Principal Engineer, Total Fund Management Trading, Public Markets Technology

Make an impact at a global and dynamic investment organization When you join CPP Investments, you are joining one of the world’s most admired and respected institutional investors. As a professional investment management organization, CPP Investments invests the funds of the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) to help ensure its financial sustainability for generations of working and retired Canadians.

CPP Investments invests across regions and asset classes to build a globally diversified portfolio. It holds assets in public equity, private equity, real estate, infrastructure, and fixed income, and the CPP Fund is projected to reach $3.6 trillion in assets by 2050. The organization is headquartered in Toronto with offices in Hong Kong, London, Mumbai, New York City, São Paulo, and Sydney.

CPP Investments successfully attracts, selects, and retains talented individuals from top-tier institutions worldwide. Join our team for access to:

Stimulating work in a fast-paced and intellectually challenging environment

Accelerated exposure and responsibility

Global career development opportunities

Diverse and inspiring colleagues and approachable leaders

A hybrid-flexible work environment with an emphasis on in-person collaboration

A culture rooted in principles of integrity, partnership, and high performance

An organization with an important social purpose that positively impacts lives

If you have a passion for performance, value a collegial and collaborative culture, and approach work with the highest integrity, invest your career here.

Role Summary Technology at CPP Investments is not a support function. It underpins how capital is allocated, how risk is measured, and how performance is evaluated across a global portfolio. The systems we design and operate directly influence high-consequence decisions that shape long-term outcomes at scale.

We are seeking a Principal Engineer to define architectural direction and elevate engineering standards across critical systems and data capabilities. This is a senior, hands‑on individual contributor role operating at Director level. You will not only shape what we build, but how we build it.

Your influence will extend beyond a single team. You will guide high-impact technical decisions, strengthen DevOps and security practices, improve data product maturity, and enable responsible adoption of emerging technologies such as Generative AI.

If you are motivated by complex systems, consequential trade‑offs, and raising the technical bar across an organization, this role offers uncommon scope and impact.

About This Opportunity Public Markets Technology (PMT) at CPP Investments is responsible for building and maintaining a portfolio of applications related to trading in FX, Fixed Income, Equities among other asset classes. The portfolio of trading applications is core to the Fund’s activity, and the target of a modernization project aimed at creating a platform that can support the our future growth.

We are seeking a Principal Engineer to shape the development and delivery of a modernised trading platform. As a Director level contributor, you will shape the architecture and development approach in creation of high‑impact trading platform, foster cross-team alignment, and act as a multiplier by mentoring engineers and raising the bar on quality, reliability, and performance. This is an opportunity to shape how CPP Investments builds and scales key systems that support investment decision‑making, portfolio analytics and insights across teams.

Accountabilities & Qualifications Architectural Direction and Technical Authority

Define and evolve architectural direction across systems and data capabilities.

Align domain‑level architectural direction and engineering practices with enterprise design principles, lifecycle standards, and decision frameworks defined by the Technology Architecture & Practices function.

Make and validate consequential trade-offs across scalability, resilience, performance, cost, and security.

Ensure solutions are designed for operability, observability, and long‑term sustainability.

Exercise senior architectural judgement on complex cross‑team initiatives and high‑impact technical decisions in collaboration with peer Principal Engineers.

Collaborate with the Technology Architecture & Practices function to ensure domain architectures align with enterprise design principles, lifecycle standards, and long‑term platform sustainability goals.

Cross‑Team Influence and Enterprise Alignment

Raise engineering standards across the department, not just within a single team.

Influence senior engineers and business leaders through clear, well‑reasoned technical judgement.

Develop deep understanding of business domains to ensure architecture supports real‑world workflows and outcomes.

Work across teams to prevent siloed solutions and ensure architectural coherence.

Mentor senior engineers and elevate technical standards across the organization.

Engineering Maturity and Organizational Uplift

Strengthen DevOps discipline, deployment reliability, and secure‑by‑design engineering practices.

Improve data product maturity through clarity of ownership, interoperability, and trusted consumption patterns.

Guide responsible adoption of Generative AI and advanced automation.

Actively prevent unnecessary technology proliferation and architectural fragmentation across teams.

Key Competencies Leadership Competencies

Enterprise Focus – Demonstrates strong enterprise perspective in architectural decisions. Prioritizes long‑term system integrity, interoperability, and risk posture over local optimization. Anticipates second‑ and third‑order impacts across systems and data flows.

Strategic Thinking – Applies structured, evidence‑based reasoning to complex technical challenges. Frames problems clearly, evaluates trade-offs rigorously, and shapes long‑term technical direction aligned to organizational priorities.

Constructive Engagement – Influences senior engineers and business leaders through clarity of thought and technical credibility. Engages proactively across teams to resolve architectural inconsistencies and surface systemic risks early.

Deliberate Execution – Drives architectural decisions through to implementation. Ensures standards are applied in practice, not just defined. Balances delivery pressures with long‑term sustainability and operational resilience.

People Leadership – Demonstrates technical mentorship and coaching that measurably elevates engineering capability and standards across teams.

Functional Competencies

Technical Leadership and Organizational Uplift – Shapes and elevates engineering practices beyond immediate team boundaries. Drives measurable improvements in standards, reliability, and architectural coherence across the organization.

Enterprise Architecture and System Design – Designs and governs scalable, resilient, and secure architectures across distributed systems. Ensures solutions are interoperable, observable, and sustainable.

DevOps and Operational Excellence – Strengthens automation, deployment reliability, and operational resilience. Embeds engineering discipline into build and run practices.

Security and Risk‑Aware Engineering – Applies secure‑by‑design principles and disciplined vulnerability management. Balances innovation with risk mitigation.

Data Architecture and Data Product Maturity – Improves data quality, interoperability, and trusted consumption patterns across platforms.

Technical Judgement Under Ambiguity – Makes high‑impact architectural decisions in complex, ambiguous environments, balancing competing priorities and long‑term consequences.

Core Qualifications (Education And Experience)

Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.

10+ years designing, building, and operating complex production systems at scale.

Demonstrated ownership of architectural decisions with enterprise impact and influence across multiple teams or domains.

Deep understanding of modern software architecture, cloud‑native development, DevOps practices, and operational reliability.

Experience strengthening security posture through secure‑by‑design principles and disciplined vulnerability management.

Experience advancing scalable data platforms or improving data product maturity and interoperability.

Familiarity with responsible, risk‑aware adoption of Generative AI or advanced automation in production environments.

Ability to make high‑impact technical decisions under ambiguity, balancing short‑term delivery pressures with long‑term system integrity.

Proven ability to influence senior engineers and business stakeholders through clarity of reasoning and technical credibility.

For business‑facing teams, a CFA designation and/or experience working in complex investment environments or other high‑consequence domains is an asset.

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Commitment to Inclusion and Diversity At CPP Investments, we are committed to diversity and equitable access to employment opportunities based on ability. We thank all applicants for their interest but will only contact candidates selected to advance in the hiring process.

Our Commitment to Inclusion and Diversity In addition to being dedicated to building a workforce that reflects diverse talent, we are committed to fostering an inclusive and a...