Principal Backend Engineer - Boston - KKR

Description

Overview

Company Overview KKR is a leading global investment firm that offers alternative asset management as well as capital markets and insurance solutions. KKR aims to generate attractive investment returns by following a patient and disciplined investment approach, employing world-class people, and supporting growth in its portfolio companies and communities. KKR sponsors investment funds that invest in private equity, credit and real assets and has strategic partners that manage hedge funds. KKR's insurance subsidiaries offer retirement, life and reinsurance products under the management of Global Atlantic Financial Group. References to KKR's investments may include the activities of its sponsored funds and insurance subsidiaries.

Team Overview KKR\'s Technology organization is a group of passionate technologists and product managers, unified by a shared mission to deliver exceptional products and solutions that drive value for our stakeholders, clients, and investors. Our passion for technology and innovation fuels our commitment to creating high-quality, impactful solutions that address complex challenges and meet the evolving needs of our sophisticated businesses. Teamwork is at the core of the organization's success. We thrive on open collaboration and continuous learning, driving a culture that values diversity of thought and collective achievement. Our global footprint fosters the integration of a diverse set of ideas and viewpoints in product and solution delivery, allowing us to design more comprehensive solutions that are adaptable and scalable. We optimize for impact, prioritizing and delivering solutions with excellence while remaining agile in response to the evolving needs of our businesses. KKR's Operations Systems Technology team builds and scales platforms that power the firm's operational backbone. Our systems support investment operations, accounting, treasury, reference data management, and books of record across global business units. We also design and deliver a data and platform layer that productionizes AI use cases, helping operations and finance teams harness data-driven insights. We operate a modern, cloud-native technology stack leveraging Python, Kubernetes, and AWS, enabling scalable and reliable solutions that support mission-critical financial operations. Collaboration, technical excellence, and innovation are core to our culture.

Position Overview

KKR is seeking a Principal Engineer to lead the architecture, design, and implementation of distributed, data-driven systems within our Operations technology platform. You will set technical direction for key systems, drive cross-team engineering initiatives, and shape KKR's strategy for building resilient, intelligent, and automated operational platforms.

This role is ideal for an engineer with 10+ years of experience, deep Python and AWS expertise, and a strong foundation in distributed systems and data modeling. Experience in financial systems, AI productization, or data platforms (Snowflake, Databricks etc.) is highly valued.

Responsibilities

• Technical Strategy & Architecture
  • Define and lead the technical roadmap for operations and data platforms, ensuring scalability, reliability, and extensibility.
  • Architect distributed and event-driven systems to support books of record, investment operations, and reference data services.
  • Lead modernization initiatives leveraging cloud-native technologies, observability, and infrastructure-as-code (AWS/Terraform).
  • Partner with data engineering and AI teams to productionize AI use cases and services that drive operational automation and insight.
• Engineering Leadership
  • Lead design and development of critical backend components written in Python and related frameworks.
  • Establish engineering standards, drive best practices, and ensure delivery of high-quality, maintainable systems.
  • Collaborate closely with product, data, and operations stakeholders to translate business needs into scalable solutions.
  • Drive continuous improvement initiatives around performance, reliability, and developer experience.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration
  • Partner with product and operations leadership to align technical vision with organizational priorities.
  • Provide architectural guidance across systems integrating financial data, AI services, and internal platforms.
  • Simplify complex technical landscapes and communicate strategy effectively to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Mentorship & Culture
  • Mentor engineers across multiple teams, fostering deep technical growth and leadership development.
  • Promote a culture of learning, collaboration, and innovation across the engineering organization.
  • Play an active role in recruitment and talent development to attract top engineering talent to KKR.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of software engineering experience, with demonstrated technical leadership.
• Expert-level proficiency in Python, with experience building scalable backend or data systems.
• Strong hands-on experience with AWS (EKS/ECS, Lambda, S3, DynamoDB, CloudFormation/Terraform).
• Deep understanding of distributed systems design (microservices, messaging, caching, concurrency, resilience).
• Experience building production AI products (e.g., AI-assisted automation, inference services, or data-driven decision tools).
• Familiarity with AI tooling (e.g., LiteLLM, LangChain, vector databases, LLM APIs) is a plus.
• Experience with data modeling and modern data platforms (Snowflake or data lake architectures).
• Strong knowledge of relational databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL) and data integrity design.
• Background in financial systems or operations technology (accounting, treasury, reference data) is a strong plus.
• Excellent communication and leadership skills; proven ability to drive alignment across diverse stakeholders.

This is the expected annual base salary range for this Boston-based position. Actual salaries may vary based on factors, such as skill, experience, and qualification for the role. Employees may be eligible for a discretionary bonus, based on factors such as individual and team performance.

Base Salary Range

$200,000—$235,000 USD

KKR is an equal opportunity employer. Individuals seeking employment are considered without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, marital status, ancestry, physical or mental disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, or any other category protected by applicable law.