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Senior Software Engineer

State of Wisconsin Investment Board · Madison, WI · Full time

Posted Aug 26, 2026 · We last checked this listing on Oct 6, 2026

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Likely interview questions for this role

Written from this job description, not a generic list. Each one notes what the interviewer is really checking.

About your past

Tell me about a production API you designed and owned end to end. What decisions did you make early that paid off or hurt you later?

What they are checking: Whether they truly owned a service through its lifecycle and learned from their design tradeoffs.

Tell me about a time you pushed back on a business request because the technical approach was risky.

What they are checking: Whether they can advocate for sound engineering while keeping a good working relationship with the business.

How do you mentor less experienced engineers through code reviews?

What they are checking: Whether they raise the team's skill level, which is expected of a senior engineer.

What would you do

A trading desk says an API you own is returning wrong numbers right before market close. Walk me through your response.

What they are checking: Whether they can triage calmly, communicate with users and fix the problem under real business pressure.

SWIB manages pension assets for over 700,000 people. How does that change how you think about testing and reliability?

What they are checking: Whether they connect their engineering standards to the real consequences of errors for beneficiaries.

About the work

How would you design an integration between an investment system and a downstream data platform so it handles late or duplicate data safely?

What they are checking: Whether they think about idempotency and data correctness, which matter when the data drives investment decisions.

What does good monitoring look like for a service supporting critical investment workflows?

What they are checking: Whether they define meaningful alerts and metrics rather than just collecting logs.

How do you build automated deployment for a cloud-native service so releases are routine and low risk?

What they are checking: Whether they have real CI/CD experience that reduces the chance of breaking critical workflows.

How do you version an API that several internal teams depend on without breaking them?

What they are checking: Whether they manage change carefully for internal consumers they cannot force to upgrade.

How do you keep secrets and credentials safe in automated cloud workflows?

What they are checking: Whether they follow secure practices that a financial institution must enforce.

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The full job description

As published by State of Wisconsin Investment Board.

Sophisticated Work. In a Great City. Making a Difference. The State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB) manages more than $178 billion in assets, including those of the fully-funded Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS). SWIB operates at a level more often seen in top-tier global asset managers than in typical public pension funds. SWIB is a home for top talent. Approximately 61 percent of SWIB’s investment professionals are Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholders. The City of Madison, the state capitol and home of Wisconsin’s flagship university, makes regular appearances on lists of best places to live, eat, and play. SWIB offers a modern workspace, hybrid work options, and competitive compensation and benefits. Serving over 703,000 WRS beneficiaries, SWIB is driven by a clear mission: securing the financial future of those who serve Wisconsin. When you work at SWIB, you know your work matters. Job Description: Job Description Applicants on an OPT, CPT visa or anyone requiring H-1B transfers or sponsorship into the H-1B lottery will not be considered for this position. What You’ll Do • Design, build, and maintain production-grade APIs and system integrations that support critical workflows • Own the end-to-end lifecycle of services and applications, from design and implementation through deployment, monitoring, and iteration • Build automated, cloud-native workflows, including thoughtful use of AI capabilities where they provide clear business value • Contribute to user-facing interfaces that make complex workflows understandable and efficient for end users • Design and manage data models and persistence layers, including schema design, performance tuning, and troubleshooting • Deploy and operate applications in cloud environments using best practices for security, reliability, observability, and cost awareness • Apply AI pragmatically — both as a development accelerator and, where appropriate, as part of production systems (e.g., LLMs, vector search, NLP APIs) • Participate actively in code reviews, design discussions, and technical decision-making, raising the quality bar for the team • Mentor and support less-experienced engineers through pairing, reviews, and knowledge sharing • Collaborate closely with technical and non-technical partners to translate business needs into clear, maintainable technical solutions • Contribute to the evolution of engineering standards, patterns, and tooling within the team and broader organization What You Bring • Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience • 5+ years of professional software development experience (or equivalent demonstrated impact) • Strong proficiency in Python, with experience building and maintaining production-grade systems • Solid experience working with databases (SQL and/or NoSQL), including data modeling and performance considerations • Hands-on experience with cloud platforms such as Azure, AWS, or GCP • Proven experience designing, building, and delivering end-to-end software systems in real world production environments • Familiarity in finance and in financial systems (e.g., financial data, instruments, reporting, or workflows), and interest in applying technology in this domain • Experience with or strong interest in AI technologies, such as LLMs, vector databases, or NLP APIs • Sound technical judgment and the ability to balance delivery speed, quality, and long-term maintainability • Strong communication skills and a collaborative, team-oriented mindset What You’ll Gain • Ownership of meaningful, high-impact systems used across the organization • Opportunities to influence architecture, technical standards, and engineering practices • Hands-on work with modern cloud and AI technologies in real-world production use cases • Close partnership with stakeholders across engineering, data, and business teams SWIB Offers: • Competitive total cash compensation, based on AON (formerly McLagan) industry benchmarks • Comprehensive benefits package • Educational and training opportunities • Tuition reimbursement • Challenging work in a professional environment • Hybrid work environment The position requires U.S. work authorization. Pursuant to our Hybrid Remote Work Policy, all staff have the flexibility to work remotely but are required to have a weekly presence in our offices, the frequency of which is dependent on their distance from office or the job position. Staff are not required to reside locally; however, we offer relocation reimbursement to the Dane County area per our policy. All SWIB employees are subject to SWIB’s Ethics Policy and Personal Trade Approvals Policy. These policies include restrictions on outside business activities and employment and have limits on personal trading. You may request copies of these policies from SWIB’s talent acquisition team and any questions can be answered by SWIB’s compliance team.

Apply at State of Wisconsin Investment Board

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