Principal Software Engineer

About the role

The Principal Software Engineer will set and uphold the technical bar for a cloud-native, event-driven system used across a national intelligence enterprise. You’ll own the architecture patterns, the quality gate, and the build environment—staying close to the code while guiding a team of engineers through design and delivery.

Responsibilities

• Own the technical approach and code-quality standard across development; lead design reviews and establish patterns for cloud-native, event-driven microservices.
• Guide development, refactoring, integration, and deployment of enterprise data services to government cloud environments.
• Own the software build environment and end-item source delivery to the government source-code repository, including version history and reproducible builds.
• Ensure deliveries meet the no-major-defect (Category 1/2) threshold and align to agile artifacts and required contract documentation.
• Mentor engineers; serve as the technical liaison to the SME and government technical leads.

Requirements

• Active TS/SCI.
• 15+ years of software engineering experience (or MS + 12), including 5+ years leading cloud-native microservice teams.
• Deep, hands-on experience with containers and Kubernetes, modern backend languages (Go, Java, and/or Python), and REST plus asynchronous/event-driven APIs.
• Demonstrated ownership of secure SDLC practices and CI/CD-based delivery.
• Experience leading teams in an Agile/Scrum environment.

Qualifications

• Certificate in Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) or Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD).
• Experience with event-driven / streaming platforms (Kafka, NATS, Numaflow, or similar).
• Enterprise search, data-catalog, or large-scale data-services experience.
• Multi-enclave delivery experience.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related field (or equivalent experience).

Skills

• Event-driven / streaming platforms (Kafka, NATS, Numaflow, or similar).
• Enterprise search, data-catalog, or large-scale data-services experience.
• Multi-enclave delivery experience.

Benefits

• Flexible time off totaling 36 days / year.
• 100% 401k company match up to IRS annual limits ($24,500 for 2026).
• Health plan through Blue Cross Blue Shield with Health Savings Account (HSA).
• Tech and Wellness reimbursement of $3000 / year.
• Annual profit sharing as 401k contribution.
• MacBook laptop and well-equipped office spaces for optimal productivity in office and on-the-go.

Pay

Compensation is commensurate with experience.

Schedule

Full-time.