Senior Principal Engineer, Platform Engineering

PTC•San Mateo, CA

30d•$164,000 - $226,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Our world is transforming, and PTC is leading the way. Our software brings the physical and digital worlds together, enabling companies to improve operations, create better products, and empower people in all aspects of their business. Our people make all the difference in our success. Today, we are a global team of nearly 7,000 and our main objective is to create opportunities for our team members to explore, learn, and grow – all while seeing their ideas come to life and celebrating the differences that make us who we are and the work we do possible. Senior Principal Engineer-Platform Arena PLM | A PTC Business San Mateo, CA- Hybrid (3 days a week) Build the platform powering the world's most innovative products. Arena is the leading cloud-native Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and Quality Management System (QMS) platform used by high-tech manufacturers and medical device companies to bring complex products to market faster while meeting demanding quality and regulatory requirements. Arena helps customers manage the product information, processes, and collaboration required to design, launch, and sustain products that impact millions of people worldwide. Why This Role Matters As a Senior Principal Engineer, you will help define the future architecture of the Arena platform. You'll lead the most complex technical initiatives across the organization, influence platform strategy, drive modernization efforts, and guide the adoption of technologies that improve scalability, reliability, security, developer productivity, and customer outcomes. This is a highly influential hands-on technical leadership role where you will shape both long-term vision and critical implementation decisions.

Requirements

Ability to commute to the San Mateo office 3 days a week.
Deep experience building and operating large-scale enterprise SaaS platforms.
Expert-level software engineering skills, particularly in Java and modern backend architectures.
Strong background in distributed systems, system design, APIs, scalability, security, and reliability.
Proven track record leading architecture and technical strategy across multiple teams.
Ability to influence organizational direction through technical leadership rather than formal authority.
Excellent communication, mentoring, and decision-making skills.

Nice To Haves

Spring Boot and Spring Security
Kubernetes and cloud-native architectures
Public cloud environments
GitHub, GitHub Actions, and AI-assisted development tools
Scala and/or Python
Experience with PLM, QMS, manufacturing software, or regulated industries
Experience with AI-enabled applications, LLMs, RAG, or intelligent workflow systems

Responsibilities

Define and influence architecture across key areas of the Arena SaaS platform.
Lead large-scale, complex initiatives spanning multiple engineering teams.
Solve challenging problems involving distributed systems, scale, reliability, security, and platform evolution.
Drive modernization efforts and improve engineering productivity through better platform capabilities and development practices.
Mentor senior engineers and technical leaders.
Partner closely with Engineering and Product leadership to turn business goals into scalable technical solutions.
Evaluate emerging technologies, including AI-enabled engineering and product capabilities, where they create meaningful value.