Principal Software Engineer
About The Position
The Principal Software Engineer sets technical direction for Willow’s platform while remaining hands-on in production code and tackling major technical challenges. This senior individual-contributor role shapes architecture across teams, establishes engineering standards, and mentors engineers to help deliver secure, reliable, high-quality software at scale. It is not a people-management position. The role works across Engineering, Product, Customer Engineering, Sales, Marketing, and external partners, often across time zones. The engineer owns architecture for complex cloud-based systems on Azure, including containers, graph storage, LLMs, and other Azure services; leads designs and integrations; and helps set standards for code quality, observability, reliability, and security. The role also advises senior leadership on technical and product strategy, supports engineering culture and knowledge sharing, and helps teams use AI tools effectively. In the first year, the engineer will determine a secure, performant, cost-effective, and scalable direction for Willow’s building topology graph storage, working with partners on difficult technical challenges. They will own features that make graph data available to Willow Copilot and other platform components, and work daily with developers to optimize the application platform, resolve issues, and design for rapid growth. The position is fully remote and based in Washington or California, with the Seattle area preferred.
Requirements
- At least 10 years of commercial software development experience, including senior- or principal-level technical leadership.
- Deep expertise in C# and modern .NET.
- Working knowledge of TypeScript, React, and Python.
- Track record designing, building, and operating distributed systems on Azure, using Azure PaaS services in production.
- Strong command of design patterns and software architecture, with the ability to teach them to others.
- Hands-on experience with CI/CD, infrastructure as code, and DevOps practices.
- Demonstrated influence across teams and functions, including company-level technical decisions.
- Security-first mindset and experience leading secure development practices.
- Clear writing and strong asynchronous communication with distributed teams across time zones.
- Hands-on use of AI tools in daily work and the ability to explain how they are used.
- Ability to design systems that optimize growth, performance, and cost.
- Ownership, delivery, and collaboration skills, including building consensus and helping teams grow.
Nice To Haves
- Experience with IoT, digital twins, or building-systems data, such as time-series or graph data, Azure Digital Twins, or Microsoft Fabric.
- Production AI/ML experience, such as LLM platforms, MLOps pipelines, or AI features in a SaaS product.
- Experience with data platforms such as Snowflake or Azure data services.
- Experience with Pulumi or similar infrastructure-as-code tooling, and Grafana or other observability tools.
- Experience at a global startup or scale-up.
Responsibilities
- Set technical direction and own architecture for complex Azure-based cloud systems, including containers, graph storage, LLMs, and Azure services.
- Write production code and lead the design of new initiatives.
- Design integrations with partners’ and customers’ systems across organizational boundaries.
- Establish technical standards for languages, libraries, Azure resources, and framework versions, and promote consistent adoption.
- Improve code quality, observability, and reliability across Willow software through cross-team design and code reviews.
- Lead secure engineering practices and reduce vulnerabilities.
- Partner with Product to shape product vision and explain technical trade-offs in terms of customer value.
- Work with Customer Engineering, Sales, and Marketing to translate business needs into technical solutions.
- Advise senior leadership on technical and product strategy.
- Mentor senior and lead engineers and foster transparency, knowledge sharing, and continuous improvement.
- Help teams use AI tools effectively in software development and product creation.
- Determine a secure, performant, cost-effective, and scalable path for building topology graph storage in collaboration with partners.
- Own features that make graph data available to Willow Copilot and other platform components.
- Work with developers to optimize the application platform, resolve issues, and design architecture for company growth.
Benefits
- Medical, dental, vision, short-term disability, long-term disability, life, and AD&D coverage.
- Willow covers 100% of employee premiums and 95% of dependent premiums.
- 401(k) with a 100% company match on the first 5% of contributions.
- 20 days of accrued vacation, 10 days of paid sick leave, and 8 paid holidays per year.
- Willow-paid parental leave, coordinated with applicable state leave programs.
Stand Out From the Crowd
Upload your resume and get instant feedback on how well it matches this job.
What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Principal
Education Level
No Education Listed
