Principal Software Engineer

Job Duties

• Partner with engineering and product leadership to define technical strategy and delivery roadmaps that improve the student experience at scale
• Build and ship production-grade software while establishing engineering standards others follow
• Lead Agile delivery practices that balance rigorous planning with rapid execution and predictable outcomes
• Design and evolve cloud-native architectures with strong emphasis on scalability, observability, reliability, security, and operational supportability
• Evaluate technical decisions through a build, buy, borrow, or bot lens with focus on speed-to-value, sustainability, and fiscal responsibility
• Mentor engineers on modern software engineering practices, AI-assisted development workflows, and emerging technologies
• Prototype new tools, frameworks, and architectural patterns through proof-of-value initiatives
• Drive engineering excellence across multiple teams by establishing repeatable delivery patterns and operational standards
• Partner closely with infrastructure, cloud, security, architecture, and product teams as a peer technical leader
• Identify architectural inefficiencies and technical debt, proposing practical and cost-effective solutions grounded in data
• Communicate technical strategy, dependencies, tradeoffs, and risks clearly to executive leadership
• Support operational readiness, incident response, and day-2 supportability across enterprise systems
• Lead through accountability, urgency, ownership, and attention to detail
• Participate in critical operational events and provide leadership during high-impact incidents when needed

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Software Engineering, or related field
• 10+ years of progressive software engineering experience including architecture, delivery leadership, and technical mentorship across multiple teams
• Experience building and operating web applications using Java, REST APIs, SQL, and Git in enterprise environments
• Experience designing and delivering system integrations with third-party and internal platforms
• Track record in large-scale enterprise IT organizations with established operational processes
• Equivalent relevant experience may substitute for education (1 year experience per 1 year education, at hiring manager discretion)

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related field
• Experience with Kafka/Confluent and integration middleware (Apache Camel, MuleSoft, or similar)
• Hands-on AWS experience: ECS/EKS, Lambda, SNS/SQS, API Gateway, Terraform, Spring Boot, Kubernetes, and container orchestration in production
• Observability stacks (Dynatrace, Datadog, or similar) including custom metrics and SLO management
• Familiarity with AI/ML platforms, LLM integration, and agentic frameworks
• Higher education, EdTech, or regulated industry experience
• ITIL v4 Foundation or higher; AWS Solutions Architect or CKA certification
• Experience across multiple industry verticals