Principal Software Development Engineer, Backend

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Principal Software Development Engineer, Backend based in United States. This is a senior technical leadership role focused on shaping backend architecture across a complex, customer-facing product domain. You will provide technical direction across multiple engineering teams without direct authority, using strong judgment and influence to drive outcomes. The role covers scalable, secure, observable, and cost-efficient cloud-native platforms and services. You will tackle ambiguous, high-impact problems that span teams, systems, data, and machine learning workloads. Success requires a balance of hands-on technical depth, strategic thinking, mentoring, and cross-functional collaboration. You will help establish engineering standards, improve reliability and developer experience, and guide long-term technical strategy. The position is fully remote within the United States and offers significant autonomy in determining where your expertise can create the most impact.

Define and drive long-term technical strategy and architecture for backend platforms and services, with a focus on scalability, security, observability, reliability, and cost efficiency. Lead the design and implementation of high-throughput, low-latency APIs, data pipelines, event-driven systems, and platform capabilities supporting multiple products and machine learning workloads. Act as the primary technical steward for the backend domain, guiding architectural decisions across multiple languages, third-party integrations, distributed systems, and cloud infrastructure. Solve complex technical and business problems that are too broad or ambiguous for a single engineering team, using prototypes, experimentation, analysis, and data-driven tradeoffs. Partner with Product, Data Science, and Machine Learning leaders to translate business objectives into technical roadmaps and coordinate cross-team dependencies. Establish engineering standards and mentor senior engineers and technical leads across reliability, performance, testing, incident response, and operational excellence. Influence platform and data governance, security, and compliance practices by establishing appropriate guidelines, reviews, and technical guardrails. Champion modern backend technologies, tools, and engineering workflows that improve developer experience, reduce friction, and increase delivery quality and speed. Identify opportunities for delegation and collaboration while independently prioritizing technical initiatives and managing a self-directed workload. Requirements Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and professional experience. 10+ years of professional software engineering experience designing, building, and operating backend or distributed systems in production environments. Demonstrated experience leading large-scale, highly available, high-volume services or platforms, preferably within a cloud environment such as AWS, GCP, or Azure. Proven technical leadership across multiple teams or domains, including setting architectural direction, influencing roadmaps, and driving complex initiatives from concept through production. Strong expertise in backend architecture, distributed systems, APIs, data and event pipelines, cloud-native technologies, and production operations. Ability to evaluate complex technical tradeoffs, frame ambiguous problems, and make sound architecture and build-versus-buy decisions. Strong understanding of reliability, performance, observability, testing, security, data governance, and operational excellence. Excellent communication and relationship-building skills, with the ability to influence engineers, technical leaders, product teams, data specialists, and other stakeholders without relying on formal authority. Demonstrated ability to mentor senior engineers and technical leads while elevating engineering practices across multiple teams. Self-directed, pragmatic, and comfortable working in an environment where priorities evolve and there is no predefined backlog of work. Benefits Fully remote position for employees based in the United States, with limited state-specific exceptions. Base salary range of $191,300–$305,700 annually in California, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Washington state, and Washington, DC. Base salary range of $181,800–$290,400 annually in Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, Ohio, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Virginia. Equity awards may be available based on factors including experience, performance, and location. Flexible distributed-work model designed to support productivity and collaboration from remote locations. Opportunities to contribute to large-scale, customer-facing technology and complex cloud-based systems. Opportunities for technical leadership, mentorship, and continued professional growth. Inclusive workplace environment with equal employment opportunities and reasonable accommodations for qualified applicants. Additional compensation and benefits are subject to applicable plans, policies, and employment location.

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