Principal Engineer II
Western Alliance BankAbout the role
Job Title:
Principal Engineer IILocation:
Remote North CarolinaWhat you'll do:
The Principal Engineer II – Performance Engineering serves as a senior technical leader responsible for diagnosing, analyzing, and resolving complex performance issues across distributed systems, applications, and network infrastructure. This role requires deep expertise in TCP/IP networking, packet analysis, and cross-functional troubleshooting, combined with the ability to lead end-to-end investigations, influence architecture decisions, and communicate findings to both technical and business stakeholders. The role also leverages modern observability and network analysis tools to support comprehensive performance diagnostics.Lead end-to-end performance investigations across applications, middleware, infrastructure, and networks
Capture and analyze TCP/IP packet data to diagnose latency, packet loss, retransmissions, and throughput issues
Apply advanced TCP/IP knowledge to identify root causes of performance degradation and instability
Distinguish between network, application, and infrastructure-related performance issues
Utilize enterprise observability and network analysis tools, including NetBrain, Datadog, and LiveNX/LiveWire
Correlate packet data, metrics, logs, and traces to provide comprehensive end-to-end performance insights
Collaborate with cross-functional engineering teams to coordinate investigations and drive remediation efforts
Assess business impact and prioritize issues based on risk and urgency
Document technical findings and present results to technical and leadership stakeholders
Define and promote performance engineering best practices across the organization
Mentor engineers and contribute to improving overall performance engineering maturity
What you'll need:
Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Engineering, or equivalent experience
15+ years of experience in performance engineering, systems engineering, or network engineering
Expert-level understanding of TCP/IP networking fundamentals
Hands-on experience capturing and analyzing network packets
Strong knowledge of enterprise network and system architectures
Experience with observability and network analysis tools such as NetBrain, Datadog, and LiveNX/LiveWire
Strong written and verbal communication skills
Experience in financial services or other regulated environments
Experience with distributed systems, middleware platforms, and application architectures
Experience with observability, APM, or network performance monitoring tools
Prior experience in a Principal Engineer or equivalent senior technical leadership role
Benefits you’ll love:
We offer all the important things you'd want — like competitive salaries, an ownership stake in the company, medical and dental insurance, time off, a great 401k matching program, tuition assistance program, an employee volunteer program, and a wellness program. In addition, you’ll have the opportunity
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