Principal Software Engineer - Backend
Autodesk · Remote · United States · 1mo ago
Job Requisition ID #
Position Overview
We are seeking aPrincipal Software Engineer – Backendto join Autodesk’s Enterprise Data Management (EDM) organization within the COO-GET Engineering group. This is a senior individual contributor roleoperatingat thePrincipal(P4) level, expected to drive technology direction forlarge, complex, and business-critical backend and distributed systems.
This role is anchored inbackend software engineering excellence: designing, building, and evolving scalable services, APIs, and event-driven systems thatoperateat enterprise scale. As a Principal Engineer, you will work withhigh autonomy and ambiguity, shape long-term architecture, and influence multiple teams and domains. Familiarity with data engineering concepts is valuable, but backend systems, service design, and distributed systems are the core competencies.
You will function as a technical authority and force multiplier—guiding design decisions, setting standards, and ensuring Autodesk’s core data services are reliable, resilient, and evolvable over time.
Responsibilities
Provideprincipal-level technical leadershipacross multiple backend and platform teams, shaping architecture and technical strategy beyond a single squad or service
Author and evolvecritical backend systems and APIs, ensuring they meet long-term scalability, reliability, and extensibility goals
Lead design ofdistributed, event-driven systems, addressing consistency, ordering, failure handling, replay, idempotency, rate limiting, and backpressure
Establish and driveservice and API standardsacross domains, including schema design, versioning strategies, backward compatibility, and consumer experience
Act as a technical decision-maker for cross-team initiatives; evaluate tradeoffs and make durable architectural choices aligned with business priorities
Driveoperational excellenceacross systems youinfluence:observability, alerting strategy, incident response, post-incident learning, and systemic remediation
Introduce and reinforceengineering best practicesfor design reviews, code quality, testing, CI/CD, and production readiness across multiple teams
Mentor senior engineers and emerging technicalleaders;raise the bar through influence, example, and coaching rather than direct management
Partner deeply with product, data, and platform leaders to translate ambiguous business problems into clear, actionable technical solutions
Remain hands-on where impact is highest: complex system design, critical implementations, architectural refactors, and high-severity incident resolution
Minimum Qualifications
Bachelor’s orMaster’s degree in Computer Science, a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience
10+ years of professional software engineering experience, with significant depth in backend and distributed systems
Experience buildingenterprise platform servicesconsumed by many internal and/or external teams.
Python + AWS + API + backend services integration experience
Demonstratedexpertisebuilding and operatingbackend services and APIsin production environments at scale
Strong experience withdistributed systems design, including asynchronous processing, messaging, eventual consistency, and fault tolerance
Deep hands-on experience withAWSand cloud-native architectures (compute, storage, messaging, IAM, observability, scaling patterns)
Proven ownership ofmission-critical systems, including design accountability, operational responsibility, and long-term maintainability
Strong software engineering fundamentals: system design, service-level data modeling, API design, automated testing, CI/CD, andinfrastructure ascode
Track recordof influencing architecture and engineering outcomesacross multiple teamswithout formal authority
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to clearly articulate complex technical concepts to diverse audiences
Preferred Qualifications
Familiarity withdata engineering or data platform ecosystems(e.g., streaming pipelines, data warehouses such as Snowflake) as a producer or advanced consumer of data services
Experience withevent streaming and messaging platforms(e.g., Kafka, Kinesis, or equivalents)
Background in domains such asmaster data management, identity resolution, data enrichment, or data quality
Experience integrating backend services with analytics, search/indexing, or ML/AI platforms
Prior experienceoperatingin large, complex organizations where systems span multiple teams, regions, and business units
Learn More
About Autodesk
Welcome to Autodesk! Amazing things are created every day with our software – from the greenest buildings and cleanest cars to the smartest factories and biggest hit movies. We help innovators turn their ideas into reality, transforming not only how things are made, but what can be made.
We take great pride in our culture here at Autodesk – it’s at the core of everything we do. Our culture guides the way we work and treat each other, informs how we connect with customers and partners, and defines how we show up in the world.
When you’re an Autodesker, you can do meaningful work that helps build a better world designed and made for all. Ready to shape the world and your future? Join us!
Benefits
From health and financial benefits to time away and everyday wellness, we give Autodeskers the best, so they can do their best work. Learn more about our benefits in the U.S. by visiting https://benefits.autodesk.com/
Salary transparency
Equal Employment Opportunity
At Autodesk, we're building a diverse workplace and an inclusive culture to give more people the chance to imagine, design, and make a better world. Autodesk is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and considers all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status or any other legally protected characteristic. We also consider for employment all qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with applicable law.
Belonging
We take pride in cultivating a culture of belonging where everyone can thrive. Learn more here: https://www.autodesk.com/company/global-belonging
In-Person Onboarding and Identity Verification
This role may require in-person onboarding and/or in-person ID verification.
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