Principal ML Platform Engineer

Appian•McLean, VA

1d•Onsite

About The Position

Appian is seeking a Principal ML Platform Engineer to lead the engineering of software that drives AI automation for the world's largest enterprises. This role is based at our headquarters in McLean, Virginia. Appian fosters a culture of in-person collaboration, requiring employees to be in the office 5 days a week to promote teamwork and the sharing of ideas. The Appian Engineering team works across the full depth of the platform, from foundational layers to AI capabilities, in a collaborative, fast-paced environment focused on technical precision, continuous learning, and high code quality. As a Principal Software Engineer, you will be a technical linchpin, bringing deep expertise in cloud-native architecture and influencing engineering direction. You will drive the design and delivery of high-complexity engineering solutions, set the technical bar, and lead other engineers towards solutions for Enterprise-Grade Orchestration.

Requirements

Minimum of a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science or a related technical/analytical discipline. (Equivalent experience is not accepted in lieu of a degree).
10+ years of relevant software development experience with a BS (or 8+ years of experience paired with a Master of Science in Computer Science or related field).
Expert coding, scripting, and debugging proficiency in one or more core enterprise programming languages, specifically Java, Python, or Go.
Deep working knowledge of distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, and the ability to contribute meaningfully at a senior individual contributor level within that space.
Demonstrated ability to drive technical decisions and shape engineering practices beyond a single team or project scope.
Demonstrated experience using AI coding assistants and a strong ability to evaluate, coach others on, and selectively apply AI-generated code in a production engineering context.
Proven experience developing, optimizing, and maintaining a high-volume, mission-critical production service environment.
Exceptional ability to communicate highly technical architectures verbally, visually, and in writing to diverse engineering audiences.

Nice To Haves

Strong experience designing microservices, working with containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), and implementing modern CI/CD pipelines.
Deep experience developing and operating infrastructure across public cloud ecosystems, specifically AWS, Azure, and/or GCP.
Experience with enterprise platforms such as Salesforce or ServiceNow.

Responsibilities

Architect, build, and optimize high-performance software systems while maintaining a strong personal technical presence on the team.
Spearhead strategic technological changes and champion code refactoring efforts to keep the core Appian codebase cutting-edge, modern, and performant.
Use AI coding tools fluently as a force multiplier: generating, reviewing, and critically evaluating AI-assisted code to ship faster without compromising quality or correctness.
Drive technical story breakdowns, acceptance criteria, and architectural design across complex, multi-tier application layers — from feature scoping through implementation.
Manage product availability, latency, scalability, and efficiency by engineering deep reliability into our core software systems and performing advanced system tuning.
Radiate development best practices across the department, perform meticulous code reviews on design and implementation, and build automation frameworks to prevent problem recurrence.
Actively coach and mentor engineers at multiple levels, identify and close skill gaps on the team, and take ownership of accelerating the technical growth of those around you.
Share your expert domain knowledge regularly across the department, building a reputation as a vital resource and publishing high-quality content to Engineering’s permanent documentation site.