Principal Backend Software Developer

About the role

This role is a senior individual contributor for an engineer who has built and operated distributed systems in production, understands the trade-offs behind scalable architecture, and wants to solve business-critical problems with deep technical rigor. The position involves working on a business-critical platform that directly enables Autodesk's shift toward consumption-based models.

Responsibilities

• Work on a business-critical platform that directly enables Autodesk’s shift toward consumption-based models.
• Design and operate high-scale distributed systems where correctness and reliability are essential.
• Own problems end to end, from architecture and implementation through production operations and continuous improvement.
• Collaborate with product, finance, commerce, platform, data, and engineering teams across Autodesk.
• Use modern cloud-native architecture, event-driven patterns, observability, and Agentic engineering practices to move faster without compromising quality.
• Mentor strong engineers and influence technical direction beyond your immediate team.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• Strong backend engineering experience building and operating production services at scale.
• Deep experience with distributed systems, microservices, event-driven architecture, real-time or near-real-time data processing, and cloud-native design.
• Proficiency in one or more backend languages such as Java, Python, Go, Kotlin, or similar.
• Hands-on experience with AWS services such as Lambda, Fargate, ECS, SQS, SNS, DynamoDB, Aurora, API Gateway, CloudWatch, or related cloud technologies.
• Experience owning production systems, including observability, incident response, root-cause analysis, and reliability improvements.
• Strong technical judgment and ability to make pragmatic trade-offs across architecture, delivery speed, operational risk, cost, and long-term maintainability.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to influence technical and non-technical stakeholders across teams.
• Demonstrated ability to mentor engineers and act as a technical multiplier.

Qualifications

• Experience building billing, payments, metering, usage, commerce, financial systems, or other correctness-critical platforms.
• Experience with high-throughput streaming or messaging systems such as Kafka, Kinesis, Flink, Spark Streaming, SQS, or similar.
• Experience designing idempotent, auditable, and eventually consistent systems.
• Experience with data modeling for transactional, analytical, and event-sourced systems.
• Experience with infrastructure as code, CI/CD, automated testing, progressive delivery, and deployment safety.
• Experience leading large technical initiatives across multiple teams or organizations.
• Experience migrating legacy systems to modern cloud-native platforms.
• Experience with cost optimization for large-scale cloud systems.

Skills

• Strong backend engineering experience building and operating production services at scale.
• Experience with distributed systems, microservices, event-driven architecture, real-time or near-real-time data processing, and cloud-native design.
• Hands-on experience with AWS services such as Lambda, Fargate, ECS, SQS, SNS, DynamoDB, Aurora, API Gateway, CloudWatch, or related cloud technologies.
• Experience owning production systems, including observability, incident response, root-cause analysis, and reliability improvements.
• Strong technical judgment and ability to make pragmatic trade-offs across architecture, delivery speed, operational risk, cost, and long-term maintainability.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to influence technical and non-technical stakeholders across teams.
• Demonstrated ability to mentor engineers and act as a technical multiplier.

Benefits

Autodesk offers a comprehensive benefits package including:

• Annual cash bonuses
• Stock grants
• A robust benefits program
• Flexible work arrangements
• Professional development opportunities
• Employee resource groups

Pay

Salary is one part of Autodesk’s competitive compensation package. For Canada based roles, we expect a starting base salary between $131,000 and $191,400. Offers are based on the candidate’s experience and geographic location, and may exceed this range.

Schedule

Autodesk offers flexible work schedules to accommodate the needs of our employees.