Principal Software Engineer

Great people. Greater business impact.

About CAI

CAI Software builds digital work execution platforms and software solutions that help manufacturing businesses operate with greater clarity and control. Our people bring structure to complexity by replacing fragmented, paper-based processes with connected digital workflows that improve visibility, compliance, and decision-making in real industrial environments. With 45+ years of experience and a presence across 10+ countries, CAI combines deep industry understanding with practical technology. Our team consists of ~800 employees worldwide who work across 15 core industries and support 5,000+ customers, guided by sound judgment, long-term thinking, and outcomes that endure.

CAI Business Units and the Markets We Serve

CAI Software is organized into three business units - Graphic Communications, Process Manufacturing, and Discrete Manufacturing – aligned to the markets we serve. This structure allows our teams to stay close to customer needs while operating with the scale and support of a global software company.

This role is part of our Process Manufacturing business unit, which provides ERP and operational software to manufacturers that transform raw materials into finished goods through formulas, recipes, or batch-driven processes. We work with small to enterprise manufacturers across industries such as food and beverage, bottling, pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, chemicals, paint, paper, tile, and supply chain logistics—supporting end-to-end operations from sourcing through production and distribution.

CAI India

CAI India is a strategic investment in the company’s future. Our Bangalore Center of Excellence is a place of ownership, expertise, and accountability. Teams in India work on global products end to end, contribute to key decisions, and influence how CAI evolves as a business. This is not a support-led model, but rather a center designed to lead through knowledge, responsibility, and trust.

About the Role

As a Principal Software Engineer, you will serve as our most senior individual contributor and technical leader — combining deep hands-on engineering with the vision to drive architectural direction and mentor a team of engineers. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in full stack software development, excellent communication skills, and the ability to work effectively in a fast-paced, Agile environment.

This is primarily a hands-on role. You'll move fluidly between setting architectural direction, making critical design decisions, and solving the hardest problems on the team. You'll partner closely with Product and QA to translate business goals into well-engineered solutions.

What You’ll Do

• Serve as the primary technical authority, owning architectural decisions across the C#/.NET application stack.

• Guide and mentor engineers, providing technical direction, code review, and support for their growth — without formal people-management responsibilities.

• Drive roadmap execution through your own technical contributions, ensuring timely delivery without compromising quality.

• Partner with Product Management, QA, and global stakeholders to define scope, prioritize features, and resolve technical dependencies.

• Act as the escalation point for complex engineering problems, unblocking the team with clear, decisive technical direction.

• Set architecture direction for backend services, APIs, and data models spanning our products.

• Resolve system-level tradeoffs across frontend, backend, and infrastructure layers.

• Champion engineering best practices including Agile methodologies, secure coding, DevOps standards, and modern tooling — including AI-assisted development.

• Ensure code quality, performance, and reliability through testing and adherence to best practices.

• Stay current with industry trends and emerging technologies to ensure success of our products.

• Gain knowledge and understanding of core product functionality to effectively integrate web applications with existing services.

• The ideal candidate is an autonomous, go-getter, who relishes the opportunity to be involved in many different projects and initiatives at the same time.

• Performing all tasks and status updates with an acute sense of urgency at all times is second nature to person best fitting this role.

• Strong candidates will possess an innate ability to set the standard and strive for excellence every minute of the day. To succeed at CAI Software, candidates should be incredible critical thinkers, relentless problem solvers, and positive people.

What We’re Looking For

• 10+ years of software engineering experience with strong hands-on development capability.

• Deep expertise in C# and modern .NET (Core/6/8+).

• Proven experience with Blazor and/or ASP.NET and other web development technologies (e.g., HTML, CSS, JavaScript).

• Demonstrated ability to guide and elevate other engineers through code review, technical mentorship, and collaborative problem-solving.

• Strong experience with SQL Server and data architecture.

• Deep experience architecting REST APIs, backend services, and distributed systems—not just UI-layer development.

• Proven track record making build-vs-buy and service-boundary decisions at scale.

• Experience with cloud platforms (preferably Azure) and modern DevOps practices.

• Comfortable working in an Agile environment with cross-functional and globally distributed teams.

• Experience with CI/CD pipelines and DevOps practices.

• Excellent communication and decision-making skills, with the ability to influence technical direction across stakeholders.

• Strong experience testing your own code and taking full ownership of quality.

• Bachelor's degree in computer science or other related disciplines.

• Fast learner, with an ability to learn complex software systems, understand user challenges, and offer creative yet practical solutions.

• Manufacturing and supply chain experience is a major plus.

• Overlap 4 hours with west coast is preferred

Nice to Have

• Familiarity with Claude Code or similar AI-assisted development tools.

Why Join Us
You’ll work at the intersection of software and manufacturing operations — building the connections that make our customers’ data visible and actionable. This is a growth role with clear paths into integration architecture, product engineering, or technical leadership. You’ll gain deep domain knowledge in process manufacturing while contributing to a product used by 5,000+ customers worldwide.