Principal Software Engineer - Applications & Platform

Job ID: 109948

You’ll join a high-impact internal engineering team that builds, operates, and scales the next generation of digital tools used across the firm

Sao Paulo

Do you want to do work that matters, alongside supportive leaders who will help you grow faster than you ever thought possible? Are you a creative problem-solver who is energized by challenges? You’ve come to the right place.

YOUR IMPACT

Your mixture of strong software engineering, cloud and platform expertise, and a production-reliability mindset will serve you well with your multi-faceted responsibilities.

You will build high-quality applications, understand the infrastructure they run on, and know what good looks like in production.

You don’t need to be an AI/ML specialist, but AI coding agents and assistants are a core part of how you design, build, test, debug, document, and operate software - and you bring the judgment to know when to rely on them, how to verify their output, and how to raise the bar for AI-assisted work across a team. You’re equally comfortable building AI-enabled capabilities into the products themselves, with the discipline to ship them safely and cost-effectively.

You will help lead end-to-end delivery of internal products and platforms, influence technical direction, advocate for firm-standard platform components and golden paths, and partner with CSM and McKinsey Tech Ecosystem teams to drive adoption of shared services across the ecosystem. Your expertise will play a key role in solving complex technical challenges and shaping the evolution of our internal platforms.

You will write, test, debug, and maintain production-grade application code, and contribute to the cloud-native infrastructure it runs on. You are a DevSecOps practices champion with CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure as code, GitOps-based Kubernetes deployments, automated security scanning, monitoring and alerting, and production support.

YOUR GROWTH

You are someone who thrives in a high-performance environment, bringing a growth mindset and entrepreneurial spirit to tackle meaningful challenges that have a real impact.

In return for your drive, determination, and curiosity, we’ll provide the resources, mentorship, and opportunities to help you quickly broaden your expertise, grow into a well-rounded professional, and contribute to work that truly makes a difference.

When you join us, you will have:

Continuous learning: Our learning and apprenticeship culture, backed by structured programs, is all about helping you grow while creating an environment where feedback is clear, actionable, and focused on your development. The real magic happens when you take the input from others to heart and embrace the fast-paced learning experience, owning your journey.

A voice that matters: From day one, we value your ideas and contributions. You’ll make a tangible impact by offering innovative ideas and practical solutions, all while upholding our unwavering commitment to ethics and integrity. We not only encourage diverse perspectives, but they are critical in driving us toward the best possible outcomes.

Global community: With colleagues across 65+ countries and over 100 different nationalities, our firm’s diversity fuels creativity and helps us come up with the best solutions. Plus, you’ll have the opportunity to learn from exceptional colleagues with diverse backgrounds and experiences.

Exceptional benefits: On top of a competitive salary (based on your location, experience, and skills), we provide a comprehensive benefits package to enable holistic well-being for you and your family.

YOUR QUALIFICATIONS AND SKILLS

Years of software development experience, including building and operating cloud-native solutions in production

Demonstrated experience leading technical initiatives, influencing stakeholders, and mentoring engineers

Strong programming skills in Python, TypeScript/JavaScript, and/or Go, with the ability to build, test, debug, and maintain production-grade applications and services

Hands-on experience building modern web applications and APIs - React, Node.js, API integration, performance, testing, and maintainability

Proven ability to design, build, and operate scalable cloud-native applications, preferably on AWS, with a strong grasp of core cloud concepts

Expertise developing secure, scalable, and performant RESTful APIs

Strong understanding of SQL and NoSQL database concepts, data modeling, performance, and trade-offs; experience with PostgreSQL, Redis, MongoDB, or similar

Experience designing and operating CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions, Jenkins, ArgoCD, CircleCI, or similar, including GitOps-based delivery

Hands-on experience designing and implementing cloud infrastructure as code with Terraform, CloudFormation, Ansible, or similar, with a strong understanding of the infrastructure being automated

Fluency with AI coding agents and assistants (e.g., Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Cursor) as part of daily engineering work - design, implementation, testing, debugging, code review, and documentation - with strong engineering judgment and full ownership of the output

Skilled in GitHub workflows, version control, code review (including reviewing and validating AI-generated code), and technical documentation

Please review the additional requirements regarding essential job functions of McKinsey colleagues.

Our unwavering commitment to integrity drives everything we do, guiding us to always act in the best interests of our clients, our people, and the communities we serve.