Principal Software Engineer

Itron, Inc.; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 4,200,000 - 6,800,000; Full time

Job summary

Itron, Inc. is seeking a Principal Engineer for the Emergency Preparedness & Response (EP&R) team. You will be the technical anchor, combining hands-on backend work with system architecture to ensure high availability and resilience during critical events.

You'll lead and mentor engineers, design for non-functional requirements, and drive metrics and AI-powered improvements that deliver real customer impact across storm-response platforms.

Qualifications

• 6–8 years of software development experience with 2–3 years in a leadership role.
• Proficiency in Python, Java, or JavaScript with backend-heavy focus.
• Experience building highly available, scalable systems in production.
• Understanding of non-functional requirements and design for them.
• Metric-driven mindset with data-informed decisions.
• Proven leadership and mentoring of engineering teams.
• Ability to decompose complex problems into deliverables.
• Autonomous, self-starting engineer who leverages AI tools.

Responsibilities

• Own the technical vision and architecture for EP&R systems for availability and resilience.
• Define problems from customer pain points before coding.
• Stay hands-on across the stack, setting standards for quality.
• Break down complex problems into scoped pieces for the team.
• Lead and mentor engineers, driving ownership and high standards.
• Design for availability, latency, cost, and maintainability.
• Define metrics, collect data, and drive improvements.
• Collaborate with product, operations, and business stakeholders.
• Anticipate failure modes and plan for surge scenarios.
• Champion AI-powered tooling to accelerate development and quality.

Skills

Team Leadership

Backend Development

Python

Java

JavaScript

System Design

Metrics & Telemetry

AI Tools

Autonomy

Education

CS Degree

Tools

AWS

GCP

Azure

Observability Tools

Job description

Itron is innovating new ways for utilities and cities to manage energy and water. We create a more resourceful world to protect essential resources for today and tomorrow. Join us.

Opening Paragraph:

The Emergency Preparedness & Response (EP&R) team builds the systems that keep critical operations running when it matters most. When storms and severe weather threaten communities and infrastructure across the US, our platform enables customers to rapidly procure, mobilize, and manage the workforce needed to respond to and recover from storm damage — often under tight timelines and high‑stakes conditions. We are looking for a Principal Engineer who is deeply hands‑on, works backward from customer pain points and business needs, and measures success by impact rather than lines of code shipped. You will be the technical anchor of the team: a backend‑heavy full‑stack engineer who knows our systems inside and out, reasons rigorously about trade‑offs, and raises the engineering bar for everyone around you while leading the team toward outcomes that genuinely matter.

Duties & Responsibilities:

• Own the technical vision and architecture for EP&R systems, ensuring they are highly available, resilient, and easy to operate during peak‑demand emergency events.

• Work backward from customer pain points and business goals to define the right problems to solve before writing a single line of code.

• Stay deeply hands‑on — design, build, review, and debug across the stack (backend‑heavy, with full‑stack breadth) while setting the standard for engineering quality.

• Break down ambiguous, complex problems into well‑scoped, achievable pieces that the team can execute against with clarity.

• Lead, mentor, and grow a team of engineers; set technical direction, unblock people, and cultivate a culture of ownership and high standards.

• Design with non‑functional requirements front of mind — availability, scalability, latency, reliability, cost, and maintainability — and hold the team accountable to them.

• Define and drive the metrics that matter, using data to guide decisions, validate impact, and continuously improve system and team performance.

• Partner closely with product, operations, and business stakeholders to align engineering investment with real customer and business outcomes.

• Anticipate failure modes and design for operational excellence, including readiness for surge scenarios during active storm events.

• Champion the adoption of AI‑powered tools and workflows to accelerate development, improve quality, and increase the team’s leverage.

Required Skills & Experience:

• 6–8 years of demonstrable software development experience, including 2–3 years leading a team.

• Strong proficiency in high‑level programming languages such as Python, Java, or JavaScript, with backend‑heavy full‑stack capability.

• Proven experience building highly available, maintainable, and scalable systems in production.

• Deep understanding of non‑functional requirements (availability, scalability, reliability, latency, cost, maintainability) and how to design for them.

• A metric‑driven mindset — you instrument, measure, and let data drive decisions.

• Exceptional problem‑solving ability and rigorous reasoning about system behavior and trade‑offs.

• Demonstrated experience leading and mentoring engineering teams and delivering results through others.

• Ability to decompose complex, ambiguous problems into smaller, achievable deliverables.

• A self‑starter who operates with a high degree of autonomy and ownership.

• An “AI‑ready” engineer who actively leverages AI tools to boost personal and team productivity.

Preferred Skills & Experience:

• Experience building systems that operate under high‑stakes, time‑sensitive, or surge‑driven conditions (e.g., emergency response, logistics, on‑demand marketplaces, or workforce/staffing platforms).

• Familiarity with distributed systems, event‑driven architectures, and cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure).

• Experience with observability, on‑call, and operational excellence practices for mission‑critical services.

• Track record of influencing technical direction across teams and mentoring senior engineers.

• Exposure to workforce management, procurement, or supply/demand matching domains.

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Itron is committed to building an inclusive and diverse workforce and providing an authentic workplace experience for all employees. If you are excited about this role but your past experiences don’t perfectly align with every requirement, we encourage you to apply anyway. In the end, you may be just who we are looking for!

The successful candidate’s starting wage will be determined based on permissible, non‑discriminatory factors such as skills and experience.

Itron is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. If you require an accommodation to apply, please contact a recruiting representative at 1-800-635‑5461 or email [e-mail].

Itron is transforming how the world manages energy, water and city services. Our trusted intelligent infrastructure solutions help utilities and cities improve efficiency, build resilience and deliver safe, reliable and affordable service. With edge intelligence, we connect people, data insights and devices so communities can better manage the essential resources they rely on to live. Join us as we create a more resourceful world: www.itron.com