Who are we?
For the past 20 years, we have powered many Digital Experiences for the Fortune 500. Since 1999, we have grown from a few people to more than 4000 team members across the globe that are engaged in various Digital Modernization. For a brief 1 minute video about us, you can check https://youtu.be/uJWBWQZEA6o.
What will you do? What are we looking for?
Role: Principal Software Engineer
Location: Remote
Experience Level: 12+ Years
About the Role
We are seeking an exceptional Principal Software Engineer to provide high-level technical leadership, drive architectural vision, and design robust, scalable distributed systems. In this role, you will take ambiguous business challenges and turn them into resilient, production-grade cloud platforms.
You will champion modern engineering practices by leveraging an AI-native engineering approach—utilizing agent skills, Model Context Protocol (MCP), and spec-driven development to accelerate development lifecycles while maintaining high standards for performance, security, and maintainability.
Key Responsibilities
- System Architecture & Design: Architect high-throughput, fault-tolerant backend services, distributed systems, and cloud-native solutions across AWS and GCP environments.
- Technical Leadership: Guide cross-functional teams through complex technical decisions, set best practices for code quality, testing (TDD), and system reliability, and mentor senior engineering talent.
- AI-Native Delivery: Integrate next-generation developer tooling (Cursor, Claude, autonomous agents, MCP workflows, and spec-driven design) to elevate team productivity and system delivery.
- Data Engineering & APIs: Design high-performance REST APIs and scalable data/ETL pipelines across relational, document, and columnar data stores.
- Production Ownership & DevOps: Drive end-to-end operational excellence, establishing robust CI/CD automation, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), container orchestration, JVM profiling, and real-time observability.
- Stakeholder Alignment: Partner closely with product management, engineering leaders, and key stakeholders to translate business goals into clear technical roadmaps.
Required Qualifications & Skills
- Core Experience: 15+ years of hands-on software development experience building, scaling, and operating high-performance backend platforms.
- Programming Mastery: Deep expertise in Java and Python, with strong command over algorithms, multithreading, concurrent programming, and JVM tuning/profiling.
- Cloud Platforms:
- AWS: Deep hands-on experience with Lambda, DynamoDB, SNS, SQS, S3, EC2/ASG, EKS, VPC, ElastiCache, RDS, Redshift, CloudWatch, and IAM/cross-account security.
- GCP: Practical knowledge of BigQuery, Pub/Sub, Cloud Monitoring, and OpenTelemetry.
- Data & Storage Systems: Extensive experience with relational and NoSQL databases, data warehouses, and analytics pipelines (PostgreSQL, MongoDB, DynamoDB, Redis, Athena, Palantir Foundry, ETL workflows).
- DevOps & Infrastructure: Strong proficiency with Terraform, Ansible, Docker, Kubernetes, Git, CI/CD pipelines (e.g., Screwdriver/GitHub Actions/GitLab), and CloudTrail.
- Modern AI Engineering: Demonstrated experience applying AI-assisted workflows (Cursor, Claude, MCP tools, agentic skills) to enhance software delivery.
- Leadership & Communication: Outstanding communication skills with proven ability to align diverse stakeholders and mentor senior engineering peers.
Compensation, Benefits and Duration
Minimum Compensation: USD 56,000
Maximum Compensation: USD 196,000
Compensation is based on actual experience and qualifications of the candidate. The above is a reasonable and a good faith estimate for the role.
Medical, vision, and dental benefits, 401k retirement plan, variable pay/incentives, paid time off, and paid holidays are available for full-time employees.
This position is available for independent contractors
No applications will be considered if received more than 120 days after the date of this post
Skills Required
- 15+ years of hands-on software development experience building, scaling, and operating high-performance backend platforms
- Deep expertise in Java and Python
- Strong knowledge of algorithms, multithreading, concurrent programming, and JVM tuning and profiling
- Deep hands-on AWS experience, including Lambda, DynamoDB, SNS, SQS, S3, EC2, EKS, VPC, ElastiCache, RDS, Redshift, CloudWatch, and IAM
- Practical knowledge of GCP, including BigQuery, Pub/Sub, Cloud Monitoring, and OpenTelemetry
- Extensive experience with relational and NoSQL databases, data warehouses, and analytics pipelines
- Experience with PostgreSQL, MongoDB, DynamoDB, Redis, Athena, Palantir Foundry, and ETL workflows
- Strong proficiency with Terraform, Ansible, Docker, Kubernetes, Git, CI/CD pipelines, and CloudTrail
- Demonstrated experience applying AI-assisted workflows, including Cursor, Claude, MCP tools, and agentic skills
- Outstanding communication skills and ability to align stakeholders and mentor senior engineering peers
What We Do
Photon.com has emerged as one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing Digital Agencies. We work with 40% of the Fortune 100 on their Digital initiatives and are known for our ability to integrate Strategy Consulting, Creative Design, and Technology at scale. Please visit www.photon.com to learn more about us, how we work, and our customer case studies. Digital Transformation Starts Here.
