Principal Engineer, Software

American Bureau of Shipping•Houston, TX

About The Position

ABS Group Digital Solutions is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to help build the next-generation Fleet Management System (FMS). This role will lead hands-on application engineering for modern web and SaaS workflows, working with product, UX, Nautical Systems subject matter experts, Advantage architects, platform engineering, data, and AI teams. The Principal Software Engineer will own the technical quality of assigned product areas from design and implementation through testing, deployment, and production support. This is an AI-enabled engineering leadership role, not simply a full-stack development position. The successful candidate will turn validated workflows and architecture decisions into clear engineering tasks; use approved AI development tools and coding agents where they add value; and remain accountable for the security, correctness, maintainability, and operability of the resulting software. The role calls for a senior engineer who can mentor others, make pragmatic tradeoffs, and build reusable patterns without losing sight of customer outcomes.

Requirements

Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field, or an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.
Approximately 10+ years of relevant software engineering experience, including substantial hands-on delivery of production web or SaaS applications.
Experience serving as a technical lead for a product team or major application area, including design decisions, code review, mentoring, and delivery accountability.
Demonstrated experience building modern user-facing applications, APIs, and integrations across front-end and back-end systems.
Experience deploying and supporting applications in a cloud environment; Azure experience is preferred.
Experience using AI-assisted development tools in real engineering workflows, with the ability to explain how generated work was reviewed, tested, and maintained.
Strong TypeScript, HTML, and CSS skills. React is preferred; substantial Svelte/SvelteKit, Vue, or Angular experience is also relevant.
Experience with .NET preferred; strong Go, Python, Node.js or Java API experience is also relevant.
Experience with PostgreSQL, Cosmos DB, or comparable relational/NoSQL stores; familiarity with event-driven services, Kafka, Redis, or object storage is a plus.
Azure and Microsoft Entra ID preferred; equivalent production cloud and enterprise single-sign-on experience is welcome.
Automated testing, Git-based collaboration, CI/CD, application observability, secure coding, and containerized deployment.
Experience integrating LLM, RAG, or other AI-enabled services into applications is preferred; ability to use coding agents responsibly and evaluate their output is important.
Strong command of full-stack application design, API contracts, system integration, data access, and maintainable service-based architecture.
Ability to lead engineers through ambiguity, make pragmatic technical tradeoffs, and align implementation with validated product and UX decisions.
Judgment to use AI for engineering leverage without delegating accountability for design quality, security, testing, or correctness.
Understanding application security, identity and access control, protection of customer data, and reliable operation of production SaaS services.
Ability to work effectively with product, UX, platform, SRE, data, and AI specialists while maintaining clear ownership of application engineering decisions.
Strong communication and mentoring skills, including the ability to explain technical risks and options to non-engineering stakeholders.

Nice To Haves

Experience with mobile or intermittent-connectivity workflows is a plus, particularly for operational or field-based users.

Responsibilities

Lead technical design and hands-on development of FMS application features, including role-based user interfaces, APIs, business services, and integrations.
Work with product managers, UX designers, legacy-system SMEs, and customers to translate operational workflows and prototype feedback into buildable designs and acceptance criteria.
Guide engineers on application architecture, service boundaries, data access patterns, and reuse of shared platform capabilities; document consequential design decisions.
Break work into well-scoped tasks and direct AI-assisted engineering workflows, including code generation, refactoring, test creation, and documentation, while applying human review and verification to every production change.
Establish and model engineering practices for code review, automated unit and integration testing, secure development, CI/CD, and maintainable software delivery.
Integrate application features with approved AI/ML or LLM-based services where there is a validated user need, including appropriate authorization, monitoring, and human oversight.
Partner with platform engineering and SRE to make applications observable, performant, resilient, deployable, and supportable in production.
Contribute to integration and migration designs so new capabilities can coexist with legacy systems and customer data can transition safely as releases mature.
Mentor engineers and contractors, review designs and pull requests, resolve complex technical issues, and raise the quality of delivery across the team.
Participate in release readiness, production troubleshooting, root-cause analysis, and continuous improvement of the AI-enabled software development lifecycle.
Comply with applicable ABS security, quality, Health, Safety, and Environmental requirements and other internal policies.