Principal Software Engineer - (Reston or Cambridge)

Posted Yesterday
Be an Early Applicant
2 Locations
In-Office or Remote
169K-305K Annually
Expert/Leader
Cloud • Security • Software • Cybersecurity
Akamai powers and protects life online by solving the toughest challenges and turning the impossible into the possible.
The Role
Architects scalable distributed systems and low-level cloud platform services, establishes engineering standards and SLOs, designs CI/CD and deployment safety pipelines, leads complex incident escalations and postmortems, and mentors engineering teams. The role requires full-stack, API, and microservices development in Linux or Unix environments, strong SRE expertise, architectural leadership, and US citizenship with eligibility for security clearance.
Summary Generated by Built In

Are you passionate about architecting scalable systems and leading technical innovation?

Do you want to build mission-critical solutions for public sector cloud platforms?

Join our team!

Our team's mission is to accelerate innovation by making computing simple, scalable, accessible, and affordable for all. We provide the infrastructure and services that enable developers to build next-generation applications. We take ownership of the design and development of core compute interfaces, virtualization management, APIs, and low-level platform services.

Partner with the best

As a technical authority, you will drive engineering excellence through robust solution design. You will integrate Site Reliability Engineering principles to ensure web applications, APIs, and automation platforms excel in reliability. Additionally, you will build specialty tooling to maintain our globally distributed infrastructure.

As a Principal Software Engineer Lead, you will be responsible for:

  • Architecting complex distributed software systems and authoring technical blueprints to eliminate operational toil
  • Establishing development standards, pull request review frameworks, and Service Level Objectives to maintain system resilience
  • Designing deployment safety pipelines, continuous integration workflows, and automated testing frameworks for secure production releases
  • Serving as the Tier-3 escalation authority for complex application failures and leading postmortem reviews
  • Mentoring engineering teams on system design while cultivating an inclusive and collaborative technical culture

Do what you love

To be successful in this role you will:

  • Have 12 years of relevant experience and a Bachelor's degree
  • Have experience developing full-stack web applications, APIs, and microservices in Linux or Unix environments
  • Possess expertise in languages such as Python, JavaScript, SQL, Ruby, or PHP
  • Be knowledgeable about CI/CD pipelines, containerization, automated testing, and revision control workflows
  • Demonstrate solid grounding in SRE principles, including SLI/SLO tracking, toil reduction, and root-cause analysis
  • Demonstrate success creating architectural blueprints, evaluating emerging technologies, and mentoring engineering peers
  • Possess US Citizenship, and be eligible to undergo the required security clearance process; an active clearance is not required.

About us

At Akamai, we make life better for billions of people, trillions of times a day.
Whether you're streaming live events, scrolling social media, watching your favorite series, or managing your savings, we're the engine behind the scenes. We provide the world's most distributed platform from Cloud to Edge to help the giants of the digital world work faster and stay more secure, making the internet a better experience for everyone.
Our focus is simple:
Cloud and Edge: Running apps closer to users for instant performance.
Security: Neutralizing threats before they ever reach your data.
Content Delivery: Scaling the world's biggest moments without a glitch.
AI: Enabling our customers to build, secure, and scale AI apps on the world's most distributed cloud platform.
At Akamai, we don't just support the internet; we power and protect it, because behind every great digital experience is a massive hidden challenge. And we're the ones who solve it. When millions of people hit play or pay, Akamai ensures it just works.

Benefits at Akamai: We support your health, well-being, finances, and life beyond work. See our benefits.

FlexBase adapts to your job's needs

Akamai's FlexBase program is yet another way we show our commitment to providing employees with an exceptional workplace experience. It's not about telling employees where to work; it's about supporting employees to do their best work.
We trust our incredible employees to work in ways that suit them best: at home, in an office, or a combination of both.

Connect with us on social and see what life at Akamai is like!

Compensation

Akamai is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. For US based candidates only - the base salary for this position ranges from $169,300 - $304,700/year; a candidate’s salary is determined by various factors including, but not limited to, relevant work experience, skills, certifications and location. Compensation for candidates outside the US will vary. The compensation package may also include incentive compensation opportunities in the form of annual bonus or incentives, equity awards and an Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP). Akamai provides industry-leading benefits including healthcare, 401K savings plan, company holidays, vacation (in the form of PTO), sick time, family friendly benefits including parental leave and an employee assistance program including a focus on mental and financial wellness; Eligibility requirements apply.

Skills Required

  • 12 years of relevant professional experience
  • Bachelor's degree
  • Experience developing full-stack web applications, APIs, and microservices
  • Experience working in Linux or Unix environments
  • Expertise in Python, JavaScript, SQL, Ruby, or PHP
  • Knowledge of CI/CD pipelines, containerization, automated testing, and revision control workflows
  • Strong knowledge of Site Reliability Engineering principles, including SLI/SLO tracking, toil reduction, and root-cause analysis
  • Experience creating architectural blueprints and evaluating emerging technologies
  • Experience mentoring engineering peers
  • US citizenship
  • Eligibility to undergo the required security clearance process

Akamai Technologies Compensation & Benefits Highlights

The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Akamai Technologies and has not been reviewed or approved by Akamai Technologies.

  • Leave & Time Off Breadth — Unlimited PTO in the U.S., wellness days, paid volunteering time, and the FlexBase model contribute to broad time‑off flexibility. These practices are described as supporting strong work‑life balance.
  • Parental & Family Support — Generous paid parental leaves, paid family care leave, subsidized backup childcare, and inclusive family‑building benefits via Carrot form a comprehensive family support suite. Coverage spans fertility support through caregiving resources.
  • Retirement Support — A 401(k) with a substantial company match and immediate vesting, plus Roth and Mega Backdoor Roth options, underpin long‑term savings. These features provide reliable long‑term savings opportunities.

Akamai Technologies Insights

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The Company
HQ: Cambridge, MA
10,285 Employees
Year Founded: 1998

What We Do

At Akamai, we make life better for billions of people, billions of times a day. Every moment, billions of people, all over the world, are using the internet to shop, play games, look after finances, learn remotely, share videos, connect across the world, and so much more. These life-shaping digital experiences wouldn’t be possible without Akamai. We power and protect life online. It’s an extraordinary mission, and our global teams achieve it by solving the toughest challenges, and turning the impossible into the possible. With the world’s most distributed compute platform — from cloud to edge — we make it easy for businesses to develop and run applications, while we keep experiences closer to users and threats farther away. That’s why innovative companies worldwide choose Akamai to build, deliver, and secure their digital experiences. Thanks to our world’s most distributed platform for cloud computing, security, and content delivery. Akamai keeps applications and experiences closer and threats farther away. Devoted, determined problem-solvers who share a passion for technology, we’re always pushing ground-breaking ideas and driving innovation. Do you want to power and protect life online, by solving the toughest challenges with us? Be part of an amazing team!

Why Work With Us

Our people are devoted, determined problem-solvers who share a passion for technology. We find solutions through persistence, and push ground-breaking ideas forward with urgency and courage. This creates an environment where we harness creative energy and drive innovation. We are inclusive and diverse, and we love to collaborate across the world.

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