Principal Engineer — Real-Time AI on Streaming Data

IBM; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

IBM Software in San Diego seeks an experienced engineer to own delivery of backend capabilities for AI-enabled, real-time data processing. You will shape architecture across services, including API surfaces, model lifecycle, and inference orchestration, while ensuring reliability and scalable operations.

You will lead cross-functional work, drive design decisions, and mentor peers. Proficiency in Go, Java, or Python and strong Kubernetes knowledge are essential for success in this role.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience designing, building, and operating distributed systems.
• Strong knowledge of Kubernetes and cloud-native backend infrastructure.
• Proficiency in Go, Java, or Python, and willingness to work across all three.
• Track record leading cross-team technical work and delivering designs others rally behind.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, including writing design docs.

Responsibilities

• Design and build backend services (Go/Java/Python) for real-time data processing and AI workloads.
• Own features end-to-end, align stakeholders, and drive decisions to completion.
• Make architectural calls across services like model lifecycle, routing, and agent execution.
• Ensure quality: tests, docs, operability, and safe rollout of production systems.
• Provide code review, design feedback, and mentorship to teammates.
• Participate in on-call for services and maintain healthy team processes.

Skills

Go/Java/Python

Distributed systems

Cross-team leadership

Design docs

Education

Master's Degree

Tools

Kubernetes

Job description

IBM Software in San Diego seeks an experienced engineer to own delivery of backend capabilities for AI-enabled, real-time data processing. You will shape architecture across services, including API surfaces, model lifecycle, and inference orchestration, while ensuring reliability and scalable operations.

You will lead cross-functional work, drive design decisions, and mentor peers. Proficiency in Go, Java, or Python and strong Kubernetes knowledge are essential for success in this role.