PRINCIPAL ENGINEER

BID/JOB ANNOUNCEMENT

PRINCIPAL ENGINEER

Department of Technology & Innovation

Delivery Division

Number of Positions: 2

(Additional vacancies possible pending budget approval)

Starting Salary: $109,140.00

This position is open to the public and all current City employees covered under the City’s collective bargaining agreement with AMERICAN FEDERATION OF STATE, COUNTY, AND MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEES (AFSCME) – BARGAINING UNIT 1, 3, 4 & 5. Only employees in City job titles in this bargaining unit are eligible to bid.

BID INSTRUCTIONS: Apply on the bid site: AND

1. Check the box on your profile titled “Currently employed by the City of Chicago”

2. Enter your employee ID (located on your pay stub labeled ‘payee/employee number’)

3. Select your correct bargaining unit

FAILURE TO FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS WILL RESULT IN A REJECTED BID APPLICATION

Applications for this position will be accepted until 11:59pm CDT on 6/1/2026.

The Principal Engineer will act as the senior technical authority overseeing enterprise architecture, engineering governance, application modernization, platform integrations, and software engineering standards throughout DTI. They will lead strategic initiatives supporting Microsoft technologies, Salesforce, ServiceNow, cloud platforms, enterprise integrations, and custom application development to drive citywide operations and digital transformation.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES

·         Writes custom code that satisfies customer needs and strives for simplicity, clarity, and testability

·         Collaborate with stakeholders to understand functional and non-functional requirements

·         Develops detailed technical specifications based on conceptual design and requirements

·         Conceptualizes and recommends solutions to development and design problems for largescale, complex projects

·         Plans and reviews scope of work estimation and forecasting

·         Adheres to architecture, design, implementation, and security standards and best practices

·         Plans and conducts code reviews or uses collaborative programming techniques to promote business outcomes

·         Conduct analyses to determine integration needs, and design and plan integrations

·         Plans and implements unit and integration tests and conducts functional and performance testing

·         Develop reusable software building blocks to enable faster delivery

·         Improves performance of existing software by diagnosing and resolving critical issues

·         Prepares technical documentation, including software design evaluation plans, test results, and technical manuals

·         Adheres to established development practices and processes

·         Analyzes and creates new configuration for packages software

·         Reviews new releases of packaged software and identifies new features that can be enabled for business needs

·         May lead cross-functional teams to address business or systems issues

Additional duties may be required for this position

Location:        2 N. La Salle Street

Days:              Monday – Friday

Hours:            8:00am – 4:00pm

THIS POSITION IS IN THE CAREER SERVICE

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

Graduation from an accredited college or university with a Bachelor’s degree, plus five (5) years of experience as a software engineer

Should the above criteria not be fulfilled, the following options are acceptable:

·         Graduation from an accredited college or university with a Master’s degree or higher, plus four (4) years of experience as a software engineer

·         Graduation from an accredited college with an Associate’s degree, plus seven (7) years of experience as a software engineer

·         Nine (9) years of work experience as a software engineer

Desired Certifications:

- Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect

- Salesforce Architect Certifications

- ServiceNow Certifications

- TOGAF

- PMP

- ITIL Foundation

SELECTION REQUIREMENTS

This position requires applicants to complete an interview.  The interviewed candidate(s) possessing the qualifications best suited to fulfill the responsibilities of the position will be selected.

For Information on our employees benefits please visit our benefits website at:

For Information on our salary and title structure visit our classifications website at:

APPLICATION EVALUATION: Initial evaluation will be based on information provided on the application and the documents submitted.  The Department of Human Resource staff will review applications after the final posting date.  Staff will follow any and all required Employment/Hiring Plan provisions, federal, state and local laws, and Collective Bargaining Agreements when applicable. Staff will apply hiring preferences as required by the municipal code. Placement on an eligibility list is not an offer or guarantee of an interview nor employment with the City of Chicago.

COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY: To further our commitment to hiring applicants with diverse experience the City of Chicago has adopted the following ordinances 2-74-020 and 2-74-075.  The ordinances provide a preference for applicants who meet minimum qualifications and who are veterans of the Armed Forces, and/or residents of Socio-Economically Disadvantaged Areas (SEDA) and/or Chicago Public School (CPS) high school graduates to be referred to departments for consideration. These hiring preferences do not apply to bidders, as Collective Bargaining Agreements define the hiring process for bidders.  For positions covered by a collective bargaining agreement, bidders will be considered before external candidates.  To learn more about our hiring practices  

ALL REFERENCES TO POLITICAL SPONSORSHIP OR RECOMMENDATION MUST BE OMITTED FROM ALL APPLICATION MATERIALS SUBMITTED FOR CITY EMPLOYMENT.

The City of Chicago in an Equal Employment Opportunity, Military Friendly, and Fair Chance Employer.

City of Chicago

Brandon Johnson, Mayor