{"id":1641190,"url":"https://alion.io/job/terradepth-lead-principal-software-engineer","title":"Lead Principal Software Engineer","company":{"id":176570,"name":"Terradepth","domain":"terradepth.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/terradepth","size_band":null,"is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Paylocity","truth_index":null},"role":"Backend","role_family":"Backend","seniority":"lead","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":137000,"max_usd":278000,"period":"year","method":"role_seniority_country_remote_cell","sample_n":968},"experience_years_min":10,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"AI Agents","optional":false},{"name":"AWS","optional":false},{"name":"CI/CD","optional":false},{"name":"Docker","optional":false},{"name":"FedRAMP","optional":false},{"name":"Go","optional":false},{"name":"JavaScript","optional":false},{"name":"Jest","optional":false},{"name":"Kubernetes","optional":false},{"name":"NIST 800-53","optional":false},{"name":"Playwright","optional":false},{"name":"PostgreSQL","optional":false},{"name":"Pytest","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"React.js","optional":false},{"name":"Swagger","optional":false},{"name":"TypeScript","optional":false},{"name":"CesiumJS","optional":true},{"name":"GDAL","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-07-31T03:20:37Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-01","last_verified_at":"2026-10-12T02:35:59Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":73,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":73},"description":"Description\nLead Principal Software Engineer\nFLSA Status: Exempt\nDepartment: Software R&D\nReports To: Director, Software Engineering\nRole Overview\nTerradepth has built the category-defining ocean intelligence platform. The Principal Software Engineer, Lead will serve as a foundational player-coach, driving the technical evolution, architecture, and execution of our SaaS software platform, Absolute Ocean (AO).\nThis is a builder’s role designed for a senior technical leader who loves to remain hands-on in the code while simultaneously mentoring and driving a high-performing team. We intentionally structure this role as a balanced combination of hands-on execution, architecture and planning, and team mentorship. Operating effectively in a dynamic environment, you will make sustainable architectural tradeoffs, write clean and scalable code, and elevate the technical capabilities of the software engineering team to match our steady market growth.\nCore Responsibilities\n1. Hands-On Execution\nMaintain hands-on mastery of our core software stack: AWS (including GovCloud), Python microservices, Go, React (TypeScript/JavaScript), PostgreSQL, Docker, Kubernetes, and Swagger/OpenAPI.\nActively code and build across the full stack, implementing front-end interfaces, back-end microservices, APIs, and the core data pipelines for geospatial and bathymetric processing.\nDeliver robust, high-impact code and lead by example to ensure on-time, predictable software commitments tied directly to business goals.\nEnhance existing development practices, robust automated testing frameworks (PyTest, Jest, Playwright), and continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) workflows.\n2. Architecture & Planning\nArchitect and drive the technical design of the end-to-end Absolute Ocean (AO) SaaS platform across public cloud, private cloud, and on-premises environments ensuring high reliability, scalability, and performance.\nOptimize geospatial data ingestion, transmission, and processing pipelines to scale seamlessly from Terabyte (TB) to Petabyte (PB) environments while maintaining elite performance.\nAvoid the over-engineering trap by making fast, practical architectural decisions that support business execution without incurring crippling technical debt or maintenance overhead.\nPartner closely with Product Management and Engineering leaders to translate product requirements into clear technical plans, designs, and actionable JIRA tickets.\nArchitect software systems and processes to meet stringent cybersecurity compliance goals, including CMMC L2, NIST 800-53, and future FedRAMP authorization efforts.\n3. Mentorship & Technical Leadership\nMentor and develop a world-class team of software engineers, conducting comprehensive code reviews and guiding collaborative design alignment to elevate overall technical output.\nLead the thoughtful integration of AI/ML and agentic systems across the platform and internal engineering workflows to automate data processing, enable intelligent mission planning and survey operations, and accelerate overall development productivity.\nFoster a healthy culture of ownership, accountability, technical excellence, resourcefulness under constraint, and continuous improvement.\nOperate as one team with speed, discipline, and collaboration driving how decisions are made and executed.\nPartner with Engineering Leadership, Product Management, Operations, and Business Development as needed to support technical solutioning and keep engineering aligned with company goals.\nWhat Success Looks Like (12 Months)\nYou will have successfully evolved the AO platform and engineering processes, as demonstrated by the following milestones:\nAbsolute Ocean is evolving into a highly repeatable, scalable SaaS platform with system uptime exceeding 99.5% and high-quality data processing speeds.\nDevelopment velocity, predictability, and overall product quality have materially improved across the team as a direct reflection of your mentorship and refined testing workflows.\nSoftware-driven cost efficiencies have visibly lowered the overall cost per km2 surveyed and cost per TB processed.\nAI and agentic systems are successfully deployed, measurably improving both internal engineering productivity and customer workflows.\nRequirements\nJob Qualifications\nMinimum Qualifications\nBachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.\n10+ years of professional software engineering experience, ideally within high-growth SaaS environments.\nStrong full-stack or heavy backend/data expertise utilizing AWS, Python, Go, React, PostgreSQL, and Swagger/OpenAPI.\nDeep experience defining and building event-based microservice architectures within containerized environments (Docker, Kubernetes).\nDemonstrated experience as a technical lead, architect, or player-coach responsible for mentoring developers and driving core system designs.\nIdeal Experience / Preferred Qualifications\nProven track record of designing robust test automation strategies, including unit, integration, and end-to-end testing, and embedding them directly into the development process to protect software quality at high velocity.\nProven experience scaling large-scale data pipelines from Terabyte (TB) to Petabyte (PB) environments.\nExperience packaging cloud-native software for deployment on physical hardware appliances via Virtual Machines (VMs) for offline or air-gapped network environments.\nA hands-on builder mindset with experience delivering high-quality software in a dynamic startup culture, combining a proven ability to navigate ambiguity effectively with a commitment to maintainable documentation and collaborative problem-solving.\nExperience handling complex geospatial data models using tools like CesiumJS, GDAL, ESRI, or related maritime data tools (CARIS, EIVA).\nHands-on experience deploying practical AI/ML models or agentic systems within a production web application or internal engineering lifecycle.\nFamiliarity with security-first development practices aligned with modern compliance frameworks like NIST, CMMC, or FedRAMP.","description_format":"text","description_chars":6088,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":10,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":true},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Marine & Ocean Engineering","Underwater & Marine 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