{"id":160015,"url":"https://alion.io/job/pollfish-principal-engineer-scala-or-java","title":"Principal Engineer (Scala or Java)","company":{"id":55561,"name":"Pollfish","domain":"pollfish.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/pollfish","size_band":"201-500","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Workday","truth_index":null},"role":"Backend","role_family":"Backend","seniority":"lead","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"remote","remote_scope":"stated_countries","remote_scope_basis":"board_field","remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["New York, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":["US"],"hiring_countries_total":1,"salary":{"min":240000,"max":275000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":275000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":10,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"CI/CD","optional":false},{"name":"Java","optional":false},{"name":"Scala","optional":false},{"name":"Kubernetes","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-06-05T00:00:00Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-06-05","last_verified_at":"2026-10-15T04:13:06Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":133,"trust":{"level":"stale","repost_count":0,"flags":["stale"],"days_open":133},"description":"Job Description:\nProdege:\nA cutting-edge marketing and consumer insights platform, Prodege has charted a course of innovation in the evolving technology landscape by helping leading brands, marketers, and agencies uncover the answers to their business questions, acquire new customers, increase revenue, and drive brand loyalty & product adoption. Bolstered by a major investment by Blackstone in Q1 2026, Prodege looks forward to more growth and innovation to empower our partners to gather meaningful, rich insights and better market to their target audiences.\nAs an organization, we go the extra mile to “Create Rewarding Moments” every day for our partners, consumers, and team. Come join us today!\nRole Summary\nWe are looking for a Principal Scala Engineer to help lead the architecture, modernization, and long-term technical direction of the PollFish platform and related services. This is a hands-on principal-level role for someone who can guide complex Scala/Java systems, raise engineering standards across teams, and help the organization evolve toward a more AI-first engineering model.\nThis role will report to the Director of Engineering in Greece and work closely with the Greece engineering hub, helping shape platform direction, support technical execution, and build strong cross-geo engineering alignment. It requires a blend of deep technical judgment, systems thinking, mentoring capability, and the ability to influence without direct authority.\nJob Scope\nSets technical direction for a major domain (platform, core services, data / streaming backbone, or shared frameworks) primarily in Scala and Java\n\nLeads architecture and design for complex, cross-team initiatives; eliminates systemic reliability, performance, and scalability risks\n\nEstablishes engineering standards, reference architectures, and best practices that scale across teams\n\nPartners closely with the Director of Engineering in Greeceand the Greece engineering hubto shape technical direction, support execution, and strengthen long-term engineering capability\n\nHelps teams move from AI-assistedto more AI-firstdevelopment practices where it meaningfully improves speed, quality, and maintainability\n\nMentors senior engineers through technical leadership and influence (no direct reports)\n\nStrategic Imperative\nThe Principal Engineer accelerates Prodege’s ability to scale by defining and driving high-leverage architecture for Scala/Java systems that must be fast, stable, and resilient. This role reduces long-term technical risk, improves platform reliability and developer velocity, and aligns multiple teams around practical standards and patterns - turning strategic direction into durable engineering outcomes.\nPrimary Objectives:\nOwn technical strategy and architecture for a core domain\n\nDrive cross-team delivery of high-impact initiatives\n\nRaise reliability, resiliency, and performance at scale\n\nStandardize platform patterns, tooling, and engineering excellence\n\nStrengthen security, governance, and operational maturity\n\nMentor and multiply engineering effectiveness across the organization\n\nDrive adoption of AI-first engineering workflowswhere they provide meaningful leverage\n\nQualifications - To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each job duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.\nDetailed Job Duties: (typical monthly, weekly, daily tasks which support the primary objectives)\nOwn Technical Strategy and Architecture for a Core Domain\nDefine target architecture and reference patterns for Scala/Java services in a key domain (e.g., core APIs, monetization / yield services, identity / entitlements, data capture / streaming, experimentation)\n\nCreate architectural decision records (ADRs), standards, and guidelines that enable teams to scale safely\n\nEvaluate tradeoffs (build vs. buy, monolith vs. services, sync vs. async) and guide decisions with measurable outcomes\n\nPrioritize the right areas for modernization based on business impact, architectural constraints, and engineering leverage\n\nDrive Cross-Team Delivery of High-Impact Initiatives\nLead design and execution for complex initiatives spanning multiple teams and systems (roadmap alignment, technical sequencing, dependency management)\n\nPartner with Product and Engineering leadership to shape scope, timelines, and risk mitigation plans\n\nUnblock teams by resolving deep technical constraints and providing clear integration paths\n\nPartner closely with the Director of Engineering in Greece, the Greece engineering hub, and other global teams to ensure strong alignment and execution\n\nRaise Reliability, Resiliency, and Performance at Scale\nIdentify systemic reliability risks and implement durable fixes (architecture changes, runtime safeguards, capacity strategies)\n\nDrive performance and scalability programs (SLOs / SLAs, load testing, latency budgets, capacity planning)\n\nTurn incident learnings into repeatable improvements (runbooks, automation, error budgets, resiliency patterns)\n\nStandardize Platform Patterns, Tooling, and Engineering Excellence\nCreate reusable frameworks, service templates, and libraries to reduce cognitive load and improve consistency\n\nImprove engineering productivity by streamlining CI/CD, test strategy, and developer workflows in partnership with platform teams\n\nSet code quality and review standards; raise the bar on observability and maintainability across teams\n\nDrive an AI-first engineering mindsetby identifying where AI can meaningfully improve coding, testing, debugging, documentation, and architecture exploration\n\nHelp teams adopt AI-assisted workflows with strong trust-but-verifydiscipline and engineering rigor\n\nStrengthen Security, Governance, and Operational Maturity\nEmbed secure-by-design principles into architecture and team practices (data handling, access patterns, secrets, dependency hygiene)\n\nPartner with Security / Compliance to meet governance needs with minimal delivery friction\n\nEnsure operational readiness for critical changes (release strategies, rollback plans, monitoring / alerting completeness)\n\nMentor and Multiply Engineering Effectiveness Across the Org\nMentor Senior Engineers and Tech Leads through technical coaching, design reviews, and architecture forums\n\nLead knowledge sharing through brown bags, documentation, best practices, and reference implementations\n\nCoach engineers on effective use of AI tools and workflows so that AI improves leverage without compromising reliability, security, or maintainability\n\nInfluence engineering culture through pragmatic standards, clarity, and high ownership\n\nCross-Functional Collaboration\nPartner with Product, Platform, Data, QA, Security, and Engineering leadership to ensure architecture aligns with business priorities and delivery realities\n\nParticipate in cross-functional and business-critical meetings, initiatives, and relationship-building activities, including occasional international travel of approximately 5%-10%as required\n\nMUST Haves: (ex: required skills, education, experience, certifications, licenses)\nBachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience\n\n10+ yearsof software engineering experience with significant ownership of backend / distributed systems\n\nDeep production experience building and evolving large-scale systems using Scala and Java, including service architecture, runtime behavior, and performance tuning\n\nProven architecture leadership across multiple services / systems and teams\n\nStrong expertise in distributed systems, reliability engineering, observability, and performance optimization\n\nDemonstrated ability to lead multi-team technical initiatives and influence roadmap / architecture decisions through strong technical judgment\n\nStrong operational ownership, including incident response, postmortems, and long-term remediation\n\nAbility to influence without authority through technical clarity, collaboration, and strong communication\n\nPractical experience using AI as an engineering force multiplier, including code generation, debugging, documentation, design exploration, and workflow acceleration, with strong validation discipline\n\nExperience working effectively with distributed teams, especially in partnership with a global engineering hub\n\nMust be able to accommodate occasional international travel (approximately 5%-10%) in support of the role\n\nNice to Haves\nExperience modernizing or decomposing monolithic systems\n\nExperience with large-scale streaming / event systems and data pipelines\n\nExperience building internal platforms or shared frameworks used by multiple teams\n\nExperience with Kubernetes, service meshes, and cloud cost / performance optimization\n\nBackground in AdTech, offer / rewards ecosystems, fraud / risk systems, or experimentation at scale\n\nFamiliarity with AI-first / AI-assisted engineering workflows across software teams\n\nPay Transparency:\nThe anticipated base salary range for this position is $240,000 to $275,000. The final salary offered to a successful candidate will be dependent on several factors that may include, but are not limited to; the type and length of experience within the job, type and length of experience within the industry, the type and length of knowledge and skills for the position, education, training, etc. Prodege is a multi-state employer and final compensation within this range could be impacted by work location. Please note that the compensation details listed in US role postings reflect the base salary only, and do not include bonus, equity, or benefits.\nProdege Benefits:\nProdege offers a comprehensive benefits package to US Full-time employees including medical, dental, vision, STD, LTD and basic life insurance. Employees receive flexible PTO, as well as paid sick leave prorated based on hire date. US Employees have eight paid holidays throughout the calendar year.\nEqual Employment Opportunity Statement\nAt Prodege, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment. We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer and do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We encourage individuals of all backgrounds to apply.\nFCIHO\nEmployers will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the requirements of FCIHO.","description_format":"text","description_chars":10638,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":10,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Equity","Life insurance"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Commerce","Media & Entertainment","Gift Cards & Loyalty Programs"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-06-05T00:00:00Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":16,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.559,"p_room":0.28,"age_days":133,"expected_fill_days":35,"reasons":["conf:25","win:tail","crowd:"],"computed_at":"2026-10-16T05:45:00Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":275000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/pollfish-principal-engineer-scala-or-java","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/pollfish-principal-engineer-scala-or-java.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-16T22:04:32Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":3442,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-17T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":55561},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=55561"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fpollfish-principal-engineer-scala-or-java"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fpollfish-principal-engineer-scala-or-java"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fpollfish-principal-engineer-scala-or-java"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/pollfish-principal-engineer-scala-or-java\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fpollfish-principal-engineer-scala-or-java"}]}