Principal Software Engineer

Job Description

#### About the job Principal Software Engineer

**Principal Software Engineer**
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**Position Overview**
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We are seeking a highly experienced **Principal Software Engineer** to lead the design, architecture, and delivery of large-scale, high-performance, and mission-critical software systems. This role is a senior technical leadership position responsible for driving engineering excellence, shaping system architecture, and influencing technical strategy across multiple teams.

The ideal candidate has deep expertise in distributed systems, cloud-native architecture, backend engineering, and scalable software design. They are expected to serve as a technical authority, mentor engineers, and partner with leadership to translate business goals into robust, scalable technical solutions.

**Location Requirement**
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To support collaboration with engineering, product, and leadership teams, candidates **must currently reside in one of the following metropolitan areas in the United States**:

* Dallas

* Houston

* Austin

* Atlanta

* Jacksonville

* Miami

* Nashville

* Charlotte

* Phoenix

Candidates outside of these locations will not be considered.

**Key Responsibilities**
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**System Architecture \& Design Leadership**
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* Lead the design and architecture of scalable, distributed, and high-performance systems

* Define technical direction and architectural standards across engineering teams

* Evaluate and select technologies, frameworks, and system design patterns

* Design resilient, fault-tolerant, and highly available systems

* Ensure systems are built for scalability, performance, and long-term maintainability

**Backend \& Distributed Systems Engineering**
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* Build and optimize backend services, APIs, and microservices architectures

* Solve complex engineering problems related to concurrency, latency, and throughput

* Design event-driven, asynchronous, and distributed system architectures

* Improve system performance, scalability, and reliability

* Lead deep technical investigations and root cause analysis of system issues

**Cloud-Native Architecture \& Infrastructure**
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* Design and guide cloud-native architectures across AWS, Azure, and/or GCP

* Work with containerized and serverless architectures (Docker, Kubernetes, etc.)

* Collaborate with Platform, DevOps, and SRE teams on infrastructure design

* Optimize cloud cost, performance, and scalability

* Ensure systems follow modern cloud engineering best practices

**Security, Reliability \& Engineering Excellence**
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* Ensure systems are designed with strong security, privacy, and compliance principles

* Promote secure coding practices and architecture-level security design

* Define reliability standards including SLIs, SLOs, and SLAs

* Lead efforts to improve system stability and reduce production incidents

* Champion engineering best practices, code quality, and technical rigor

**Technical Leadership \& Mentorship**
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* Serve as a technical leader and mentor for engineers across teams

* Guide engineering teams through complex technical challenges

* Conduct architecture reviews and provide technical oversight

* Influence engineering roadmap and technical strategy decisions

* Foster a culture of engineering excellence and continuous improvement

**Cross-Functional Collaboration**
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* Partner with Product Managers, Engineering Managers, Data teams, and Leadership

* Translate business requirements into scalable technical solutions

* Participate in strategic planning and roadmap development

* Communicate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders

* Support alignment between engineering execution and business priorities

**Innovation \& Continuous Improvement**
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* Evaluate emerging technologies and architectural patterns

* Drive innovation in system design and engineering practices

* Identify opportunities for automation and optimization

* Contribute to long-term technical vision and platform evolution

* Lead proof-of-concept and high-impact engineering initiatives

**Qualifications**
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**Required**
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* Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field

* 8 years of software engineering experience

* 3 years in a senior technical leadership role (Principal, Staff, or equivalent)

* Strong expertise in distributed systems and backend architecture

* Proficiency in one or more backend languages (Java, Python, Go, C#, Node.js)

* Deep understanding of system design, microservices, and API architecture

* Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP)

* Strong knowledge of databases (SQL and NoSQL systems)

* Experience leading large-scale production systems

* Excellent problem-solving, communication, and leadership skills

* Must currently reside in one of the approved locations listed above

**Preferred (Nice-to-Have)**
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* Experience with high-scale systems (millions of users or high transaction volumes)

* Familiarity with event-driven architectures (Kafka, RabbitMQ, etc.)

* Experience with Kubernetes, service mesh, and cloud-native platforms

* Knowledge of observability tools (Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog, ELK stack)

* Experience in fintech, SaaS, or enterprise-scale systems

* Contributions to open-source projects or technical publications

* Experience with system performance optimization and low-latency systems

* Familiarity with AI/ML infrastructure or data-intensive systems

* Prior experience in architecture governance or technical advisory roles

**Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)**
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**System \& Architecture Excellence**
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* System scalability and performance improvements

* Architecture review success rate

* Reduction in system design flaws and production issues

* Long-term maintainability and system health metrics

**Reliability \& Performance**
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* System uptime and availability

* Reduction in critical production incidents

* Mean Time to Detect (MTTD) and Mean Time to Recover (MTTR)

* Improvement in latency and throughput metrics

**Engineering Impact**
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* Successful delivery of complex, high-impact initiatives

* Technical debt reduction and system modernization progress

* Adoption of architectural standards across teams

* Contribution to engineering productivity improvements

**Leadership \& Influence**
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* Engineering team satisfaction and mentorship impact

* Cross-team collaboration effectiveness

* Stakeholder and leadership feedback

* Influence on technical strategy and roadmap decisions

**Reporting To**
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* Director of Engineering

* VP of Engineering

* Chief Technology Officer (CTO)

* Head of Software Engineering

* Chief Architect

**Employment Type \& Work Setup**
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* Full-Time

* Remote (Candidates must reside in approved locations)

* Hybrid opportunities may be available based on business needs

* Occasional travel for architecture reviews, leadership meetings, or strategic planning sessions

* Agile, high-performance engineering environment

**Work Environment \& Conditions**
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* Large-scale, high-performance software engineering environment

* Collaboration with senior engineering, product, and executive leadership teams

* Strong emphasis on architecture, scalability, and engineering excellence

* Opportunity to shape technical direction and influence company-wide systems

* Exposure to complex distributed systems and enterprise-scale challenges

* Career progression opportunities into Staff , Distinguished Engineer, or CTO-track roles