Principal Software Engineer

Inmar Intelligence•Chicago, IL

75d•$164,255 - $273,758

About The Position

The Principal Software Engineer is a senior technical leader responsible for setting the technical vision, standards, and strategy for an entire division or for providing deep expertise in a specialized discipline. This role operates above the scope of individual teams or business units, ensuring architectural alignment, advancing innovation, and addressing complex, cross-cutting technical challenges. Principal Engineers act as trusted advisors to business and technical leadership, driving solutions that scale across the division while mentoring the next generation of technical leaders.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
12+ years of experience in software engineering, with a minimum of 6+ years in a technical leadership role.
Extensive experience designing and scaling complex, mission-critical software systems across multiple domains.
Proven track record of influencing and setting technical direction at the organizational or divisional level.
Strong ability to balance short-term delivery needs with long-term strategic goals.
Exceptional communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to influence senior leadership and align diverse stakeholders.
Demonstrated expertise in mentoring senior engineers and shaping organizational technical culture.
Deep knowledge of software engineering principles, system architecture, and operational excellence, independent of specific technologies.

Responsibilities

Division-Level Technical Leadership Define and champion architectural standards, frameworks, and technical strategies for the division, ensuring coherence across multiple business units.
Provide thought leadership on complex, large-scale systems and solve problems that span multiple domains or disciplines.
Partner with Staff Engineers to guide business-unit initiatives and ensure alignment with division-wide goals.
Anticipate future challenges and guide the organization toward long-term, sustainable solutions.
Strategic Collaboration Serve as a technical advisor to executive leadership, influencing business priorities and ensuring technical strategy aligns with organizational objectives.
Facilitate collaboration across business units to address shared challenges, promote innovation, and maximize reuse of patterns and solutions.
Drive technical consensus across diverse stakeholders, balancing trade-offs to deliver outcomes that benefit the division and the broader organization.
Mentorship & Thought Leadership Mentor Staff Engineers, Lead Engineers, and other senior technical talent to grow organizational technical capability.
Set the tone for technical culture across the division, emphasizing excellence, innovation, and accountability.
Foster a culture of learning and continuous improvement through knowledge sharing, modeling best practices, and elevating engineering standards.
Execution & Impact Lead the technical design of transformative, division-wide initiatives that require integration across multiple systems, platforms, or business units.
Provide oversight for critical systems, ensuring they meet standards of reliability, scalability, security, and maintainability.
Guide root cause analysis of high-impact issues and ensure systemic improvements that prevent recurrence.
Measure success through long-term division-wide impact, including scalability, cost efficiency, and innovation.

Benefits

Medical, Dental, and Vision insurance
Basic and Supplemental Life Insurance options
401(k) retirement plans with company match
Health Spending Accounts (HSA/FSA)
Flexible time off and 11 paid holidays
Family-building benefits, including Maternity, Adoption, and Parental Leave
Tuition Reimbursement and certification support, reflecting our commitment to lifelong learning
Wellness and Mental Health counseling services
Concierge and work/life support resources
Adoption Assistance Reimbursement
Perks and discount programs