Principal Application Engineer-Digital Platform Engineering

The job

LIVE Live feed (private-sector employer) Source: The Muse public API · Data: listed 2026-11-04

Job description

Overview

Navy Federal Credit Union currently does not provide sponsorship for this role. Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States without the need for current or future sponsorship.

We are looking for an experienced Digital Engineer to provide technical leadership and direction across Digital, with a focus on security, technology strategy, architecture, and cross-functional collaboration.

This role will serve as a key technical liaison between Digital and partner technology teams, including Security, Architecture, Infrastructure, and other engineering organizations. The individual will help drive alignment on complex technical initiatives, lead and influence security-related efforts, and provide technical insight that helps shape Digital's technology strategy and direction.

The ideal candidate will have broad engineering experience and strong technical credibility, along with the ability to understand complex technologies, guide technical decisions, communicate effectively across organizational boundaries, and influence outcomes. While a strong technical foundation is essential, this role is focused more on technical leadership, strategic direction, security, and cross-team collaboration than day-to-day hands-on development.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership and engineering insight on complex Digital initiatives to support secure, scalable, reliable, and innovative solutions.
• Serve as a key liaison between Digital and cross-functional technology teams, including Security, Architecture, Infrastructure, Cloud, and Engineering, to drive alignment and resolve complex technical challenges.
• Provide leadership and direction for Digital security initiatives, partnering with appropriate teams to identify risks, guide technical solutions, and strengthen secure engineering practices.
• Contribute technical expertise and recommendations that help influence Digital's technology strategy, architecture, engineering standards, and technology roadmaps.
• Analyze software applications, platforms, cloud capabilities, and emerging technologies to identify opportunities to improve security, reliability, scalability, and engineering effectiveness.
• Collaborate on technical and architectural reviews to assess the integrity, security, quality, and effectiveness of proposed solutions.
• Coordinate integration of solutions with existing applications and platforms and help identify and resolve technical dependencies and conflicts.
• Advocate for adaptive planning, evolutionary development, continuous improvement, automation, and modern engineering practices.
• Evaluate emerging technologies, architectural approaches, and industry trends and provide recommendations regarding their applicability within Digital.
• Contribute to a culture of collaboration by actively working across business and technology teams and sharing technical knowledge, standards, and best practices.
• Develop and recommend improvements to Digital platforms, engineering practices, security, reliability, and technology capabilities.
• Coach, mentor, and provide technical guidance to Digital Engineers and other technical team members.
• Communicate complex technical and security concepts effectively to engineering teams, business partners, stakeholders, and leadership.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

• Technical leadership and architecture: Ability to guide complex technical decisions, influence engineering direction, and provide technical leadership across teams.
• Application/platform security : Strong understanding of secure engineering practices and the ability to lead and influence security-related initiatives.
• Cloud and modern Digital engineering: Strong understanding of Microsoft Azure, APIs, microservices, CI/CD, cloud-native architecture, and modern application platforms
• Significant experience providing technical leadership and direction across complex technology initiatives.
• Demonstrated ability to evaluate technical solutions and provide recommendations related to architecture, security, reliability, scalability, and engineering standards.
• Experience contributing to or influencing technology strategy, technical roadmaps, architectural direction, and engineering practices.
• Experience providing technical guidance and mentoring engineers on complex technology challenges.
• Strong knowledge of application and platform security, secure engineering principles, vulnerability management, and security best practices.
• Experience partnering with Security and Engineering teams to identify technology risks, guide remediation, and incorporate security into solution design and delivery.
• Understanding of DevSecOps practices and the integration of security into engineering and Strong understanding of modern application and platform architecture, including APIs, microservices, integrations, distributed systems, and cloud-native architectures.
• Experience with Microsoft Azure and an understanding of cloud architecture, security, scalability, reliability, and operational considerations.
• Experience with CI/CD and modern engineering practices using tools and technologies such as Azure DevOps, GitHub, Jenkins, SonarQube, Docker, and Kubernetes/AKS.
• Working knowledge of modern application development technologies such as Java/Spring Boot, JavaScript/TypeScript, Angular, or comparable technologies and frameworks.
• Understanding of observability, application performance, reliability, and production support principles.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively across Security, Architecture, Infrastructure, Cloud, Engineering, business teams, and other technology organizations.
• Effective experience working with all levels of staff, management, stakeholders, and vendors.
• Advanced relationship-building skills with the ability to establish rapport and trust and influence across organizational boundaries.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to communicate complex technology and security concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Significant experience managing multiple priorities independently and/or within a team environment to achieve goals.
• Strong analytical, conceptual, problem-solving, and decision-making skills.
• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or related field, or an equivalent combination of education, training, and experience.

• Experience working within banking, financial services, or another highly regulated technology environment.
• Experience with Azure capabilities and technologies such as AKS, Azure SQL, Redis, Key Vault, Microsoft Entra ID, and Application Insights.
• Experience with Java, Spring Boot, Angular, JavaScript/TypeScript, or other modern application development technologies.
• Knowledge of API management, Kafka or other asynchronous messaging technologies, and event-driven architecture.
• Experience with containerization and orchestration technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes.
• Experience with application security assessments, vulnerability remediation, security architecture, or security risk management.
• Experience establishing or influencing engineering standards, architectural patterns, DevSecOps practices, or technology roadmaps.
• Experience evaluating emerging technologies and conducting or guiding proof-of-concepts and technical assessments to inform technology decisions.
• Ten years of overall relevant experience.
• Understanding of modern mobile, web, backend, API, and platform engineering.
• Working knowledge of banking/financial industry standards and practices.
• Working knowledge of Navy Federal functions, philosophy, operations, and organizational objectives.

• Monday - Friday, 8:00AM - 4:30PM

• 820 Follin Lane, Vienna, VA 22180
• 5510 Heritage Oaks Drive, Pensacola, FL 32526
• 141 Security Drive, Winchester, VA 22602
• 9999 Willow Creek Road, San Diego, CA 92131

Explore around this job

Field: Technology Sub-niche: Software engineering All jobs at Navy Federal Credit Union Jobs in California Jobs in San Diego, CA San Diego city guide California state guide San Diego County economy

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About the role

This is a Senior Level role in the Technology field (Software engineering) at Navy Federal Credit Union. Senior roles usually expect substantial experience, ownership of results and often the ability to guide others.

We could not match this job title to one occupation in the official wage statistics, so no pay estimate is shown. Pay is not in the source listing; ask the employer for the range and compare in the 240 job niches.

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How to prepare and behave

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• Read the whole description and match your examples to its requirements; use the same words the posting uses where they are true for you.
• Research the employer before the interview: what it does, who its customers are and recent news; prepare two or three questions about the work.
• Arrive early (or log in early for a video call), dress one step above the daily dress code, and test your camera and audio beforehand.
• Answer with short stories: the situation, what you did and the result. Give numbers when you have them and never invent them.
• Be honest about gaps; say what you did to learn and how fast you can close them.
• Ask about the team, the first 90 days, how success is measured and the schedule; do not open with salary and time off.
• When pay comes up, know the market range for the occupation and your lowest acceptable offer before you answer; ask for the full package in writing.
• Send a short thank-you message within a day, mentioning one thing you discussed.
• Have code, data work or projects you can show, and be ready to think aloud: many technical interviews test how you reason, not only the answer.

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The city

The job is in San Diego, CA. Below is what the official statistics say about living and working there.

How San Diego compares. Among the 145 largest places in California, San Diego is #2 by population, #17 for long commutes (#1 = fewest), #116 for homeownership (#1 = highest), #39 for college degrees (#1 = most). Its county, San Diego County, is #8 of 58 counties for average pay ($82,854).

The place in numbers

San Diego has 1,389,526 residents (ACS 2020–2024), about 3.5% of the population of California. It covers 326 square miles of land, which works out to roughly 4,261 people per square mile. The median age is 36.2, 4% younger than the state median (36.2 against 37.9).

Housing

The median gross rent is $2,313 a month (rent plus utilities), 14% above the state median ($2,313 against $2,036). Over a year that is 25.7% of the median household income. US housing guidance treats housing as affordable when it takes 30% of income or less, so the typical household is under that line. The median home value is $906,700, which is 8.4 times the median household income ($108,077); a ratio above 5 usually means buying is out of reach without savings or a second income. 47.3% of households own their home, 15% below the state average (47.3% against 55.9%).

Work and pay

The San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA metropolitan area has 1,538,060 jobs in the BLS wage survey, and the median pay across all occupations is $58,690 a year, 15% above the national median ($58,690 against $50,980). The biggest occupation groups are food preparation and serving related (161,910 jobs, median $38,840); office and administrative support (155,940 jobs, median $52,940); sales and related (124,550 jobs, median $44,010). The area is most specialised in life, physical, and social science (1.7 times) and architecture and engineering (1.5 times), where the share of workers is well above the national share. The best-paying groups with at least 5,000 jobs are management ($136,440) and computer and mathematical ($129,520). In 2026M09 the unemployment rate of San Diego County was 4.7%. 65.1% of residents aged 16 and over are in the labour force. The city lies in San Diego County; its jobs, pay by industry and GDP are on the county page.

Getting around

Among workers, 62.6% drive alone, 2.7% use public transit, 3.5% walk, 21.2% work from home. 9.5% of workers commute 45 minutes or more, 51% below the state average (9.5% against 19.4%).

People and education

51.0% of adults aged 25 and over hold a bachelor's degree or higher, 38% above the state share (51.0% against 37.1%). 25.1% of residents were born outside the United States, 7% below the state share (25.1% against 27.0%). The poverty rate is 11.0%, 8% below the state rate (11.0% against 12.0%).

Climate

The warmest month is Aug, averaging 77°F (24.9°C), and the coolest is Dec at 51°F (10.7°C). About 320 mm (13 inches) of precipitation falls in a year; Feb is the wettest month (70 mm) and Jun the driest (2 mm). These values come from NASA satellite-based climatology on a grid of about 50 km, so they describe the wider area, not a weather station in the city.

Nearby cities to compare

Closest cities in this guide: El Cajon (10 miles, rent 20% lower); Chula Vista (15 miles, rent 4% lower); San Marcos (22 miles, similar rent); Escondido (22 miles, rent 12% lower). Rent differences are against San Diego; use the Compare tab to put any two cities side by side.

Full guide to San Diego →California guideAll jobs in San Diego

Official links for San Diego

• Official website of San Diego: sandiego.gov
• Census Bureau data profile for San Diego
• Official website of San Diego County: sandiegocounty.gov
• Official state website: ca.gov
• BLS Economy at a Glance: California

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Where to live

CITY Official statistics Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020–2024 5-year (via Census Reporter) · Data: ACS 2020–2024

Places within 50 miles (straight line) of San Diego, CA that have a guide, with what living there costs. No pay estimate is shown because the title did not match one occupation.

Career paths

We could not match this title to one occupation, so here are the other sub-niches in Technology, where your skills may carry over:

Cybersecurity (366) Data, analytics and AI (1991) Cloud, IT and infrastructure (504) Product management (412)

Distances

CITY Calculation (straight line) Source: U.S. Census Bureau Gazetteer (coordinates) · Data: 2024

How far San Diego, CA is from the 20 largest US cities, in straight-line miles (not driving distance). Click a column to sort.

Nearby cities with open jobs (within 120 miles)

The employer

Navy Federal Credit Union is the employer in this listing. See all its open jobs here →

We do not hold headcount or revenue for this employer. Check its careers site and, if it is listed on a stock exchange, its public filings (SEC EDGAR search).

What it is like to work at a company (culture, schedules, benefits) is not in the source data, so we do not describe it. Read the description and ask the questions under "How to prepare".

Other open jobs at Navy Federal Credit Union

Similar jobs

Same sub-niche: Software engineering

More jobs in San Diego, CA

All Software engineering jobs → · All Technology sub-niches →

FAQ

What is the Principal Application Engineer-Digital Platform Engineering job at Navy Federal Credit Union?

A senior level role in technology (software engineering) listed 4 days ago. The full description is on this page and on The Muse.

Where is this job?

San Diego, CA.

How do I apply?

Use the "View this job and apply on The Muse" button. AtiveSite does not receive applications.

How much does it pay?

The listing does not publish pay, and we could not match the title to one official occupation.

What is the cost of living there?

Median rent in San Diego is $2,313 a month and median household income $108,077 (ACS 2020–2024).

How old is this listing?

It was posted on 2026-11-04 (4 days ago). Jobs older than 90 days are not shown.

Are there similar jobs?

Yes: browse software engineering jobs in California.

Sources and terms

• Job data: The Muse public API (listing dated 2026-11-04). The job disappears from this site when it disappears from the source.
• Wages and projections: BLS OEWS (May 2025) and Employment Projections 2025–35.
• City and county figures: Census Bureau ACS 2020–2024, BEA, BLS QCEW and LAUS, NASA POWER climatology; distances from Census Gazetteer coordinates.

AtiveSite is not affiliated with or endorsed by The Muse, the employer or any government agency, and does not process applications. Verify every detail with the employer before acting.

Sources

• BLS OEWS (wages and employment by occupation, May 2025)
• BLS Employment Projections 2025–35
• BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics
• BLS JOLTS
• BLS State and Metro Area Employment
• Census Bureau American Community Survey (via Census Reporter)
• BEA GDP by state and Regional Price Parities
• IRS 2026 tax adjustments
• U.S. Department of Labor, minimum wage by state
• Tax Foundation state income tax rates 2026
• USAJOBS
• USCIS
• U.S. Department of State, visas
• NASA POWER climatology
• GeoNames / Census Gazetteer (coordinates)