Principal, Software Engineer, Payroll

Backstage•Burbank, CA

75d

About The Position

At Cast & Crew, we've empowered creativity and supported the global entertainment industry for decades. Together with our family of brands - Backstage, CAPS, Checks & Balances, Final Draft, Media Services, Sargent-Disc, and The TEAM Companies - we operate as a combined entertainment technology and services provider offering industry standard screenwriting accounting software, digital payroll products, data & reporting, and a host of creative tools. The industry continues to move faster than ever, and the need for our expertise, our technology, and our people has never been greater. We are a production's best ally every step of the way. #OneCastOneCrew Position Overview We are looking for a highly skilled and hands-on Principal Engineer to drive the architecture and development of our AI-powered, next-generation unified payroll platform. As a senior individual contributor, you will be responsible for designing scalable systems, integrating cutting-edge technologies, and solving complex problems at the intersection of AI, automation, and payroll compliance. This role is ideal for a deeply technical engineer who thrives in designing enterprise-grade platforms and building critical components with precision and quality-especially in domains involving union labor rules, pay scales, and compliance-heavy workflows.

Requirements

10+ years of software engineering experience with strong expertise in backend and distributed system design.
Advanced proficiency in .NET Core, C#, and microservices architecture.
Proven experience with AI/ML and NLP integration in production systems.
Hands-on experience building IDP-based workflows using AWS Textract, GCP Document AI, or similar platforms.
Expertise in messaging systems (Kafka, AWS SQS), REST/gRPC APIs, and system observability.
Deep knowledge of SQL and NoSQL technologies such as PostgreSQL and DynamoDB.
Experience working with Redis, Elasticsearch, and scalable cloud-native infrastructure.
Solid front-end understanding with React and integration best practices.
Strong communication and documentation skills, with the ability to work independently in a collaborative environment.

Nice To Haves

Experience with payroll, finance, or labor compliance systems.
Familiarity with domain-driven design (DDD), rule engines, and contract ingestion.
Prior involvement in designing systems to ingest and apply union labor contracts and rate sheets.
Exposure to RPA tools, automated testing frameworks, and platform observability patterns.
Entertainment/media tech experience is a plus.

Responsibilities

Architect scalable, event-driven microservices using .NET Core and AWS.
Design resilient backend systems and services focused on high throughput, fault tolerance, and low latency.
Build and optimize data pipelines using PostgreSQL, DynamoDB, Redis, and Elasticsearch.
Implement AI/ML and NLP models to power smart payroll features.
Integrate Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) pipelines to extract structured data from labor union contracts, including pay rules, deduction rules, and scale rates.
Design systems that learn, adapt, and validate contractual logic in real time.
Write production-grade code and frameworks in C#, React, and AWS infrastructure.
Contribute to DevOps automation, CI/CD pipelines, and observability tooling.
Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams to ensure architectural alignment and technical quality.
Serve as a technical mentor and thought leader within the engineering organization.
Integrate messaging platforms like Kafka or AWS SQS for distributed service communication.
Implement RPA tools and APIs for automating manual processes in payroll workflows.
Work with product and compliance teams to validate ingestion logic against real-world contracts.