Principal Engineer

Company DescriptionFV Bank is a fully licensed and regulated U.S. digital bank offering a vertically integrated suite of digital asset and traditional banking services to businesses and individuals globally. With a focus on innovation, security, and compliance, FV Bank is Banking the Future by providing USD banking, digital asset custody services, money market accounts, Visa debit cards, and stablecoin deposits and conversions, all accessible via a single, unified platform.Role Description:FV Bank is seeking a Principal Engineer to lead the next generation of our full-stack fintech platform, combining backend excellence, AI-powered automation, and scalable system design. This is a hands-on technical leadership role where you’ll architect and implement backend and frontend systems (MERN stack) while embedding AI automation and observability into the core of our development lifecycle. You’ll play a crucial role in driving engineering maturity, accelerating automation through AI tools like Cursor, and ensuring our systems are secure, scalable, and intelligent.Key Responsibilities: Lead end-to-end system architecture, design, and implementation using MERN stack (MongoDB, Express.js, React.js, Node.js) along with Java, Groovy, and PostgreSQL.Develop high-performance, scalable, and secure APIs with robust backend systems.Implement AI-driven automation for code analysis, quality assurance, and developer productivity (leveraging tools like Cursor AI, GitHub Copilot, and CodeAnt).Establish observability frameworks — including distributed tracing, performance dashboards, and proactive anomaly detection.Architect and deploy systems for horizontal scalability, high availability, and fault tolerance.Mentor the engineering team in AI-assisted development, full-stack best practices, and clean architecture principles.Integrate third-party APIs and fintech services to ensure compliance with security and performance standards.Collaborate with product and DevOps to enhance CI/CD pipelines with intelligent automation and testing.Design and implement AI-based automation frameworks for regression, load testing, and release validation.Partner with Security and Compliance teams to ensure adherence to PCI DSS, ISO 27001, and internal audit standards.Qualifications: 10+ years of professional software engineering experience, including 4+ years in a senior or principal-level role.Proven expertise in Java, Groovy, Node.js, and PostgreSQL, with MERN stack (MongoDB, Express, React, Node) experience.Strong understanding of AI/ML frameworks and hands-on exposure to AI tools like Cursor, CodeAnt, and GitHub Copilot.Experience in scalability engineering, including load balancing, database partitioning, and caching strategies.Deep knowledge of observability and monitoring using Prometheus, Grafana, ELK, or OpenTelemetry.Experience designing and deploying systems on GCP/AWS, leveraging Kubernetes, Docker, and serverless architectures.Expertise in building secure RESTful APIs, microservices, and high-volume transaction systems.Strong leadership, mentoring, and communication skills, with the ability to influence cross-functional teams.Preferred Skills:Experience in fintech or regulated environments (banking, payments, or custody).Exposure to MLOps pipelines or AI-powered operations.Practical experience with AI-enabled observability, predictive scaling, and anomaly detection.Deep understanding of full-stack performance optimization and API-driven architectures.Working at FV Bank:Drive the AI transformation journey for a US-based fintech bank.Work across modern full-stack technologies and lead the integration of AI automation into core engineering processes.Collaborate with high-performing, global teams building scalable, secure, and innovative financial products.Competitive compensation and the opportunity to shape FV Bank’s AI-first engineering vision from the ground up.