Software Engineer Principal - Ansible/Python at PNC
Denver, CO
$91,000–$185,900from the description
Jul 17, 2026
Denver, CO
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A hands-on individual contributor role focused on modernizing legacy infrastructure by building Ansible-based automation and Python-driven tooling for high availability, disaster recovery, and automated failover between data centers. The engineer designs and operates distributed backend systems, leads disaster recovery testing, and provides technical mentorship to junior teammates — all within an Agile delivery environment. Best suited to someone with deep Ansible and Python experience in distributed, resilience-focused systems.
Senior level · 5+ years · Pittsburgh, PA · Full-time
Advertised as Principal, but the requirements read as Senior.
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Roughly 110 people in the Pittsburgh, PA area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (software developers). range 80–140
Applicant volume Moderate — A normal amount of company. The rare requirements below are what will separate a shortlisted application from the rest.
Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $127,238 (middle half $97,661–$159,195). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (4)
The role is listed across multiple metros (Pittsburgh PA; Strongsville/Cleveland OH; Birmingham AL; Phoenix AZ; Lakewood CO; Dallas TX) — Pittsburgh is used as the primary CBSA since it is named first, but compensation may vary by location.
All technical skills appear under 'Preferred Technical Skills' and 'Preferred Skills' headings. However, Ansible and Python are the explicit focus of the role title and the core job description narrative ('moving to an Ansible-based backend and Python-driven automation'), so they are treated as hard gates despite the 'Preferred' heading label. Celery, FastAPI, and SQLAlchemy/SQLModel remain preferred as they appear only in the preferred skills section without equivalent narrative reinforcement.
The degree requirement states 'Bachelors' but explicitly allows 'a comparable combination of education, job specific certification(s), and experience' in lieu of a degree — treated as no hard degree requirement.
The title says 'Principal' but the scope (individual contributor, player-coach, 5+ years experience, no org-wide authority described) aligns with a Senior-level role on the standard career ladder. The advertised seniority reflects the title claim; the assessed seniority reflects the actual requirements.
Read the full posting
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