Principal Application Engineer (SRE)

Discover. A brighter future.

With us, you'll do meaningful work from Day 1. Our collaborative culture is built on three core behaviors: We Play to Win, We Get Better Every Day & We Succeed Together. And we mean it - we want you to grow and make a difference at one of the world's leading digital banking and payments companies. We value what makes you unique so that you have an opportunity to shine.

Come build your future, while being the reason millions of people find a brighter financial future with Discover.

Job Description:

What You'll Do

Uses vast repertoire of delivering high impact software solutions to work intuitively. Speed comes from intuition. If something breaks you know where to look. Typically does the tough parts - e.g. (re)design and spends more time documenting than coding.

How You'll Do It

• Creates technology solutions addressing high impact business priorities. Demonstrates the ability to analyze, design, code, test and deploy solutions and product features with high quality to production. Level of technical expertise enables solutions with high complexity and depth.
• Competent in multiple technical domains, including programming languages, security, automation, testing, and business domains. As a result, is the go-to person for many people outside of their team.
• Participates in strategic technology decisions and understands how these decisions impact Discover as a whole.
• Proactively identifies and mitigates issues based on intuition and experience in multiple domains. Is a thought leader amongst team members and drives problem solving to determine root cause.
• Coaches technology communities at Discover in areas of specific technology domain, design-thinking, agile software development way of working, security, architecture and/or data engineering.

Minimum Qualifications

At a minimum, here's what we need from you:

• Bachelors - Computer Science, Engineering, Informatics, Information Security, Information Technology or related
• 6+ Years -- Information Technology, (Software) Engineering, or related
• Internal applicants only: technical proficiency rating of proficient on the Dreyfus engineering scale

Physical and Cognitive Requirements
The physical requirements described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable a qualified individual with disabilities to perform the essential functions of the position as required by federal, state, and local laws:

• Primarily remain in a stationary position.
• No required movement about the work environment to complete the major responsibilities of the job.
• No
• Primarily performed indoors in an office setting.
• Ability to operate office equipment such as but not limited to computer, telephone, printer, and calculator.

Preferred Qualifications
Bonus Points If You Have:

Technical Skills:

• Programming & Automation - Strong coding in Python and Java with automation experience.
• Strong Linux Expertise - Deep knowledge of RHEL Linux including performance optimization and troubleshooting in production environment
• Experience with SAN, NAS, NFS and object-oriented solutions for low-latency applications
• Distributed Data System like Hadoop, Apache Kafka/Nifi for real time steaming, ingestion and processing
• Infrastructure as Code (IaC) - Expertise in Terraform or Ansible to ensure compliance-driven deployments.
• Cloud & Hybrid Environments - Deep understanding of AWS and on-prem infrastructure, prefer AWS Solution architect Certification
• Kubernetes & Containers - Experience with Kubernetes, Docker, OpenShift for container orchestration in regulated environments.
• CI/CD with Compliance - Strong grasp of Jenkins, GitLab CI/CD with controls for change management.
• Observability & Monitoring - Expertise in Splunk, Datadog ensuring real-time fraud/anomaly detection.
• Incident Response & Resilience - Proven ability to lead incident resolution, post-mortems (PIR) and disaster recovery (BCP/DR).
• Performance Optimization - Experience with low-latency, high-throughput systems critical Debit/Credit Card payments.
• Database & Storage - Expertise in SQL (Oracle, PostgreSQL, MySQL) and NoSQL (MongoDB, Cassandra) with strong consistency requirements.
• Security & Compliance - Strong grasp of encryption, Identity & Access Management IAM, firewalls and other tools.

Compliance Skills

• Regulatory Compliance - Familiarity with SOX, PCI DSS, FFIEC and other financial regulations.
• Risk Management - Experience working with SOC 2, ISO 27001, NIST frameworks.
• Audit & Logging - Implementing audit trails, logging policies, and real-time security event monitoring.
• Data Protection & Governance - Ensuring encryption at rest/in transit, data retention policies, and GDPR compliance.
• Disaster Recovery & High Availability - Experience with multi-region failover, active-active architectures, and BCP testing.

Leadership & Soft Skills:

• Incident Command Leadership - Ability to lead real-time financial outages, minimizing downtime.
• Stakeholder Communication - Work with compliance, risk, security, and business teams to align SRE strategies.
• SLA/SLO Management - Defining SLOs for transaction processing, market data feeds, and payment networks.
• Cost & Risk Optimization - Driving cost efficiency in cloud & infrastructure while ensuring regulatory compliance.
• Process Automation & Efficiency - Driving self-healing infrastructure, reducing operational toil, and enforcing compliance through automation.
• Lead Tech for a product area, collaborate with engineering, product and other teams to align team goals with business priority

External applicants will be required to perform a technical interview.

Discover will not sponsor or transfer employment work be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis.

#LI-JJ1

Application Deadline:
The application window for this position is anticipated to close on Apr-01-2025. We encourage you to apply as soon as possible. The posting may be available past this date, but it is not guaranteed.

Compensation:
The base pay for this position generally ranges between $107,000.00 to $180,200.00. Additional incentives may be provided as part of a market competitive total compensation package. Factors, such as but not limited to, geographical location, relevant experience, education, and skill level may impact the pay for this position.

Benefits:

We also offer a range of benefits and programs based on eligibility. These benefits include:

• Paid Parental Leave
• Paid Time Off
• 401(k) Plan
• Medical, Dental, Vision, & Health Savings Account
• Short and Long Term Disability, Life, and Accidental Death & Dismemberment insurances
• Recognition Program
• Education Assistance
• Commuter Benefits
• Family Support Programs
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan

Learn more at mydiscoverbenefits.com.

What are you waiting for? Apply today!

All Discover employees place our customers at the very center of our work. To deliver on our promises to our customers, each of us contribute every day to a culture that values compliance and risk management.

Discover is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, protected veteran status, or other legally protected status. (Know Your Rights)

Discover complies with federal, state, and local laws applicable to qualified individuals with disabilities and is committed to providing reasonable accommodations. If you require a reasonable accommodation to search for a position, to complete an application, and/or to participate in an interview, please email Any information you provide regarding your accommodation needs will be kept confidential and will only be used to determine and provide necessary accommodation.

At Discover, we are committed to creating an inclusive and equitable workplace through our Fair Chance Hiring practices. Fair Chance Hiring means that we base our hiring decisions on an applicant's qualifications rather than their criminal record. All our positions are subject to Section 19 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act. Our applicants go through a background check, and we follow all applicable local laws, including the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Hiring Ordinance (LA County Fair Chance).

Positions marked as remote eligible are limited to remote locations within the country in which the position is based.

Applicants must be 18 or older at the time of hire.