Principal Software Engineer
Job Description
The Principal Software Engineer is the primary technical leader of the department. This role demands expertise in AI-assisted development, agentic engineering, cloud-native architecture, and platform thinking. The Principal evaluates every technical decision through the build, buy, borrow, or bot lens, understanding what is fiscally responsible, operationally sustainable, and fastest to value.
This person must be fluent in business fundamentals (P&L, cost of delay, unit economics) and connect engineering decisions to business results. The ideal candidate brings a track record of delivering at scale within large enterprise environments, ideally across more than one industry vertical. They maintain a culture of accountability, velocity, and quality grounded in the WGU Leadership Principles.
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
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