at home on our team.

You’ll ** have the opportunity to** :

• Collaborate with engineers, architects, and business partners to build high-quality, event-drivensystems that drive meaningful business outcomes
• Own features end to end, from technical design and implementation through testing, deployment, and ongoing maintenance
• Solve increasingly complex problems that improve our finance systems, platform scalability, and system performance
• Take on work of growing complexity, learning quickly, incorporating feedback, and continuously improving the quality of your solutions
• Participate actively in pairing, mob programming, and design discussions, learning from teammates while strengthening overall team outcomes
• Use AI-assisted development tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot) to improve productivity, testing, and code quality
• Follow established engineering, security, and quality standards while experimenting with new tools, practices, and industry trends

As Principal continues to modernize its systems, this role will offer you an exciting opportunity to build solutions that will directly impact our long-term strategy and tech stack, all while ensuring that our products are robust, scalable, and secure!

Operating at the intersection of financial services and technology, Principal builds financial tools that help our customers live better lives. We take pride in being a purpose-led firm, motivated by our mission to make financial security accessible to all. Our mission, integrity, and customer focus have made us a trusted leader for more than 140 years., This role is located in our corporate office in Des Moines, IA. We offer an in-office and hybrid (blending at least three office days in a typical workweek) work arrangements in Des Moines, IA. There is an expectation for this role to work on site at least 3 days a week.

Job Level

We’ll consider talent at Software Engineer II and Software Engineer III level with the right experience and skills.

Our Engineering Culture

Through our product-driven Agile/Lean DevOps environment, we’ve fostered a culture of innovation and experimentation across our development teams. As a customer-focused organization, we work closely with our end users and product owners to understand and rapidly respond to emerging business needs.

Collaboration is embedded into everything we do - from the products we develop to the quality service we provide. We’re driven by the belief that diversity of thought, background, and perspective is critical to creating the best products and experiences for our customers.

• Associate’s or bachelor’s degree (preference in a computer science, technology, engineering or math-related field or equivalent experience) or equivalent experience
• 2+ years engineering experience, ideally with full stack exposure
• Experience with API or event-driven applications in a modern software language
• Excellent planning, organizational, problem-solving, analytical, decision-making and communication skills
• Must have the desire to learn new technology and continuously grow

Skills That Will Help You Stand Out

• Hands-on experience working with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure)
• Experience with Typescript
• Curiosity about system design, decoupling, and modern architecture patterns
• Using AI tools, GitHub Copilot, etc.

Salary ranges below reflect targeted base salaries. Non-sales positions have the opportunity to participate in a bonus program. Sales positions are eligible for sales incentives, and in some instances a bonus plan, whereby total compensation may far exceed base salary depending on individual performance. Actual compensation for all roles will be based upon geographic location, work experience, education, licensure requirements and/or skill level and will be finalized at the time of offer.

Salary Range (Non-Exempt expressed as hourly; Exempt expressed as yearly)

$77000 - $112000 / year

Salary Details

The following salary ranges reflect market-specific compensation for this position across multiple job levels. Candidates will be evaluated to determine the appropriate job level based on their skills and experience.

• Software Engineer II: $77,000 - $92,000 / year
• Software Engineer III: $94,000 - $112,000 / year

Time Off Program

Flexible Time Off (FTO) is provided to salaried (exempt) employees and provides the opportunity to take time away from the office with pay for vacation, personal or short-term illness. Employees don’t accrue a bank of time off under FTO and there is no set number of days provided.

Nonimmigrant Workers (https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/temporary-nonimmigrant-workers) and Green Card for Employment-Based Immigrants (https://www.uscis.gov/green-card/green-card-eligibility/green-card-for-employment-based-immigrants), At Principal, we value connecting on both a personal and professional level. Together, we’re imagining a more purpose-led future for financial services - and that starts with you. Our success depends on the unique experiences, backgrounds, and talents of our employees. And we support our employees the same way we support our customers: with comprehensive, competitive benefit offerings crafted to protect their physical, financial, and social well-being. Check out our careers site (https://www.principal.com/about-us/careers) to learn more about our purpose, values and benefits.