About the role
Job Description
What is the opportunity?
As a Principal Engineer within RBC’s Innovation & Technology team, you will act as a senior technical leader, guiding a high-performing team of backend engineers and shaping the technical strategy for next-generation solutions across multiple innovation initiatives. You will provide hands-on architecture and engineering leadership, influence enterprise-level decision-making, and ensure delivery of secure, scalable, and compliant backend solutions integrated into RBC’s platforms.
What will you do?
Technical Leadership & Mentorship
- Lead and grow a team of backend engineers with deep Java expertise and strong
- delivery capabilities.
- Champion engineering excellence by fostering a culture of craftsmanship, ownership, and continuous improvement.
- Conduct regular performance coaching, technical reviews, and learning sessions.
- Balance near-term execution with long-term strategic capability building and talent development.
Engineering Execution & Automation
- Enforce best practices in software development, including clean code principles,
- design patterns, and secure coding standards.
- Drive test automation strategies across unit, integration, and E2E layers using JUnit, Mockito, REST-assured, etc.
- Oversee CI/CD pipelines using tools such as Jenkins, GitHub Actions
- Lead containerization efforts with Docker, Kubernetes, and OpenShift, ensuring robust deployment pipelines.
- Define and implement observability standards using Splunk, ELK, Prometheus, and OpenTelemetry.
Architecture & Platform Strategy
- Own and evolve the backend architecture for innovation projects, aligning with RBC’s enterprise architecture standards.
- Facilitate technical design reviews and present solutions at the Enterprise Architecture Review Board (EARB).
- Identify reusable components and enable cross-project technical synergies across innovation teams.
- Balance innovation velocity with RBC’s governance, security, and regulatory requirements.
AI-Driven Engineering & Developer Productivity
- Champion adoption of agentic AI tools to enhance developer efficiency, code
- generation, testing, and documentation.
- Evaluate and integrate AI copilots (e.g., GitHub Copilot, CodeWhisperer, Tabnine) and other productivity tools.
- Define RBC-safe usage patterns and best practices for GenAI tools in secure enterprise environments.
- Stay abreast of evolving AI capabilities in software development and share thought leadership internally.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Work closely with product managers to define technical requirements that align with business priorities.
- Partner with delivery leads and scrum masters to plan sprints, manage backlogs, and deliver on roadmaps.
- Collaborate with security, compliance, privacy, and legal to ensure adherence to RBC policies and standards.
- Liaise with DevOps, Cloud, and SRE teams to optimize platform capabilities and developer experience.
- Facilitate integration and alignment with frontend, iOS, Android, and data science teams.
Platform Vision & Continuous Improvement
- Lead technical debt reduction efforts and modernization of legacy systems.
- Promote platform thinking – enable reuse, scalability, and standardization across
- solutions.
- Introduce internal tools, APIs, and SDKs to streamline onboarding and delivery across the innovation portfolio.
What do you need to succeed?
Must have:
- Expert-level backend development experience with Java (Spring Boot, REST APIs, multithreading, messaging).
- Secondary proficiency in Python and scripting for automation, prototyping, or AI tools.
- Proven experience building microservices and cloud-native applications on platforms like AWS, GCP, or Azure.
- Solid knowledge of container orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes, OpenShift).
- Advanced understanding of CI/CD, infrastructure-as-code, and GitOps workflows.
- Familiarity with modern identity and access management (e.g. OAuth2, JWT, mTLS, etc.).
- Experience with SQL and NoSQL databases, data modeling, and caching strategies.
- Strong experience navigating enterprise governance, compliance, and regulatory frameworks.
- Exposure to RBC systems, such as enterprise authentication (CyberArk, ForgeRock), OpenShift clusters, and observability platforms, is a strong asset.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to influence technical and non-technical stakeholders.
What’s in it for you?
We thrive on the challenge to be our best, progressive thinking to keep growing, and working together to deliver trusted advice to help our clients thrive and communities prosper. We care about each other, reaching our potential, making a difference to our communities, and achieving success that is mutual.
- Ability to make a difference and lasting impact
- Work in a dynamic, collaborative, progressive, and high-performing team
- Opportunities to do challenging work
Job Skills
Application Development, Application Maintenance, Applications Architecture, Commercial Acumen, Enterprise Application Delivery, Information Technology Management, Information Technology Trends, Programming Languages, System Applications
Additional Job Details
Address:
RBC WATERPARK PLACE, 88 QUEENS QUAY W:TORONTO
City:
Toronto
Country:
Canada
Work hours/week:
37.5
Employment Type:
Full time
Platform:
PERSONAL & COMMERCIAL BANKING
Job Type:
Regular
Pay Type:
Salaried
Posted Date:
2025-08-27
Application Deadline:
2025-10-02
Note**:** Applications will be accepted until 11:59 PM on the day prior to the application deadline date above
I****nclusion and Equal Opportunity Employment
At RBC, we believe an inclusive workplace that has diverse perspectives is core to our continued growth as one of the largest and most successful banks in the world. Maintaining a workplace where our employees feel supported to perform at their best, effectively collaborate, drive innovation, and grow professionally helps to bring our Purpose to life and create value for our clients and communities. RBC strives to deliver this through policies and programs intended to foster a workplace based on respect, belonging and opportunity for all.
Join our Talent Community
Stay in-the-know about great career opportunities at RBC. Sign up and get customized info on our latest jobs, career tips and Recruitment events that matter to you.
Expand your limits and create a new future together at RBC. Find out how we use our passion and drive to enhance the well-being of our clients and communities at jobs.rbc.com.
About RBC
Royal Bank of Canada is a global financial institution with a purpose-driven, principles-led approach to delivering leading performance. Our success comes from the 94,000+ employees who leverage their imaginations and insights to bring our vision, values and strategy to life so we can help our clients thrive and communities prosper. As Canada's biggest bank and one of the largest in the world, based on market capitalization, we have a diversified business model with a focus on innovation and providing exceptional experiences to our more than 17 million clients in Canada, the U.S. and 27 other countries. Learn more at rbc.com. We are proud to support a broad range of community initiatives through donations, community investments and employee volunteer activities. See how at www.rbc.com/community-social-impact.
La Banque Royale du Canada est une institution financière mondiale définie par sa raison d'être, guidée par des principes et orientée vers l'excellence en matière de rendement. Notre succès est attribuable aux quelque 94 000+ employés qui mettent à profit leur créativité et leur savoir faire pour concrétiser notre vision, nos valeurs et notre stratégie afin que nous puissions contribuer à la prospérité de nos clients et au dynamisme des collectivités. Selon la capitalisation boursière, nous sommes la plus importante banque du Canada et l'une des plus grandes banques du monde. Nous avons adopté un modèle d'affaires diversifié axé sur l'innovation et l'offre d'expériences exceptionnelles à nos plus de 17 millions de clients au Canada, aux États Unis et dans 27 autres pays. Pour en savoir plus, visitez le site rbc.com/francais
Nous sommes fiers d'appuyer une grande diversité d'initiatives communautaires par des dons, des investissements dans la collectivité et le travail bénévole de nos employés. Pour de plus amples renseignements, visitez le site www.rbc.com/collectivite-impact-social.
About the role
Job Description
What is the opportunity?
As a Principal Engineer within RBC’s Innovation & Technology team, you will act as a senior technical leader, guiding a high-performing team of backend engineers and shaping the technical strategy for next-generation solutions across multiple innovation initiatives. You will provide hands-on architecture and engineering leadership, influence enterprise-level decision-making, and ensure delivery of secure, scalable, and compliant backend solutions integrated into RBC’s platforms.
What will you do?
Technical Leadership & Mentorship
- Lead and grow a team of backend engineers with deep Java expertise and strong
- delivery capabilities.
- Champion engineering excellence by fostering a culture of craftsmanship, ownership, and continuous improvement.
- Conduct regular performance coaching, technical reviews, and learning sessions.
- Balance near-term execution with long-term strategic capability building and talent development.
Engineering Execution & Automation
- Enforce best practices in software development, including clean code principles,
- design patterns, and secure coding standards.
- Drive test automation strategies across unit, integration, and E2E layers using JUnit, Mockito, REST-assured, etc.
- Oversee CI/CD pipelines using tools such as Jenkins, GitHub Actions
- Lead containerization efforts with Docker, Kubernetes, and OpenShift, ensuring robust deployment pipelines.
- Define and implement observability standards using Splunk, ELK, Prometheus, and OpenTelemetry.
Architecture & Platform Strategy
- Own and evolve the backend architecture for innovation projects, aligning with RBC’s enterprise architecture standards.
- Facilitate technical design reviews and present solutions at the Enterprise Architecture Review Board (EARB).
- Identify reusable components and enable cross-project technical synergies across innovation teams.
- Balance innovation velocity with RBC’s governance, security, and regulatory requirements.
AI-Driven Engineering & Developer Productivity
- Champion adoption of agentic AI tools to enhance developer efficiency, code
- generation, testing, and documentation.
- Evaluate and integrate AI copilots (e.g., GitHub Copilot, CodeWhisperer, Tabnine) and other productivity tools.
- Define RBC-safe usage patterns and best practices for GenAI tools in secure enterprise environments.
- Stay abreast of evolving AI capabilities in software development and share thought leadership internally.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Work closely with product managers to define technical requirements that align with business priorities.
- Partner with delivery leads and scrum masters to plan sprints, manage backlogs, and deliver on roadmaps.
- Collaborate with security, compliance, privacy, and legal to ensure adherence to RBC policies and standards.
- Liaise with DevOps, Cloud, and SRE teams to optimize platform capabilities and developer experience.
- Facilitate integration and alignment with frontend, iOS, Android, and data science teams.
Platform Vision & Continuous Improvement
- Lead technical debt reduction efforts and modernization of legacy systems.
- Promote platform thinking – enable reuse, scalability, and standardization across
- solutions.
- Introduce internal tools, APIs, and SDKs to streamline onboarding and delivery across the innovation portfolio.
What do you need to succeed?
Must have:
- Expert-level backend development experience with Java (Spring Boot, REST APIs, multithreading, messaging).
- Secondary proficiency in Python and scripting for automation, prototyping, or AI tools.
- Proven experience building microservices and cloud-native applications on platforms like AWS, GCP, or Azure.
- Solid knowledge of container orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes, OpenShift).
- Advanced understanding of CI/CD, infrastructure-as-code, and GitOps workflows.
- Familiarity with modern identity and access management (e.g. OAuth2, JWT, mTLS, etc.).
- Experience with SQL and NoSQL databases, data modeling, and caching strategies.
- Strong experience navigating enterprise governance, compliance, and regulatory frameworks.
- Exposure to RBC systems, such as enterprise authentication (CyberArk, ForgeRock), OpenShift clusters, and observability platforms, is a strong asset.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to influence technical and non-technical stakeholders.
What’s in it for you?
We thrive on the challenge to be our best, progressive thinking to keep growing, and working together to deliver trusted advice to help our clients thrive and communities prosper. We care about each other, reaching our potential, making a difference to our communities, and achieving success that is mutual.
- Ability to make a difference and lasting impact
- Work in a dynamic, collaborative, progressive, and high-performing team
- Opportunities to do challenging work
Job Skills
Application Development, Application Maintenance, Applications Architecture, Commercial Acumen, Enterprise Application Delivery, Information Technology Management, Information Technology Trends, Programming Languages, System Applications
Additional Job Details
Address:
RBC WATERPARK PLACE, 88 QUEENS QUAY W:TORONTO
City:
Toronto
Country:
Canada
Work hours/week:
37.5
Employment Type:
Full time
Platform:
PERSONAL & COMMERCIAL BANKING
Job Type:
Regular
Pay Type:
Salaried
Posted Date:
2025-08-27
Application Deadline:
2025-10-02
Note**:** Applications will be accepted until 11:59 PM on the day prior to the application deadline date above
I****nclusion and Equal Opportunity Employment
At RBC, we believe an inclusive workplace that has diverse perspectives is core to our continued growth as one of the largest and most successful banks in the world. Maintaining a workplace where our employees feel supported to perform at their best, effectively collaborate, drive innovation, and grow professionally helps to bring our Purpose to life and create value for our clients and communities. RBC strives to deliver this through policies and programs intended to foster a workplace based on respect, belonging and opportunity for all.
Join our Talent Community
Stay in-the-know about great career opportunities at RBC. Sign up and get customized info on our latest jobs, career tips and Recruitment events that matter to you.
Expand your limits and create a new future together at RBC. Find out how we use our passion and drive to enhance the well-being of our clients and communities at jobs.rbc.com.
About RBC
Royal Bank of Canada is a global financial institution with a purpose-driven, principles-led approach to delivering leading performance. Our success comes from the 94,000+ employees who leverage their imaginations and insights to bring our vision, values and strategy to life so we can help our clients thrive and communities prosper. As Canada's biggest bank and one of the largest in the world, based on market capitalization, we have a diversified business model with a focus on innovation and providing exceptional experiences to our more than 17 million clients in Canada, the U.S. and 27 other countries. Learn more at rbc.com. We are proud to support a broad range of community initiatives through donations, community investments and employee volunteer activities. See how at www.rbc.com/community-social-impact.
La Banque Royale du Canada est une institution financière mondiale définie par sa raison d'être, guidée par des principes et orientée vers l'excellence en matière de rendement. Notre succès est attribuable aux quelque 94 000+ employés qui mettent à profit leur créativité et leur savoir faire pour concrétiser notre vision, nos valeurs et notre stratégie afin que nous puissions contribuer à la prospérité de nos clients et au dynamisme des collectivités. Selon la capitalisation boursière, nous sommes la plus importante banque du Canada et l'une des plus grandes banques du monde. Nous avons adopté un modèle d'affaires diversifié axé sur l'innovation et l'offre d'expériences exceptionnelles à nos plus de 17 millions de clients au Canada, aux États Unis et dans 27 autres pays. Pour en savoir plus, visitez le site rbc.com/francais
Nous sommes fiers d'appuyer une grande diversité d'initiatives communautaires par des dons, des investissements dans la collectivité et le travail bénévole de nos employés. Pour de plus amples renseignements, visitez le site www.rbc.com/collectivite-impact-social.