Principal Software Engineer

We are 8th Light, an employee-owned, remote-first software consultancy, we consider software design and development a craft. We’re driven by our deep commitment to excellence, and powered by our collective depth of knowledge and experience. Our team of expert developers and designers hold the title of "Crafter" to reflect our dedication to quality, our emphasis on continual learning, and our belief that software is truly a craft — something we take pride in, and value highly. We value colleagues who enjoy learning and teaching, which creates our collaborative organization.

As a team of polyglot generalists — thinkers and doers ready to take on most any challenge that we encounter, we remain positioned to help an ever growing portfolio of client partners. If this approach to product and software development resonates with you, we'd love to talk.

You’ve shown long-term repeated success on a variety of projects, typically over the course of 10+ years. You can be the go-to leader for any software development engagement. You have a broad and deep range of expertise that allows you to make an immediate impact on projects. In your previous experience, you have:

• Written production-quality code in Ruby OR Elixir OR Java OR Python OR JavaScript OR TypeScript OR React — preferably two or more languages
• Built high-quality, maintainable software collaboratively, incrementally, and pragmatically
• Built larger features or subsystems
• Used context-appropriate automated testing to inform software design choices and catch bugs
• Debugged and refactored pre-existing code to incrementally improve it
• Collaborated with teams using Git, MacOS/Linux, and CI/CD
• Addressed architecture-level concerns such as scalability, security, reliability, and performance
• Led projects or teams
• Brought together people from different functions and perspectives in forums that encourage idea sharing, collaboration, and problem solving
• Made thoughtful recommendations and set direction in the face of ambiguity
• Mentored and shared knowledge with colleagues
• Actively sought out and effectively given feedback
• Communicated empathically with stakeholders and colleagues
• Collaboratively led stakeholders to balance technical considerations with product and user needs

As a lead technologist on projects, you’ll work with a variety of clients, typically one to two in a year,  and in a variety of languages over the course of your career with us. You’ll lead more complicated projects, leading teams to do so. You’ll work with colleagues who share your passion for creating software. You’ll invest time developing your skills and sharing what you know. You’ll be responsible for:

• Making immediate contributions to projects, rapidly building trust with clients
• Working pragmatically to balance technology choices while delivering high-quality work within deadlines
• Leading architecture and software design discussions
• Generating new potential solutions to challenges (technical and non-technical) in partnership with team members and clients
• Leading or initiating formal feedback conversations with teams and clients via retrospectives
• Clearly articulating and documenting outcomes and driving forward action items
• Ensuring your team has a healthy, prioritized, estimated backlog
• Managing high-level project roadmaps as the team lead for large engagements
• Maintaining relationships with client technical leaders
• Regular syncs with the client to provide status updates, and for identifying and evaluating risks and presenting potential solutions
• Serving as a mentor to those on your teams
• Identifying and resolving blockers to team progress
• Contributing to 8th Light by serving as a mentor to apprentices, leading or designing workshops internally or for clients, representing 8th Light in the tech community, or supporting our hiring processes

We work across many areas, and encourage anyone with the experience listed to apply. We would particularly like to encourage applicants with experience in the following areas:

• infrastructure as code
• data engineering
• CI/CD pipelines
• native mobile development

We want our people to feel supported and encouraged to embrace their most authentic selves. Our wellness package at 8th Light is centered around the Whole YOU. Offerings that include:

• An L&D Program which includes: Learning budget, MasterClass, and in-person learning opportunities
• Coworking to support our global team
• Flexible PTO & flexible work schedule
• Wellness days
• 12 weeks of new parent leave available for eligible employees
• Semi annual promotion panel

See our full list of Benefits

We recognize that creating a truly diverse, equitable, and inclusive organization is an ongoing journey, and we’re excited to share our journey with you. We have a proud tradition of hiring talented colleagues with unusual career experiences. We're more interested in your experiences, results, and impact than brand names, degrees, or keywords that may appear on your resume.

8th Light currently recruits and supports a distributed team of employees in various states who work remotely. When opportunities allow we can also consider hiring talent eligible to work in the United States and the United Kingdom. In this new workplace landscape, it is rare that our consulting engagements require travel for current roles. 

We are committed to supporting, onboarding, growth, and engagement of employees who choose to work remotely on a permanent basis. For team members who seek to work in-office, where local regulations allow, we can provide an experience that supports in-person social interaction and collaboration in our hub cities of Chicago, New York, London and Los Angeles. Learn more about our philosophy, plans, and updates by signing up for our Talent Community!

8th Light has recently adopted a compensation strategy that allows us to be competitive in each market for which we hire. Thereby, salary ranges for each position are not only determined based on experience and knowledge base, but also regional labor markets.

To enquire further into the range in your market for this position, contact us at [email protected].

The US range for the role is ~$120,000 to $189,000

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