Principal Software Engineer

Position Overview

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

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

System Architecture & Design Leadership

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

Required

• 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)

• 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)

System & Architecture Excellence

• 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

• 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

• 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

• Engineering team satisfaction and mentorship impact

• Cross-team collaboration effectiveness

• Stakeholder and leadership feedback

• Influence on technical strategy and roadmap decisions

Reporting To

• Director of Engineering

• VP of Engineering

• Chief Technology Officer (CTO)

• Head of Software Engineering

• Chief Architect

Employment Type & Work Setup

• 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

• 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