Principal Software Engineer, Platform Lead

Red River•Raleigh, NC

About The Position

About the Job The UXE Platform team's mission is to provide core platforms, golden paths, operational integrity, and AI acceleration essential for creating and operating exceptional digital experiences across the product portfolio. As a Principal Software Engineer, you will play a pivotal role in achieving this mission by discovering and executing on AI tooling capabilities, helping to guide tactical decisions and drive strategic initiatives This role demands significant discovery work for complex efforts, translating strategic AI and platform objectives into actionable technical plans, and ensuring effective delegation and execution You will be instrumental in fostering a culture of continuous learning and growth through mentorship and training of peers, and you will facilitate collaboration by actively participating guilds and in team synchronization meetings. Your expertise will ensure the reliability, performance, and scalability of our core platform systems while actively contributing to the acceleration of AI integration within the organization What You Will Do Technical Advisement & Strategic Guidance: Provide expert technical leadership and advisement to the Director and broader leadership, offering critical insights to guide tactical decisions and ensure technical alignment with overall UXE Platform engineering objectives through the strategic integration and development of AI-powered solutions Technical Discovery & Delegation: Lead and conduct in-depth technical discovery and analysis for complex platform initiatives, including AI enablement efforts (e.g., architectural discovery for services like the Customer Portal or Data Lake). Translate high-level strategic goals into concrete technical requirements, propose robust solutions, and effectively delegate implementation tasks to team members Skill Development: Act as a lead mentor and coach for software engineers, fostering a culture of continuous learning, professional development, and the adoption of cutting-edge best practices within the team and across the organization. This involves offering guidance on career growth and readiness for opportunities Operational Excellence & Reliability: Drive initiatives to improve operational efficiency, system reliability, and performance by designing and implementing AI-powered solutions and automation within our core platform software AI Platform Enablement: Contribute to the strategic enhancement of our core platforms with AI capabilities, supporting the integration and operationalization of AI/ML models, tools, and frameworks to accelerate AI adoption within UXE. This includes ensuring secure, compliant, and scalable AI component deployment, such as Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers with required CMDB Appcodes and robust authentication/authorization Automation & Incident Management: Lead incident response efforts, conduct thorough root cause analysis, and identify opportunities to automate manual tasks and processes, thereby improving system stability, reducing errors, and minimizing operational toil

Requirements

13+ years of progressive experience in software engineering, with a strong focus on platform engineering, DevOps, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), or related infrastructure-focused roles
Proven experience in a technical leadership role, demonstrating the ability to guide teams, provide technical direction, and influence architectural decisions
Deep understanding and extensive hands-on experience with major cloud platforms, specifically AWS and Openshift, including operational experience from both tactical and strategic viewpoints
Strong proficiency in multiple programming languages. Experience with Python, NodeJS, and/or PHP is a significant plus.
Extensive full-stack web application development experience and a clear understanding of the request stack, including caching headers, HTTP verbs, and common errors.
Strong knowledge of monitoring and alerting tools (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog) and experience with configuration management tools (e.g., Ansible, Puppet, Chef)
Exceptional problem-solving, troubleshooting, and analytical skills, with a proven ability to navigate and resolve complex technical challenges in production environments.
Outstanding written and verbal communication skills to articulate complex technical and architectural concepts to diverse audiences, from engineers to leadership, and foster effective collaboration.
Passion for designing, building, and operating highly reliable, scalable, and secure distributed systems
Demonstrate proficiency in utilizing LLMs (e.g., Google Gemini), as relevant, for tasks such as brainstorming solutions, deep research, summarizing technical documentation, drafting communications, summarizing complex technical information, and enhancing problem-solving efficiency across the development lifecycle
Explore and experiment with emerging AI technologies relevant to software development, proactively identifying opportunities to incorporate new AI capabilities into existing workflows and tooling
Collaborate with cross-functional teams to identify opportunities for AI integration within the software development lifecycle, driving continuous improvement and innovation in engineering practices, share use cases for successful experiments with stakeholders for broader use

Nice To Haves

Direct experience with Akamai, including Web Application Firewall (WAF) rule management and content delivery network (CDN) configurations, is a strong plus.
Familiarity with AI/ML concepts, data pipelines for AI, and model operationalization (MLOps).
Previous experience in founding, leading, or significantly contributing to technical guilds.

Responsibilities

Provide expert technical leadership and advisement to the Director and broader leadership
Lead and conduct in-depth technical discovery and analysis for complex platform initiatives
Act as a lead mentor and coach for software engineers
Drive initiatives to improve operational efficiency, system reliability, and performance
Contribute to the strategic enhancement of our core platforms with AI capabilities
Lead incident response efforts, conduct thorough root cause analysis, and identify opportunities to automate manual tasks and processes

Benefits

Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage
Flexible Spending Account - healthcare and dependent care
Health Savings Account - high deductible medical plan
Retirement 401(k) with employer match
Paid time off and holidays
Paid parental leave plans for all new parents
Leave benefits including disability, paid family medical leave, and paid military leave
Additional benefits including employee stock purchase plan, family planning reimbursement, tuition reimbursement, transportation expense account, employee assistance program, and more!

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