Principal Backend Engineer

Parallels Inc• Remote, EST, US,

1d•$130,000 - $140,000

About The Position

Parallels has an immediate vacancy for a Principal Backend Engineer to help change the way the world works, with Parallels: anytime, anywhere, any-device productivity. This role involves driving the outbound prospecting effort by executing strategic prospecting campaigns to target accounts and executive personas with the Parallels team. The company emphasizes a culture where employees can be themselves, take risks, and where work-life balance is supported, allowing people to work when, how, and where they want.

Requirements

Expert knowledge of modern backend infrastructure and asynchronous messaging/storage (RabbitMQ, Celery, Kafka, PostgreSQL, Redis, etc.).
Solid foundation in Python (or deep expertise in Go/C++/Rust with a working knowledge of Python) coupled with the engineering maturity to quickly master the Python backend ecosystem.
Extensive Backend Experience with a proven track record in principal-level roles designing complex, distributed systems.
Pragmatic Architectural Mastery. Expertise in designing highly cohesive, loosely coupled systems.
Deep understanding of software design patterns and architectural methodologies such as Domain-Driven Design, Clean Architecture, Hexagonal combined with the clear judgment on when simpler approaches are better.
Strong background in designing client APIs. Not just individual APIs or groups, but the entire API schema and contract of a system.
Deep understanding of cloud architecture, containerization, and CI/CD pipelines.
Demonstrated ability to influence engineering practices, drive technical consensus, and lead complex architectural transitions across multiple teams.
Skills and authority to coach and mentor the team.
Experience working in Agile/Scrum environments.

Nice To Haves

Experience with Azure as a cloud platform.
Experience designing and implementing GraphQL APIs.
Experience with Kubernetes or other container orchestration tools.
Experience implementing Identity Management in enterprise applications (SCIM provisioning, OAuth2, OpenID Connect, SAML).
Polyglot background: Experience with Golang, Rust, or C++ for performance-critical domains.
Spec-Driven Development (SDD) & AI-Native Engineering. Experience designing formal, machine-readable specifications and strict contracts, tests as the single source of truth.
Know how to define strict system boundaries and executable contracts that constrain AI agents, ensuring they accelerate code generation without introducing architectural drift or spaghetti code.

Responsibilities

Drive and define architectural roadmaps for backend systems.
Architect and lead the strategic decomposition of a mature Django application into scalable, asynchronous microservices.
Define technical strategy, tech stack, and how code is organized across repositories.
Make critical build-vs-buy decisions, including evaluating whether to proceed with internal implementation vs. using a 3rd-party tool.
Write code for the most complex, critical system mechanisms.
Implement the most critical mechanisms, and features for the business.
Help teammates when needed.
Architect secure and scalable integration patterns across the system, establishing best practices for 3rd-party integrations, identity management, and SSO/SCIM integrations.
Redefine system architecture & design by auditing existing microservices and implementing strict bounded contexts.
Design robust, scalable, and standardized APIs.
Take ownership of the cloud architecture strategy with a strong emphasis on backend resilience, fault tolerance, and performance.
Act as the technical cornerstone for the engineering team.
Partner directly with engineering leadership to define and enforce technical standards.
Drive complex architectural transitions across a team of 7-8 engineers.