Principal Engineer - Web Application Development

Autodesk•San Francisco, CA

4d•$139,000 - $249,260

About The Position

We are seeking a Principal Software Engineer to lead the evolution of our Web Platform Engineering capabilities. This role is responsible for shaping the architecture, performance, scalability, and developer experience of the foundational web platform that powers our applications. As a technical leader, you will drive strategic initiatives across frontend infrastructure, platform services, and developer tooling, enabling product teams to build high-quality, performant, and reliable web experiences at scale.

Requirements

10+ years of software engineering experience, with deep expertise in web technologies
Proven experience designing and scaling large-scale web platforms or frontend infrastructure
Strong expertise in modern JavaScript/TypeScript ecosystems (e.g., React, Angular, or similar frameworks)
Experience with build systems, bundlers, and tooling (e.g., Webpack, Vite, Turborepo)
Deep understanding of web performance, browser internals, and networking
Demonstrated ability to influence architecture across multiple teams
Strong system design and architectural decision-making skills

Nice To Haves

Experience with micro-frontend architectures or large monorepos
Familiarity with backend systems and APIs (Node.js, GraphQL, REST)
Experience building or maintaining design systems at scale
Knowledge of cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and CI/CD pipelines
Experience improving developer experience in large organizations

Responsibilities

Define and drive the long-term vision for the web platform architecture
Lead cross-team initiatives to standardize frontend architecture, frameworks, and best practices
Act as a technical advisor to engineering leadership on platform investments and tradeoffs
Influence roadmap decisions to improve scalability, performance, and maintainability
Design and evolve core platform components (e.g., design systems, shared libraries, build systems, CI/CD pipelines)
Establish patterns for micro-frontends, modular architectures, and API integrations
Ensure high standards for performance, accessibility, security, and reliability
Lead critical system design discussions and provide architectural guidance
Champion improvements to developer productivity and onboarding
Build and maintain tools, frameworks, and workflows that enable fast, consistent development
Reduce friction in testing, debugging, deployment, and observability
Partner with product engineering, design, DevOps, and security teams
Drive alignment across multiple teams and organizations
Mentor senior and staff engineers; elevate engineering standards across the org
Establish performance benchmarks and monitoring standards
Lead initiatives around web performance (Core Web Vitals, load times, bundle size optimization)
Ensure platform observability, reliability, and incident response readiness
Operates as a multiplier, enabling dozens of engineers through platform improvements
Drives alignment across teams without direct authority
Balances long-term architectural vision with pragmatic delivery
Mentors and develops engineering talent across the organization
Accelerate development velocity across all web teams
Improve platform reliability, scalability, and performance
Establish a cohesive and modern web architecture
Elevate engineering quality and consistency across the organization