Principal Software Developer

autodesk; Vancouver; On-site; CAD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Autodesk is seeking a Principal Software Developer to lead the APS Developer Portal team. You will be a hands-on technical leader shaping architecture, delivery, and end-to-end ownership of developer apps, APIs, docs, analytics, and AI-enabled developer workflows.

You will collaborate across Engineering, Product, Design and Architecture to align customer needs with scalable solutions. The ideal candidate brings deep engineering fundamentals, strong product judgment, and a track record of

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience in CS/Engineering.
• 8+ years of professional software engineering and leadership experience.
• Strong fundamentals; proven ability to design and operate production systems.
• Experience with web applications, API platforms, distributed systems.
• Hands-on programming with modern backend/frontend tech; cloud services and security.
• Experience using AI-assisted development tools with good judgment.
• Proven ability to influence decisions without direct authority.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership for complex, high-impact initiatives across components, services, or teams.
• Define and evolve architecture for scalable, reliable, secure systems; balance near-term delivery with long-term health.
• Communicate tradeoffs, risks, and recommendations clearly to stakeholders.
• Identify cross-team risks and establish reusable architectural patterns.
• Remain hands-on with architecture, design, prototyping, implementation and debugging.
• Own end-to-end initiatives from exploration to production readiness and operation.
• Improve developer workflows for app creation, API access, and documentation.
• Lead resolution of complex production issues and address root causes.
• Raise engineering standards via reviews, testing, and operational readiness.
• Champion tooling that improves quality, productivity, reliability and delivery.

Skills

Technical leadership

Software architecture

System design

Backend/Frontend development

Cloud services

Observability

Mentoring

Communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or Engineering

Tools

Python/Django

JavaScript/TypeScript/React

AWS

Relational databases

CI/CD

Containers

Observability tooling

Job description

Job Requisition ID # 26WD100826

Principal Software Developer

Position Overview

We are looking for a Principal Software Developer to join the Autodesk Platform Services (APS) Developer Portal team at Autodesk. As a hands‑on technical leader, you will solve complex and ambiguous engineering problems and shape the architecture and technical direction of the APS Developer Portal and Application Management platform, including developer app lifecycle, APIs, documentation, usage analytics, and AI/MCP-enabled developer workflows. You will partner across Engineering, Product, Design, and Architecture to translate customer and business needs into scalable, reliable solutions and help drive technical direction across teams. The ideal candidate brings deep engineering fundamentals, strong product and technical judgment, and the ability to create clarity across organizational boundaries.

Responsibilities

Technical Leadership & Architecture

• Provide technical leadership for complex, high-impact initiatives spanning multiple components, services, or teams.
• Define and evolve architecture for scalable, reliable, secure, and maintainable systems; navigate ambiguity and make pragmatic tradeoffs between near-term delivery and long-term health.
• Build alignment across organizational and system boundaries, communicating technical tradeoffs, risks, and recommendations clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Identify cross-team risks and dependencies early, and establish reusable architectural patterns and guidance that benefit the broader engineering organization.

Hands‑on Engineering & End-to-End Ownership

• Remain hands‑on with architecture, design, prototyping, implementation, code reviews, debugging, and critical technical deliverables.
• Own technically complex initiatives end to end, from exploration and design through implementation, production readiness, and ongoing operation.
• Improve developer‑facing workflows for app creation, API access, documentation, usage visibility, and platform self‑service.
• Lead resolution of complex production issues and ensure solutions address root causes and improve the long‑term health of the system.

Engineering Excellence & Developer Productivity

• Raise engineering standards through architecture and design reviews, code reviews, testing, operational readiness, and continuous improvement.
• Champion practices and tooling that improve software quality, developer productivity, reliability, and delivery effectiveness while balancing speed with sustainable technical investment.
• Use production signals, customer feedback, and engineering data to continuously improve systems and development practices.
• Use AI‑assisted development tools effectively across the software development lifecycle to improve engineering productivity and quality, while applying sound judgment around correctness, security, maintainability, and accountability.

Mentorship & Organizational Impact

• Mentor and develop engineers through technical guidance, design discussions, code reviews, and thoughtful feedback.
• Share knowledge and technical context broadly to help engineers and teams solve complex problems more effectively.
• Foster a collaborative engineering culture and constructive technical decision-making.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience, including leading technically complex initiatives.
• Strong software engineering fundamentals and demonstrated experience designing, building, and operating production systems.
• Demonstrated architecture and system‑design experience with complex web applications, API platforms, distributed systems, or comparable production environments.
• Hands‑on programming experience with modern backend and/or frontend technologies, plus experience with cloud services, APIs, data stores, security, and production observability.
• Experience using AI‑assisted development tools in software engineering workflows, with sound judgment in evaluating and validating AI‑generated outputs.
• Experience delivering initiatives across multiple systems or teams and influencing technical decisions without relying on direct authority.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills and demonstrated ability to mentor engineers and raise team effectiveness.

Preferred Qualifications

• You do not need experience with every technology used by the team; we value the ability to learn unfamiliar technologies over exact stack matching.
• Experience designing and operating cloud‑based web applications, developer platforms, or APIs at scale.
• Experience with technologies representative of our environment, such as Python/Django, JavaScript/TypeScript/React, AWS, relational databases, asynchronous processing, containers, CI/CD, and observability tooling.
• Experience with API architecture, security, reliability, scalability, perf