Principal Software Engineer(Back End)

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Principal Software Engineer (Back End) based in the United States.

This is a senior-level engineering opportunity for a technical leader shaping modern software engineering practices across a large organization.

The role combines hands-on development, architecture, technical strategy, and cross-functional leadership.

You will help build accessible, high-performing, user-centered applications serving complex customer needs.

The position offers significant influence over engineering standards, tooling, development practices, and technical direction.

You will collaborate closely with product managers, designers, engineers, and senior stakeholders to deliver scalable solutions.

Mentoring and developing engineers will also be central to strengthening technical capabilities across teams.

This is a fully remote role with limited travel and the opportunity to make a broad organizational impact.

Accountabilities:

• Define and drive the strategic direction for modern software engineering practices, architecture, tooling, and technical capabilities across the organization.
• Lead the design and delivery of production-ready, scalable, accessible, and high-performance web applications, with a strong focus on customer experience.
• Serve as a technical authority on engineering architecture, development standards, code quality, testing, performance, accessibility, and deployment practices.
• Design and implement modern application architectures, development pipelines, deployment infrastructure, component libraries, design systems, and shared engineering capabilities.
• Partner with product managers and designers to balance user needs, business priorities, technical constraints, and implementation effort while delivering measurable value.
• Modernize technology stacks and identify opportunities to improve developer productivity, application quality, engineering velocity, and operational efficiency.
• Establish and champion best practices covering responsive design, accessibility, automated testing, performance optimization, CI/CD, and code quality.
• Lead large-scale technical initiatives from strategy through production, influencing architectural decisions and outcomes across multiple teams.
• Work across the technology stack when required to solve complex problems end-to-end and integrate frontend applications with backend services and APIs.
• Mentor and coach engineers at different levels, helping establish career development pathways and strengthening organizational engineering capabilities.
• Act as a strategic advisor to engineering, product, design, and executive stakeholders, clearly communicating complex technical concepts and strategic priorities.

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience, combined with approximately 10+ years of relevant software engineering experience.
• Demonstrated success leading large-scale technical initiatives and delivering multiple production-ready applications in complex environments.
• Deep expertise in modern web development, including React and/or Angular, JavaScript/TypeScript, web platform APIs, CSS architecture, responsive design, and cross-browser compatibility.
• Strong knowledge of frontend architecture and engineering practices, including build tooling, bundling, deployment pipelines, component libraries, design systems, and shared infrastructure.
• Practical experience with accessibility standards such as WCAG 2.1 AA and Section 508, including accessibility linting and automated validation within CI/CD pipelines.
• Strong understanding of automated testing approaches, including unit, component, and end-to-end testing using technologies such as Jest, Vitest, React Testing Library, Angular Testing Library, Playwright, Cypress, or similar tools.
• Experience with web performance optimization, Core Web Vitals, frontend monitoring, CDN strategies, asset optimization, progressive enhancement, and cloud-based application deployment.
• Knowledge of REST and/or GraphQL API integration, state management, asynchronous data handling, and backend service integration.
• Experience establishing CI/CD pipelines incorporating automated testing, accessibility checks, and code-quality controls.
• Strong product mindset with the ability to translate user needs and business requirements into practical, accessible, and technically sound solutions.
• Excellent communication and executive presence, with the ability to explain complex technical concepts to engineers, designers, product leaders, executives, and external stakeholders.
• Proven ability to mentor engineers, influence technical culture, establish engineering standards, and lead without relying solely on formal authority.
• Strong analytical, organizational, and problem-solving skills, with the ability to manage competing priorities and make pragmatic technical and business trade-offs.
• Must be a U.S. citizen and able to obtain and maintain a Public Trust 6C clearance.
• Ability to work remotely with approximately 0-10% business travel.

Benefits:

• Estimated base salary range of $147,292-$199,278, with actual compensation determined by experience, geographic location, and contractual or business considerations.
• Comprehensive medical plan options, including plans with Health Savings Accounts.
• Dental and vision insurance options.
• 401(k) retirement plan with employer matching.
• Flexible work arrangements and full-flex work weeks where applicable.
• Approximately 15 days of paid leave for new employees, plus approximately 10 paid holidays annually.
• Paid parental, military, bereavement, jury-duty, sick, and personal leave programs.
• Up to 160 hours of paid family leave over a rolling 12-month period for eligible employees.
• Additional short- and long-term disability, life, accidental death and dismemberment, critical illness, personal accident, and business travel insurance options.
• Fully remote work environment with limited business travel.
• Opportunities for professional growth, technical leadership, mentoring, and career development.