AI-Enabled Platform Architect & Developer Experience Lead

REI; United States; On-site; USD 150,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

REI is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to join the Engineering Enablement team. You will shape the future of REI's developer platform by enabling AI-assisted software delivery, modern platform engineering, and safe AI adoption across the SDLC.

You will lead architecture decisions and guide investment and prioritization based on value, security, and scalability. Reporting to the Director of Engineering Enablement, you will mentor engineers, define standards, and collaborate with

Qualifications

• 7+ years of professional software engineering experience, preferably with Java.
• 7+ years across the full software development lifecycle, including source control, code reviews, build automation, testing, deployment, and operations.
• 5+ years of experience leading system architecture and design for highly scalable, reliable, and maintainable systems.
• 5+ years designing, building, or evolving developer platforms, cloud platforms, or large-scale digital platforms.
• 5+ years serving as an architect, technical lead, or engineering leader influencing technical direction across multiple teams.
• Deep experience with cloud-native architectures, containerization, platform engineering, and modern software delivery practices.
• Strong understanding of secure platform design, including identity, authentication, authorization, encryption, network security, and application protection.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate complex technical concepts, dependencies, risks, and trade-offs to both technical and business audiences.

Responsibilities

• Define and lead the vision for REI’s Developer Platform, enabling AI-assisted software delivery, AI-powered applications, and improved engineering effectiveness across the SDLC.
• Partner with engineers, architects, and product leaders to identify, prioritize, and deliver platform capabilities, developer tooling, and AI-enabled workflows that accelerate delivery and improve developer experience.
• Provide technical and architectural leadership for scalable, secure, and reliable platform services supporting modern application development, cloud-native architectures, and AI-enabled engineering.
• Mentor Senior and Staff Engineers in architecture, engineering excellence, and evolving practices across software development, testing, operations, and AI adoption.
• Establish and strengthen partnerships across Architecture, Security, Product Engineering, Infrastructure, and AI communities to align platform strategy and execution.
• Drive technical decision-making through thoughtful evaluation of architecture, risk, complexity, business priorities, and developer impact.
• Define standards, guardrails, and governance for AI-enabled developer workflows, including coding assistants, agentic automation, evaluation frameworks, and secure model access.
• Lead the evolution of SDLC practices to incorporate AI across design, development, testing, code review, release engineering, and production operations.
• Champion platform reliability, scalability, observability, operational excellence, and engineering rigor while enabling responsible AI adoption.
• Identify and address technical debt, platform complexity, and process inefficiencies, leveraging automation and AI where appropriate to improve outcomes.
• Stay ahead of emerging technologies and industry trends, driving adoption of modern architectures, platform capabilities, and AI-native engineering practices.
• Enable engineers and technical leaders through patterns, education, and shared best practices that accelerate adoption of platform and AI capabilities.
• Help shape REI’s long-term developer platform strategy, ensuring alignment with cloud modernization, platform engineering, and evolving AI-driven engineering practices.
• Participate in 24x7 on-call incident response.

Skills

Java

Software architecture

Platform engineering

Cloud-native

AI-enabled SDLC

Security design

Technical leadership

Communication

Job description

REI is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to join the Engineering Enablement team. You will shape the future of REI's developer platform by enabling AI-assisted software delivery, modern platform engineering, and safe AI adoption across the SDLC.

You will lead architecture decisions and guide investment and prioritization based on value, security, and scalability. Reporting to the Director of Engineering Enablement, you will mentor engineers, define standards, and collaborate with