Software Engineer Principal - Database Management​/JAVA​/Shell Scripting

Position Overview

At PNC, our people are our greatest differentiator and competitive advantage in the markets we serve. We are all united in delivering the best experience for our customers. We work together each day to foster an inclusive workplace culture where all of our employees feel respected, valued and have an opportunity to contribute to the company’s success. As an Actimize Software Engineer Principal within PNC’s Fraud Technologies Group organization you will be located at 2850 East Camelback Rod, Phoenix, AZ 85016, Pittsburgh, PA or Denver, CO.

Monday through Friday, 8 to 5. Some weekends may be required due to project releases. On‑call production support approximately every 6 weeks.

The Software Engineer Principal is a senior technical leader within the Fraud Transactions Engineering organization, responsible for designing, optimizing, and extending systems that power high‑volume, database‑driven fraud transaction processing.

This role focuses on SQL optimization, database‑centric application design, Java‑based platform extensions, and enterprise integrations that enable real‑time and batch fraud detection.

The Principal Engineer partners closely with application teams, DBAs, platform engineers, and operations to ensure fraud systems are performant, resilient, and scalable.

PNC is an in‑office company that fosters a supportive culture where employees can thrive and achieve balance. We encourage candidates to connect with their recruiter and hiring manager to understand workplace expectations and ensure the role aligns with their goals.

PNC will not provide sponsorship for employment visas or participate in STEM OPT for this position.

• Serve as a technical authority for SQL design and optimization across fraud transaction platforms.
• Design, analyze, and tune complex SQL and PL/SQL used in high volume transactional and analytical workloads.
• Partner with engineers to optimize database access patterns, indexing strategies, and schema designs.
• Diagnose and remediate SQL‑driven performance issues impacting real‑time fraud decisioning or batch processing.
• Develop and maintain Java‑based custom extensions, including Action Plugins, to enhance and extend Actimize platform functionality.
• Collaborate with fraud engineers to integrate custom logic into detection and processing flows while maintaining performance and stability.
• Ensure Java components are efficiently designed to minimize database contention and latency.
• Design and support integrations between fraud platforms and upstream/downstream banking systems.
• Work with ETL tools (e.g., Informatica), APIs, SOAP/REST web services, and message queues to enable reliable, performant data movement.
• Optimize data ingestion and extraction patterns to support fraud detection at scale.
• Leverage Unix/Linux shell scripting to automate operational tasks, support maintenance activities, and assist with diagnostics.
• Partner with platform and operations teams to improve automation, monitoring, and operational efficiency.
• Act as a Principal level technical mentor to engineers across Fraud Transactions Engineering.
• Provide design guidance and code reviews focused on performance, scalability, and maintainability.
• Collaborate with product, architecture, and operations partners to translate fraud requirements into technical solutions.
• Lead during high‑severity incidents, quickly isolating and resolving application or query‑level issues.

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent experience.
• 5+ years of hands‑on software engineering experience in enterprise environments.
• Expert level SQL and PL/SQL skills, with experience supporting high volume, database‑driven systems.
• Strong Java programming experience, including building custom extensions or plugins for enterprise platforms.
• Experience with Oracle or Microsoft SQL Server in transaction intensive environments.
• Hands‑on experience with enterprise integration technologies (ETL, APIs, web services, messaging).
• Working knowledge of Unix/Linux environments and shell scripting.

Successful candidates must…