Principal Engineer, Application Software

Aires•Pittsburgh, PA

4d•Hybrid

About The Position

Aires is hiring a Principal Engineer, Application Software for its Innovative Technologies team in a high-growth environment. The role guides research, development, and design of engineering products, partners with organizational leadership to shape development strategy and prioritize technology initiatives, and leads project planning and technical direction throughout the product development lifecycle. The position directly manages the API Integrations, Research, and DevOps teams, including hiring and performance reviews, and provides technical leadership, mentoring, and delivery oversight across those teams. The engineer will develop and govern scalable Java and Spring Boot REST APIs, microservices, and client- and vendor-facing integrations; work with AWS, relational databases, and PL/SQL; and set standards for code quality, testing, security, deployment, reliability, and observability. The role also guides evaluation of emerging technologies, may lead exploration of GenAI capabilities, and uses AI-assisted development tools to accelerate engineering work. The position collaborates with product owners, Scrum Masters, QA, organizational leadership, and external partners to turn business needs into technical solutions and deliverables. This is a hybrid role based at the Aires office in Robinson Township, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Candidates must be local to Pittsburgh. Relocation assistance is not provided. Candidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States; current or future visa sponsorship is not available.

Requirements

At least 8 years of professional software engineering experience, with a proven track record developing enterprise applications.
At least 2 years of direct experience managing engineers, with authority over hiring and performance reviews.
Strong hands-on expertise in Java and its core ecosystem.
Extensive experience building, securing, and scaling microservices using Spring Boot.
Experience building or governing external-facing API integrations with third-party client or vendor systems, including contract design, versioning, and SLA management.
Hands-on AWS experience developing and deploying cloud-native applications using services such as Lambda, S3, DynamoDB, and EC2.
Strong proficiency with relational databases, complex SQL queries, and PL/SQL.
Experience managing source code with Git, including branching, merging, and collaboration in multi-developer environments.
Experience working in Agile/Scrum environments and stepping into a lead developer role.
Strong analytical skills and ability to understand complex system logic.
Hands-on experience with unit and integration testing using JUnit and ensuring code coverage.
Ability to communicate technical tradeoffs to technical and non-technical stakeholders, including executive leadership.
Legally authorized to work in the United States; the position is not eligible for current or future visa sponsorship.
Must be local to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Nice To Haves

Understanding of Generative AI concepts, including RAG and prompt engineering, and integrating LLMs into enterprise applications for sentiment analysis, text processing, or intelligent automation.
Understanding of modern frontend ecosystems, particularly Angular, and CSS frameworks such as Bootstrap or Material Design.
Experience maintaining, troubleshooting, or modernizing legacy Java applications, including Java Swing, JSF, and JSP.
Hands-on experience building or integrating CI/CD pipelines for automated testing and deployment.
Experience with Jira, Confluence, and collaborative team practices.
Knowledge of secure coding practices, OWASP Top 10, Spring Security, and API security standards such as OAuth 2.0 and JWT.
Familiarity with ELK Stack, CloudWatch, Prometheus, or Grafana for monitoring application performance.
Experience with Docker and optionally ECS for deploying microservices.
Team-oriented, proactive, can-do approach to complex technical challenges.
Genuine desire to support others, mentor, and elevate the team's capabilities.
Strong time management and organizational skills, including managing competing tasks effectively.
Proactive problem-solving, care, urgency, and commitment to team growth.
Desire to embrace Aires' core values: Client Focus, Results, Responsibility & Accountability, Collaboration, and Innovation.

Responsibilities

Directly manage the API Integrations, Research, and DevOps teams, including hiring and performance reviews.
Oversee software development strategy and lead engineers through research, development, and design in collaboration with organizational leadership.
Plan projects, define tasks, recommend technical approaches, and prioritize work and cross-team dependencies.
Develop scalable and robust RESTful APIs and microservices using Java and Spring Boot, especially for client- and vendor-facing integrations.
Use and champion AI-assisted development tools, including Kiro IDE, for code generation, debugging, and documentation; explore emerging AI initiatives, including GenAI features.
Translate business requirements into technical solutions, conduct technical design reviews, and mentor mid-level and junior engineers.
Design and optimize database schemas, write efficient SQL queries, and develop PL/SQL procedures.
Conduct code reviews, establish engineering best practices, and maintain quality, security, performance, unit and integration tests, and code coverage.
Ensure software products are fit for purpose and appropriately specified and approved; collaborate with Quality Assurance to identify and resolve validation issues.
Follow Agile practices and partner with Product Owners, Scrum Masters, and stakeholders to turn business requirements into technical tasks and sprint deliverables.
Facilitate cross-functional communication, remove roadblocks, ensure deliverables are met, and serve as a senior contact for delivery and departmental performance issues.
Own reliability and governance of client- and vendor-facing API integrations, including contracts, versioning standards, SLAs, and external partner issue coordination.
Set DevOps standards for CI/CD pipelines, environment strategy, and release orchestration; own deployment reliability for the team's systems.
Guide the Research team in evaluating emerging technologies and turning exploratory work into production-ready proposals with clear scope, risk, and ROI.
Maintain secure coding and API security practices, and monitor system health using logging, metrics, and observability tools.
Contribute to containerized and cloud-native deployments with attention to performance and scalability.
Take on ad hoc and special projects as business priorities require.