Principal Software Engineer I

Who You'll Work With

You are someone who thrives in a high-performance environment, bringing a growth mindset and entrepreneurial spirit to tackle meaningful challenges that have a real impact.

In return for your drive, determination, and curiosity, we’ll provide the resources, mentorship, and opportunities to help you quickly broaden your expertise, grow into a well-rounded professional, and contribute to work that truly makes a difference.

When you join us, you will have:

• Continuous learning: Our learning and apprenticeship culture, backed by structured programs, is all about helping you grow while creating an environment where feedback is clear, actionable, and focused on your development. The real magic happens when you take the input from others to heart and embrace the fast-paced learning experience, owning your journey.
• A voice that matters: From day one, we value your ideas and contributions. You’ll make a tangible impact by offering innovative ideas and practical solutions. We not only encourage diverse perspectives, but they are critical in driving us toward the best possible outcomes.
• Global community: With colleagues across 65+ countries and over 100 different nationalities, our firm’s diversity fuels creativity and helps us come up with the best solutions. Plus, you’ll have the opportunity to learn from exceptional colleagues with diverse backgrounds and experiences.
• Exceptional benefits: On top of a competitive salary (based on your location, experience, and skills), we provide a comprehensive benefits package to enable holistic well-being for you and your family.
  
  

Your Impact

You’ll be part of McKinsey’s Tech Ecosystem function, which is responsible for developing and delivering all technology solutions for the firm’s internal use. Based in one of our global offices, you’ll work on engineering challenges that are critical to the firm’s success.

You will join a high-impact internal engineering team at McKinsey & Company, where you’ll help build and scale next-generation digital tools that empower our people, streamline operations, and enable smarter decision-making across the firm. Our team spans multiple global locations, collaborating across North America, Europe, and Latin America to deliver innovative, secure, and intelligent platforms.

As a Principal Software Engineer, you will:collaborate with engineers, designers, and product managers in a product team to develop impactful AI-driven solutions; write, test, debug, and maintain application code using core technologies; solve complex technical challenges and shape the evolution of our internal products and platforms; stay current with emerging technologies and industry trends in areas such as cloud, security, automation, and AI, applying them to build robust, forward-looking solutions; and work closely with a global, cross-functional team to drive innovation and deliver tangible impact across the firm.

Your Qualifications and Skills

• Minimum of 8 years of software engineering experience, preferably in a fast-paced, agile environment.
• Strong proficiency in Python, SQL, and JavaScript/TypeScript.
• Hands-on experience with modern frontend frameworks like React (Next.js experience is a plus).
• Proficiency in backend development using Node.js and API design patterns.
• Exposure to languages like Golang, Elixir, or Rust is a plus.
• Proven ability to design and build scalable, cloud-native applications, preferably on AWS.
• Expertise in developing secure, scalable, and high-performance RESTful APIs.
• Familiarity with IAM protocols such as OAuth, SAML, and JWT.
• Experience working with both SQL and NoSQL databases (e.g., Postgres, Redis, DynamoDB).
• Practical experience integrating large language models (LLMs), applying prompt engineering, and deploying generative AI features