Principal Engineer - AI/ML

McAfee is a global leader in online protection, dedicated to making the digital world a safer place for everyone. We are seeking a highly experienced and hands-on Technical Lead Software Engineer with deep expertise in cloud-native architecture, agentic AI systems, full-stack development, and large-scale internet services. This role offers a unique opportunity to lead critical projects, mentor engineers, and shape the future of McAfee's security products through fast, iterative delivery focused on business outcomes. Hybrid position located in Frisco, TX; San Jose, CA; Newport Beach, CA; New York, NY; Toronto, Canada; or Waterloo, Canada. Candidates must reside within commutable distance to these hub offices and be available for onsite work as needed.

About The Role

• Lead the design, development, and deployment of scalable, resilient, and high-performance software solutions with a focus on agentic AI/ML capabilities.
• Provide hands-on technical leadership throughout the entire software development lifecycle, from concept and design to testing, deployment, and operational support.
• Architect and build full-stack applications and services that operate at internet scale, ensuring high availability and low latency on modern cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP).
• Drive the technical vision and strategy for AI/ML-powered features and products, translating business requirements into robust technical designs with rapid iteration and incremental delivery.
• Mentor and guide a team of software engineers, fostering a culture of technical excellence, innovation, collaboration, speed, and AI-augmented productivity.
• Collaborate closely with product managers, data scientists, researchers, and other engineering teams to deliver impactful solutions aligned with business goals.
• Leverage AI-assisted development tools and practices to accelerate delivery (GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, LLM-powered workflows).
• Champion best practices in software engineering, including code quality, testing, CI/CD, and DevOps with a pragmatic, outcome-driven approach.
• Stay current with emerging technologies and industry trends, particularly in AI/ML, agentic and LLM-based systems, multi-agent architectures, distributed systems, and cloud computing.
• Contribute to code reviews, design discussions, and architectural decisions with hands-on involvement in implementation.
• Troubleshoot and resolve complex technical issues in production environments.

Requirements

• 10+ years of professional software development experience, with a significant portion in a technical leadership role.
• Extensive hands-on experience in designing, building, and operating large-scale, distributed internet services.
• Proven experience in developing and deploying agentic AI systems and AI/ML models into production environments, including familiarity with the end-to-end MLOps lifecycle and modern LLM-based architectures.
• Strong proficiency in multiple programming languages such as Python, Java, Go, Rust, or C++.
• Deep understanding of full-stack development, including front-end technologies (e.g., JavaScript, TypeScript, Dart, React, Flutter) and back-end technologies (gRPC, protobuf).
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP) and containerization technologies (Docker, Kubernetes) as a primary deployment model.
• Advanced Cloud & K8s Infrastructure: Deep expertise in Kubernetes (Helm, ArgoCD), advanced cloud networking (Ingress, Calico), Zero Trust Security (OPA), Service Mesh (Istio/Linkerd), and eBPF (Cilium) for high-performance observability and traffic management.
• Solid understanding of database technologies (SQL and NoSQL).
• Demonstrated use of AI productivity tools (GitHub Copilot, Claude, ChatGPT, etc.) to accelerate software development.
• Bias for action: proven track record of fast, iterative, incremental delivery over analysis paralysis.
• Business outcome orientation: focus on delivering value and measurable results, not just technical outputs.
• Excellent problem-solving, analytical, and technical troubleshooting skills.
• Strong communication, interpersonal, and leadership abilities.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, agile environment with a strong hands-on coding presence.

Preferred Qualifications

• Contributions to open-source projects.
• Experience working at FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google) or other leading Big Tech companies.
• Experience with big data technologies (e.g., Databricks, Snowflake, Big Query, Spark, Hadoop, Kafka).
• Experience in the cybersecurity domain.

Benefits

• Bonus Program
• 401k Retirement Plan
• Medical, Dental, Vision, Basic Life, Short Term Disability, and Long-Term Disability Coverage
• Paid Parental Leave
• Support and Community Involvement Programs
• 14 Paid Company Holidays
• Unlimited Paid Time Off for Exempt Employees
• 96 Hours of Sick Time and 120 Hours of Vacation for Non-Exempt Employees (accrued annually)
• Flexible work hours and family-friendly benefits

Pay

The anticipated compensation for this position is USD $171,960.00/Yr. - USD $282,510.00/Yr., depending on experience and qualifications.