Software Engineering - Principal

Salesforce•San Francisco, CA

13h•$197,300 - $313,700•Hybrid

About The Position

Salesforce is hiring an experienced software developer to build and maintain high-quality software for its products and trusted CRM platform. The role encompasses architecture, design, implementation, and testing, with an emphasis on stable, scalable, maintainable systems and advanced prompt engineering to make AI outputs reliable, secure, and production-ready. The position follows Salesforce’s hybrid work model and involves collaborating with engineering teams and contributing to autonomous team decisions. The role may involve backend application development across Salesforce clouds and products, designing and tuning APIs for multi-tenant environments, working with large cloud data sets, and integrating internal and external systems. Engineers use test-driven development, CI/CD, modern engineering practices, and AI tools in development workflows. They also design systems in which AI agents work alongside people, maintain shared system context for reliable AI operation, and review human- or AI-generated code for correctness, quality, security, and performance. Big Data roles may use distributed data technologies and containerized deployment stacks. The position participates in the team’s on-call rotation to resolve complex problems and help keep services operational and highly available. Salesforce describes benefits including time off, medical, dental and vision coverage, mental health support, paid parental leave, life and disability insurance, a 401(k), and an employee stock purchasing program. The typical annual base salary range is $197,300–$313,700, with a range of $237,700–$344,700 in select cities in the San Francisco and New York City metropolitan areas. These ranges exclude applicable bonuses, sales incentives, equity, and benefits.

Requirements

A related technical degree.
10 or more years of backend software development experience.
Deep knowledge of object-oriented programming languages such as Java, C++, Go, C#, Ruby, Scala, Python, Node.js, or JavaScript.
Broad knowledge of web standards and API technologies, including REST, SOAP, XML, WSDL, HTTP, and JSON.
Experience with Spring, gRPC, REST, and the HTTP protocol.
Experience with Agile development methodology.
A demonstrated AI-first approach to engineering, using AI to work faster, build fluency across the stack, and contribute beyond one’s core specialty.
Experience using AI tools such as Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Codex, or Cursor in development workflows.
Advanced prompt engineering skills, including writing precise, structured prompts and cultivating system context for reliable, secure, production-ready AI outputs.
Ability to participate in an on-call rotation.

Responsibilities

Develop backend applications for Salesforce products and cloud offerings.
Design, implement, and tune robust APIs and API framework features that perform and scale in a multi-tenant environment.
Handle large data sets in cloud platforms such as GCP, AWS, Alibaba, or Azure.
Integrate software with internal and external systems.
Use test-driven development practices and CI/CD tools.
Build and ship secure, optimized, high-quality, production-grade software using modern engineering practices and AI development tools.
Design and orchestrate systems in which AI agents integrate into human workflows.
Contribute to and maintain shared system context, including system designs, constraints, and standards.
Evaluate human- and AI-generated code for correctness, quality, security, and performance.
For Big Data roles, work with large-scale distributed systems technologies on a modern containerized deployment stack.
Participate in the team’s on-call rotation to address complex problems and maintain operational availability.