Principal Software Engineer - 90382657 - Philadelphia

Your success is a train ride away!

As we move America’s workforce toward the future, Amtrak connects businesses and communities across the country. We employ more than 20,000 diverse, energetic professionals in a variety of career fields throughout the United States. The safety of our passengers, our employees, the public and our operating environment is our priority, and the success of our railroad is due to our employees.

Are you ready to join our team?

Our values of ‘Do the Right Thing, Excel Together and Put Customers First’ are at the heart of what matters most to us, and our Core Capabilities, ‘Building Trust, Accountability, Effective Communication, Customer Focus, and Proactive Safety & Security’ are what every employee needs to know and do to be most impactful at Amtrak. By living the Amtrak values, focusing on our capabilities, and actively embracing and fostering diverse ideas, backgrounds, and perspectives, together we will honor our past and make Amtrak a company of the future.

SUMMARY OF DUTIES: 
The Principal Systems Engineer oversees major complex projects providing subject matter expertise and technical direction, serving as a technical lead and point of escalation. The role is accountable and responsible for systems analysis, design, development, integration, and enhancements. The Principal Systems Engineer will be expected to be involved and take a lead technical role in day-to-day enhancement and development of Amtrak’s systems and will have demonstrated expertise in Cloud technology, middleware/DB platforms, networking, packaged applications, system integration, or SW development. Involvement may also include the following: responding to change requests, Tier-3 trouble ticket resolution, monitoring platforms for failures/ exceptions/threshold issues, performance tuning, optimizing applications performance and testing applications for product upgrades and patches.
This role works closely with stakeholders to understand the business requirements that drive the analysis and design of quality technical solutions. These solutions must be aligned with business goals and IT strategies, as well as, in compliance with the organization’s architectural standards.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:

• Owns and leads the systems development approach as an engineering exercise; confirms requirements are clear, follows a documented development/build methodology and makes sure a robust unit and system/integration testing regimen is followed to deliver solutions per designs.
• Requires detailed knowledge of real-time programming in C, C++, and Java.
• Outlines, develops and documents clear requirements and technical specifications that follow an established methodology.
• Creates and updates documentation as necessary to ensure architectures, designs and other descriptions are up to date and describe the as-deployed system.
• Consults in the development/build planning process with customers, IT business systems analysts, architects, information security, and other team members, taking the lead on all technical issues/solutions.
• Conducts or contributes to the design specifications and assists in sizing technical requirements.
• Develops technical solutions to meet defined requirements including changes, enhancements or development of new infrastructure, platform and other systems.
• May oversee or assist with oversight of third-party technical resources providing services to Amtrak.
• Ensures all work is in harmony with all defined industry and company standards as well as ensures that overall implementation is aligned with Amtrak's technology strategies.
• Adheres to quality standards and procedures. Reviews modules for quality assurance and checks compliance with application architecture standards and SLAs. May assist in defining development guidelines and standards to be utilized in system/solution development/integration. Provides on going maintenance of systems, serving as a point of escalation.
• Leads, guides and provides cross functional project oversight for technical teams/resources.
• Assists in the development of user guides and training documentation. Provides technical guidance or system process expertise for Production Operations & Maintenance teams.
• Develops technical reports and presentations for senior management, as needed.

 
MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:
 

• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Information Systems or Business Management plus 7+ years relevant experience or 11+ years of relevant work experience in subject matter expert capacity required to satisfy education and experience requirements
• Broad systems development and/or systems analysis experience with a displayed mastery of multiple program languages, infrastructure components or technology platforms.
• Broad level of understanding of information systems and systems architecture and integration standards.
• Ability to focus on business goals while ensuring development is completed on time.
• Ability to work well under deadlines and in a flexible environment.
• Experience/in-depth knowledge of business operations and systems requirements processes and ability to apply technical solutions to meet business needs.
• Proven ability to utilize adaptable communication skills to effectively translate between technical and business language.
• Experience in educating project team members on business unit goals, objectives, and initiatives, and guiding junior resources to develop appropriate system solutions in alignment with business objectives.
• Ability to identify, propose and oversee the execution of business and IT solutions as well as interpret documents communicating business and IT needs and requirements.
• Must possess the skill to assess the client needs through direct interaction and identify opportunities to develop the business through effective use of technology.
• Experience overseeing/managing third-party/vendor technical teams and resources.
• Excellent troubleshooting skills.
• Extensive experience programming and/or systems analysis experience with a displayed mastery of multiple program languages.
• Languages: Designs, codes, tests, debugs and documents using the C, C++, Java languages and shell & Perl script in Tandem/NonStop and Linux Red Hat OS environment

 
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Information Systems or Business Management with 9+ years relevant experience.
  • *Prefers expertise using INSPECT, OSS, GUARDIAN, SCF, DDL, SOAP/XML, TAL, TCP/IP (SOCKET PROGRAMMING), WEB SERVICES, GIT / Bitbucket / Jira / Confluence
• Master’s Degree in Computer Science, Information Systems or Business Management
• May require travel up to 10% of the time
• Requires on-call status
• After hours and periodic shift work may occasionally be required
• Willingness to support applications 24 x 7 (24 hours a day, 7 days a week)
• Additional duties as assigned.

WORK ENVIRONMENT:

• Work is performed Hybrid in office three days per week (Philadelphia, PA).

COMMUNICATIONS AND INTERPERSONAL SKILLS:
Must have excellent oral and written communication skills.

The salary/hourly range is $124,600-$161,352. Pay is based on several factors including but not limited to education, work experience, certifications, etc. Depending on an employee’s assigned worksite or location, Amtrak may consider a geo-pay differential to be applied to the employee’s base salary. Amtrak may offer additional incentive and pay programs to recognize and reward our employees, including a short-term incentive bonus based upon factors such as individual and company performance that is commensurate with the level of the position and/or long-term incentive plan compensation. In addition to your salary, Amtrak offers a comprehensive benefit package that includes health, dental, and vision plans; health savings accounts; wellness programs; flexible spending accounts; 401K retirement plan with employer match; life insurance; short and long term disability insurance; paid time off; back-up care; adoption assistance; surrogacy assistance; reimbursement of education expenses; Public Service Loan Forgiveness eligibility; Railroad Retirement sickness and retirement benefits; and rail pass privileges. Learn more about our benefits offerings here.

Requisition ID:162996
Posting Location(s):Pennsylvania

Work Arrangement:04-Hybrid Weekly 
Job Family/Function:Information Technology 
Relocation Offered:No 
Travel Requirements:Up to 25% 

You power our progress through your performance.
 

We want your work at Amtrak to be more than a job. We want your career at Amtrak to be a fulfilling experience where you find challenging work, rewarding opportunities, respect among colleagues, and attractive compensation. Amtrak maintains a culture that values high performance and recognizes individual employee contributions. 

Amtrak is committed to a safe workplace free of drugs and alcohol. All Amtrak positions requires a pre-employment background check that includes prior employment verification, a criminal history check and a pre-employment drug screen. 

Candidates who test positive for marijuana will be disqualified, regardless of any state or local statute, ordinance, regulation, or other law that legalizes or decriminalizes the use or possession of marijuana, whether for medical, recreational, or other use. Amtrak's pre-employment drug testing program is administered in accordance with DOT regulations and applicable law.  

In accordance with DOT regulations (49 CFR § 40.25), Amtrak is required to obtain prior drug and alcohol testing records for applicants/employees intending to perform safety-sensitive duties for covered Department of Transportation positions. If an applicant/employee refuses to provide written consent for Amtrak to obtain these records, the individual will not be permitted to perform safety-sensitive functions.

In accordance with federal law governing security checks of covered individuals for providers of public transportation (Title 6 U.S.C. §1143), Amtrak is required to screen applicants for any permanent or interim disqualifying criminal offenses. 

Note that any education requirement listed above may be deemed satisfied if you have an equivalent combination of education, training and experience.

Amtrak is an EOE/Affirmative Action Minority/Female employer, and we welcome all to apply. We consider candidates regardless of race/color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth and related conditions), national origin/ethnicity, age, disability (intellectual, mental and physical), veteran status, marital status, ancestry, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, genetic information, citizenship or any other personal characteristics protected by law.