Principal Software Engineer (Chicago)

Principal Software Engineer

Morningstar Wealth is seeking a Principal Software Engineer with strong full-stack expertise to lead the development and maintenance of our model creation and data delivery systems. This role is central to advancing how Wealth builds, manages, and delivers models and data pipelines that power our products and services.

The ideal candidate has deep technical expertise in system design, model-driven architecture, and large-scale data delivery, with the ability to guide teams in building robust, scalable, and high-performance solutions.

To foster continuous collaboration, we follow a hybrid policy in which you are required to be onsite a minimum of three days in our Chicago office.

Responsibilities

• Model & Data Platform Development : Design, develop, and enhance systems that support the creation, publication, and management of models, as well as the delivery of data to downstream applications.
• System Modernization : Maintain, upgrade, and migrate existing applications and services, ensuring stability, scalability, and efficiency.
• Architectural Leadership : Define and evolve the architecture for model creation and data delivery workflows, ensuring seamless integration with Morningstar's broader product ecosystem.
• Performance & Reliability : Drive improvements in system performance, data quality, and delivery speed, while enforcing best practices for scalability and resiliency.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration : Partner with data scientists, architects, DevOps / SRE, and product teams to align model development with business and technical goals.
• Technical Guidance & Mentorship : Provide hands-on expertise in software development and data engineering, mentoring junior engineers and harmonizing engineering practices across teams.
• Project Oversight : Provide technical oversight for projects, ensuring architecture and delivery align with business goals.
• Innovation & Continuous Improvement : Stay up to date on emerging technologies in data, AI, and model engineering, and introduce practices that accelerate delivery.

Requirements

Compensation and Benefits

At Morningstar we believe people are at their best when they are at their healthiest. That's why we champion your wellness through a wide-range of programs that support all stages of your personal and professional life. Here are some examples of the offerings we provide :

Total Cash Compensation Range $143,250.00 - 257,850.00 USD Annual Inclusive of annual base salary and target incentive

If you receive and accept an offer from us, we require that personal and any related investments be disclosed confidentiality to our Compliance team (days vary by region). These investments will be reviewed to ensure they meet Code of Ethics requirements. If any conflicts of interest are identified, then you will be required to liquidate those holdings immediately. In addition, dependent on your department and location of work certain employee accounts must be held with an approved broker (for example all, U.S. employee accounts). If this applies and your account(s) are not with an approved broker, you will be required to move your holdings to an approved broker.

Morningstar's hybrid work environment gives you the opportunity to work remotely and collaborate in-person each week. While some positions are available as fully remote, we've found that we're at our best when we're purposely together on a regular basis, typically three days each week. A range of other benefits are also available to enhance flexibility as needs change. No matter where you are, you'll have tools and resources to engage meaningfully with your global colleagues.