Principal Engineer - AI, Digital Payments & Technology Transformation

Location: SAN LEANDRO, CA

About this role

Wells Fargo is seeking an exceptional Principal Engineer to serve as a technology visionary, transformation leader, and innovation catalyst within Consumer Payments Technology. We are looking for a senior technology leader who can influence enterprise strategy, accelerate modernization initiatives, and drive adoption of Artificial Intelligence across engineering and business domains. This individual will act as a trusted advisor to executives, architects, product leaders, and engineering teams while helping shape the future of digital payments and customer experiences.

They will operate with a "Forward Deployed Engineer" mindset, partnering closely with stakeholders to solve complex business challenges through innovative technology solutions.

This role supports the organization's ongoing transformation toward modern, cloud-enabled, highly resilient, API-driven platforms designed to improve customer experience, accelerate delivery velocity, strengthen operational resiliency, and enable future business growth.

In this role, you will

• Lead large-scale digital payments and money movement modernization initiatives
• Establish target-state architectures that improve scalability, resiliency, performance, maintainability, and speed to market.
• Identify and deploy Generative AI, Agentic AI, intelligent automation, and AI-assisted engineering solutions.
• Champion the adoption of Generative AI, intelligent automation, digital engineering accelerators, and emerging technologies.
• Promote modern engineering principles, platform reuse, domain-oriented design, and API-centric architectures.
• Drive engineering practices that improve reliability, observability, security, and operational excellence.
• Partner directly with product, business, and technology leaders to solve critical business challenges.
• Lead strategic discovery efforts, prototypes, proofs of concept, and transformational initiatives.
• Mentor senior engineers, architects, and engineering leaders while fostering innovation and continuous learning.

Required Qualifications

• 7+ years of Engineering experience, or equivalent demonstrated through work experience, training, military experience, or education.
• 5+ years of experience leading enterprise-scale modernization or technology transformation initiatives.
• 4+ years of experience with API and integration strategy.
• 2+ years of experience with event-driven and asynchronous architectures.
• 2+ years of experience with Generative AI, Agentic AI, intelligent automation, or AI-assisted software engineering.

Desired Qualifications

• Experience deploying AI capabilities into production environments.
• Experience with AI governance, controls, responsible AI, and AI-enabled modernization.
• Strong executive communication and technical storytelling skills.
• Proven ability to influence and partner with senior stakeholders across business and technology.
• Strong cross-functional leadership, coaching, and mentoring capabilities

Job Expectations

• Accelerate strategic modernization and reduce technology complexity.
• Deliver measurable AI-enabled engineering productivity improvements. Advance enterprise architecture and reusable technology capabilities.
• Improve platform reliability, resiliency, scalability, and performance.
• Influence strategic technology direction across Consumer Payments.
• Develop future engineering leaders and serve as a trusted technology advisor.
• This position offers a hybrid work schedule
• This position is not eligible for Visa sponsorship

Pay Range

Reflected is the base pay range offered for this position. Pay may vary depending on factors including but not limited to demonstrated examples of prior performance, skills, experience, or work location. Employees may also be eligible for incentive opportunities.

$191,000.00 - $305,000.00

Benefits

Wells Fargo provides eligible employees with a comprehensive set of benefits, many of which are listed below. Visit Benefits - Wells Fargo Jobs for an overview of the following benefit plans and programs offered to employees.

Health benefits

401(k) Plan

• Paid time off
• Disability benefits
• Life insurance, critical illness insurance, and accident insurance
• Parental leave
• Critical caregiving leave
• Discounts and savings
• Commuter benefits
• Tuition reimbursement
• Scholarships for dependent children
• Adoption reimbursement

Posting End Date

18 Oct 2026

*Job posting may come down early due to volume of applicants.

We Value Equal Opportunity

Wells Fargo is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, status as a protected veteran, or any other legally protected characteristic.

Employees support our focus on building strong customer relationships balanced with a strong risk mitigating and compliance-driven culture which firmly establishes those disciplines as critical to the success of our customers and company. They are accountable for execution of all applicable risk programs (Credit, Market, Financial Crimes, Operational, Regulatory Compliance), which includes effectively following and adhering to applicable Wells Fargo policies and procedures, appropriately fulfilling risk and compliance obligations, timely and effective escalation and remediation of issues, and making sound risk decisions.

There is emphasis on proactive monitoring, governance, risk identification and escalation, as well as making sound risk decisions commensurate with the business unit’s risk appetite and all risk and compliance program requirements.

Applicants with Disabilities

To request a medical accommodation during the application or interview process, visit Disability Inclusion at Wells Fargo.

Drug and Alcohol Policy

Wells Fargo maintains a drug free workplace. Please see our Drug and Alcohol Policy to learn more.

Wells Fargo Recruitment and Hiring Requirements

• a. Third-Party recordings are prohibited unless authorized by Wells Fargo.
• b. Wells Fargo requires you to directly represent your own experiences during the recruiting and hiring process.
• Additional Locations: CONCORD, CA