Principal Software Engineer

The Principal Software Engineer (IC6) leads the design, development, and evolution of Orion’s modern cloud-native technology stack. This role architects end-to-end systems, sets and drives engineering standards, identifies long-term platform investments, and leverages deep expertise in AWS, serverless patterns, distributed systems, JavaScript/TypeScript, React, and modern application development.

Operating with substantial autonomy, the Principal Engineer tackles Orion’s most complex technical challenges, charts the course for major engineering initiatives, and ensures solutions are reliable, scalable, secure, cost-efficient, and aligned to business outcomes.

For Internal and External Candidates:
Candidates must work in-office at one of the following locations for at least 3 days per week: Jacksonville, FL.

• Architect and implement large-scale, fully serverless applications using AWS Lambda, API Gateway, CloudFront, EventBridge, SQS/SNS, S3, and RDS.

• Define the architectural vision for cloud-native, event-driven systems across Orion.

• Lead design for new platforms, subsystems, and cross-cutting capabilities that support Orion’s growth and scale.

• Build and maintain infrastructure-as-code and CI/CD pipelines that support rapid, consistent deployment.

• Serve as Orion’s top technical expert in AWS architecture and serverless engineering.

• Provide guidance, mentorship, and direction to engineers, senior engineers, and tech leads.

• Lead design reviews, complex debugging efforts, and operational excellence initiatives.

• Drive adoption of new AWS services, modern distributed system patterns, and emerging technologies—including generative and agentic AI.

• Partner with Product, Security, DevOps, and business stakeholders to ensure technical decisions support Orion’s strategic goals.

• Champion secure coding practices, system hardening, and proactive risk mitigation.

• Build performant, resilient, scalable systems that self-heal and optimize cost.

• Create and enforce testing strategies, including integrated and automated testing approaches.

• Diagnose and solve high-severity issues across any layer of the stack—front-end, back-end, database, networking, or infrastructure.

• Shape the engineering culture by promoting best practices, simplification, and continuous improvement.

• Influence roadmaps and technology direction through data, experience, and clear communication.

• Serve as a trusted advisor across engineering teams and to senior leadership.

• Build strong cross-functional relationships to drive work that impacts multiple areas of the business.

• Independently define methods, strategies, and technical approaches for novel or ambiguous initiatives.

• Balance creativity and discipline to build solutions that deliver outsized impact.

• Maintain a continuous learning practice to stay ahead of rapidly evolving cloud engineering trends.

• Operate with a platform-owner mindset—thinking holistically about reliability, scale, and long-term maintainability.

• Mastery of modern JavaScript/TypeScript and the Node.js ecosystem.

• Deep experience building rich, modern UIs using React and supporting front-end libraries.

• Strong understanding of browser capabilities, web performance, and front-end architecture.

• Advanced SQL and relational database expertise, especially MySQL (schema design, indexing, query optimization).

• Knowledge of data lakes and distributed data pipeline technologies.

• Expertise across AWS (Lambda, API Gateway, CloudFront, SQS, SNS, SES, EventBridge, S3, RDS).

• Strong understanding of OAuth2, OpenID Connect, cryptography, and security protocols.

• Mastery of git workflows, CI/CD pipelines, IaC best practices, and SDLC processes.

• Broad architectural pattern knowledge (DDD, CQRS, SOLID, event-driven patterns).

• Exceptional debugging and problem-solving skills across the full stack.

• Tackles high-impact, highly ambiguous problems with no blueprint.

• Defines technical frameworks, patterns, and decision structures for other engineers to follow.

• Solutions directly influence Orion’s long-term scalability, reliability, and competitive advantage.

• Builds influence networks across teams and guides engineering direction at scale.

• Operates with full independence on new, critical, or technically undefined initiatives.

• May indirectly lead engineers or project teams through influence and technical direction.

• Determines architecture, technical strategies, and methods for complex initiatives.

• 10+ years of progressive software engineering experience.

• Demonstrated mastery architecting and building in AWS.

• AWS Solutions Architect certification (or equivalent experience) strongly preferred.

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Salary Range:

The pay listed in this posting indicates the estimated pay at the time of this posting; however, may vary depending on geographic location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. In addition, Orion offers a competitive benefits package which includes health, dental, vision, and disability coverage on day one, 401(k) plan with employer match, paid parental leave, pet benefits including pawternity leave and pet insurance, student loan repayment and more.

About Us

At Orion, we achieve our best work when we support one another, staying personally accountable to each other and the clients we serve. We create a welcoming environment where everyone is respected, valued, and heard. Our commitment to create raving fans ensures we consistently exceed client expectations. Thinking differently is in our DNA—we innovate always, push boundaries, and reject the status quo to deliver transformative outcomes. Together, we support one another and see it through to success, driving our collective achievements and those of our clients.