Principal AI Software Developer

Autodesk; Portland (OR); On-site; USD 180,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Autodesk is building a next-generation usage-based billing platform to power its consumption-based business model at global scale. We seek an experienced backend engineer to lead architecture and implement secure, scalable services across real-time usage capture, rating, and billing.

You will work with Java, Python, Go, or similar languages, employ AI-assisted tools, and own core reliability, observability, and performance goals while mentoring teams across product and platform domains.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, or related field or equivalent practical experience.
• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• Experience with AI Agent tools & frameworks and MCP tools.
• Experience building Agentic experiences and AI Automation.
• Strong backend engineering experience at scale with distributed systems.
• Proficiency in Java, Python, Go, Kotlin, or similar.
• Hands-on experience with AWS services (Lambda, ECS, SQS, SNS, DynamoDB, Aurora, API Gateway, Athena).
• Proven ability to design high-availability, low-latency, multi-region resilient systems.
• Experience owning production systems including observability, incident response, and reliability improvements.
• Excellent communication and mentoring skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead architecture, design, and implementation of secure, scalable backend systems for Autodesk’s billing platform.
• Build and optimize distributed services, event-driven workflows, APIs, and data pipelines for real-time usage processing and billing.
• Write production-grade code in Java, Python, Go, or similar languages.
• Employ AI-assisted approaches across design, testing, and operations workflows.
• Own SLOs, SLIs, observability, alerting, resilience, and post-incident improvements.
• Drive architectural reviews, code reviews, and readiness assessments.
• Identify performance, scalability, and cost-efficiency challenges and resolve them.
• Collaborate with product, finance, and platform teams to translate business goals into durable tech solutions.
• Contribute to platform modernization, debt reduction, and long-term architecture direction.
• Mentor senior engineers and promote strong architectural judgment.

Skills

Backend engineering

Distributed systems

Java

Python

Go

Kotlin

AWS

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS or related field

Tools

AWS Lambda

AWS ECS

SQS

SNS

DynamoDB

Aurora

API Gateway

Athena

Kafka/Kinesis

Job description

Autodesk is transforming how customers access, consume, and pay for the products that help them design and make the world around us. We are building a next-generation usage-based billing platform that will power Autodesk’s consumption-based business model at global scale.

Position Overview

Autodesk is transforming how customers access, consume, and pay for the products that help them design and make the world around us. We are building a next-generation usage-based billing platform that will power Autodesk’s consumption-based business model at global scale.

Why Join Us

Role

• Work on a business-critical platform that directly enables Autodesk’s shift toward consumption-based models.
• Design and operate high-scale distributed systems where correctness and reliability are essential.
• Own problems end to end, from architecture and implementation through production operations and continuous improvement.
• Collaborate with product, finance, commerce, platform, data, and engineering teams across Autodesk.
• Use modern cloud-native architecture, event-driven patterns, observability, and Agentic engineering practices to move faster without compromising quality.
• Mentor strong engineers and influence technical direction beyond your immediate team.
• Work in agentic engineering practices that reduce repetitive work and improve development, testing, delivery, and operational workflows.

Responsibilities

• Lead the architecture, design, and implementation of secure, scalable, maintainable backend systems for Autodesk’s global usage-based billing platform.
• Build and optimize distributed services, event-driven workflows, APIs, and data-processing pipelines that support real-time usage capture, rating, billing, reconciliation, and downstream integrations.
• Write high-quality, secure, testable production code in Java, Python, Go, or similar languages.
• Use coding agents and AI-assisted across design, implementation, testing, documentation, migration, and operational workflows.
• Own critical service-level outcomes, including SLOs, SLIs, observability, alerting, resilience, incident readiness, and post-incident improvements.
• Drive technical design reviews, code reviews, architecture documents, and operational readiness reviews.
• Identify and resolve complex performance, scalability, correctness, reliability, and cost-efficiency challenges.
• Partner with product managers, engineering managers, architects, finance systems, commerce teams, and other platform teams to translate business goals into durable technical solutions.
• Contribute to the technical roadmap, including platform modernization, technical debt reduction, migration strategy, and long-term architectural direction.
• Mentor senior and mid-level engineers, helping the team make better architectural decisions and operate more effectively.
• Share effective patterns and help other engineers develop strong judgment about when and when not to use AI.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Engineering, a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• Experience with AI Agent tools & frameworks
• Experience building and integrating MCP tools
• Experience building Agentic experiences and AI Automation
• Strong backend engineering experience building and operating production services at scale.
• Deep experience with distributed systems, microservices, event-driven architecture, real-time or near-real-time data processing, and cloud-native design.
• Proficiency in one or more backend languages such as Java, Python, Go, Kotlin, or similar.
• Hands-on experience with AWS services such as Lambda, ECS, SQS, SNS, DynamoDB, Aurora, API Gateway, Athena or related cloud technologies.
• Proven ability to design systems for high availability, low latency, fault tolerance, data consistency, and multi-region resilience.
• Experience owning production systems, including observability, incident response, root-cause analysis, and reliability improvements.
• Strong technical judgment and ability to make pragmatic trade-offs across architecture, delivery speed, operational risk, cost, and long-term maintainability.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to influence technical and non-technical stakeholders across teams.
• Demonstrated ability to mentor engineers and act as a technical multiplier.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience building billing, payments, metering, usage, commerce, financial systems, or other correctness-critical platforms.
• Experience with high-throughput streaming or messaging systems such as Kafka, Kinesis, Flink, Spark, Apache Pinot or similar.
• Experience designing idempotent, auditable, and eventually consistent systems.
• Experience with data modeling for transactional, analytical, and event-sourced systems.
• Experience with infrastructure as code, CI/CD, automated testing, progressive delivery, and deployment safety.
• Experience leading large technical initiatives across multiple teams or organizations.
• Experience migrating legacy systems to modern cloud-native platforms.
• Background in cost optimization for large-scale cloud systems.

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!

Salary transparency

Salary is one part of Autodesk’s competitive compensation package. For Canada based roles, we expect a starting base salary between $153,000 and $224,400. Offers are based on the candidate’s experience and geographic location, and may exceed this range. In addition to base salaries, our compensation package may include annual cash bonuses, commissions for sales roles, stock grants, and a comprehensive benefits package.

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.