{"id":11533,"url":"https://alion.io/job/hawkeyeinnovations-principal-java-engineer-backend-platform","title":"Principal Software Engineer","company":{"id":3692,"name":"Hawk-Eye Innovations","domain":"hawkeyeinnovations.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/hawkeyeinnovations","size_band":"51-200","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Ashby","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":84,"open_postings":7,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.571,"repost_share":0.143,"time_to_fill_p50_days":31,"computed_at":"2026-10-17T05:46:00Z"}},"role":"Backend","role_family":"Backend","seniority":"lead","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"explicit","locations":["Budapest, Hungary"],"countries":["HU"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":30000,"max_usd":90000,"period":"year","method":"global_role_cell_scaled_by_country","sample_n":1965},"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"AI Agents","optional":false},{"name":"Apache Kafka","optional":false},{"name":"Computer Vision","optional":false},{"name":"Java","optional":false},{"name":"Machine Learning","optional":false},{"name":"React.js","optional":false},{"name":"TypeScript","optional":false},{"name":"JavaScript","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-07-06T16:00:10Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-07-06","last_verified_at":"2026-10-17T19:18:51Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":103,"trust":{"level":"stale","repost_count":0,"flags":["stale"],"days_open":102},"description":"Principal Software Engineer (Backend Focused, Full-Stack Experience)\nLocation: UK or Hungary (or as agreed)\nContract: Permanent, Full-Time\nJoin Us in Building the Future of Sports Technology\nAt Hawk-Eye Innovations, we're developing a brand-new sports technology product from the ground up, and we're looking for a Principal Software Engineer to play a pivotal role in shaping its success.\nThis is an opportunity to join at the beginning of the journey, influencing architecture, technology choices, and engineering direction while building systems that will power the next generation of sports technology.\nWe're looking for a highly experienced backend engineer who thrives in fast-moving environments, enjoys solving complex technical challenges, and is excited by the opportunity to create scalable, high-performance systems from scratch. While this role is backend-focused, you'll work closely with frontend engineers, product teams, and data specialists to deliver a complete product experience.\nWhat You'll Be Doing\nAs a Principal Software Engineer, you'll be responsible for designing and building the backend services, APIs, and data pipelines that sit at the heart of the product.\nYour responsibilities will include:\nDesigning and developing backend services and APIs that support real-time data ingestion, transformation, and delivery.\n\nBuilding scalable, low-latency, high-throughput systems capable of handling demanding performance requirements.\n\nOwning data architecture and pipeline design, including integration with streaming and event-driven technologies.\n\nDefining and evolving API contracts that enable seamless collaboration across engineering teams.\n\nWorking closely with frontend engineers to shape data structures, contracts, and technical approaches.\n\nCollaborating with computer vision, machine learning, and data science teams to integrate complex data workflows into the product.\n\nContributing to key architectural decisions that will influence the long-term scalability, maintainability, and performance of the platform.\n\nLeveraging AI-assisted and agentic development tools to accelerate delivery while applying strong engineering judgment and oversight.\n\nProviding technical leadership, mentorship, and guidance across the wider engineering organisation.\n\nWhat We're Looking For\nWe're seeking someone who combines deep technical expertise with strong communication skills and a collaborative mindset.\nYou'll likely have:\nSignificant experience building production-grade backend systems using Java.\n\nA strong track record of developing low-latency, high-throughput applications.\n\nExperience designing and implementing distributed systems, event-driven architectures, and data pipelines.\n\nKnowledge of streaming technologies such as Kafka or similar platforms.\n\nExperience designing and evolving APIs in rapidly changing product environments.\n\nWorking knowledge of modern frontend technologies such as React and TypeScript, enabling effective collaboration and technical oversight.\n\nExperience working with cloud infrastructure and modern identity and access management approaches.\n\nStrong experience using AI-assisted or agentic development tools to improve engineering productivity and delivery.\n\nThe ability to navigate ambiguity and make sound technical decisions in an evolving product environment.\n\nExcellent stakeholder management and communication skills, with the ability to influence technical direction across multiple disciplines.\n\nWhy This Role Is Exciting\nThis isn't a role where you'll inherit a mature platform and simply maintain it.\nYou'll have the opportunity to:\nBuild a new product from the ground up.\n\nInfluence architecture and technology decisions from day one.\n\nWork on real-time, data-intensive sports technology challenges.\n\nCollaborate with experts across software engineering, computer vision, machine learning, and product development.\n\nHelp define how AI-assisted engineering is used within a modern development team.\n\nMake a lasting impact on both the product and the wider engineering organisation.\n\nIf you're excited by technical ownership, complex engineering challenges, and the opportunity to shape a product at an early stage, we'd love to hear from you.","description_format":"text","description_chars":4221,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"Hungary","iso":"HU","kind":"country"},{"name":"United Kingdom","iso":"GB","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Sports","Sports Media","Sports Analytics","Computer 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