Principal Engineer, Software

American Bureau of Shipping (ABS); Houston (TX); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

Health Savings account (HSA)

Flexible Savings Account (FSA)

Life insurance

AD&D insurance

Disability leave

Parental leave

Paid holidays

Paid vacation time

Employee Assistance Plan

401K match

Job summary

ABS Wavesight in Houston seeks a Principal Software Engineer to lead AI-enabled engineering for the Fleet Management System, delivering secure, scalable SaaS workflows and APIs.

You will mentor engineers, drive design decisions, and partner with product, UX, and platform teams to ensure production readiness and maintainable software across cloud environments.

Qualifications

• Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field.
• 10+ years of software engineering experience delivering production web or SaaS apps.
• Experience as technical lead for a product team with design decisions and mentoring.
• Experience building modern front-end and back-end integrations.
• Cloud deployment experience; Azure preferred.
• Experience using AI-assisted development tools with verifiable review.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical design and hands-on development of FMS features, including role-based UIs, APIs, services, and integrations.
• Collaborate with product, UX, SMEs, and customers to translate workflows into designs and acceptance criteria.
• Guide engineers on architecture, data access patterns, and reuse of platform capabilities; document decisions.
• Break work into tasks and direct AI-assisted engineering workflows with human review.
• Establish engineering practices for code review, tests, CI/CD, and secure delivery.
• Integrate features with AI/ML or LLM-based services with authorization and monitoring.
• Partner with platform engineering and SRE to ensure observability, performance, and operability.
• Mentor engineers and review PRs, resolve complex issues, raise delivery quality.
• Participate in release readiness, troubleshooting, and root-cause analysis.
• Comply with ABS security, quality, Health, Safety, and Environmental requirements.

Skills

TypeScript

HTML

CSS

React

Svelte

Vue

Angular

Go

Python

Node.js

Java

.NET

Azure

PostgreSQL

Cosmos DB

AI integration

Education

Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field

Job description

ABS Group Digital Solutions is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to help build the next-generation Fleet Management System (FMS). This role will lead hands-on application engineering for modern web and SaaS workflows, working with product, UX, Nautical Systems subject matter experts, Advantage architects, platform engineering, data, and AI teams. The Principal Software Engineer will own the technical quality of assigned product areas from design and implementation through testing, deployment, and production support. This is an AI-enabled engineering leadership role, not simply a full-stack development position. The successful candidate will turn validated workflows and architecture decisions into clear engineering tasks; use approved AI development tools and coding agents where they add value; and remain accountable for the security, correctness, maintainability, and operability of the resulting software. The role calls for a senior engineer who can mentor others, make pragmatic tradeoffs, and build reusable patterns without losing sight of customer outcomes.

What You Will Do:

• Lead technical design and hands-on development of FMS application features, including role-based user interfaces, APIs, business services, and integrations.
• Work with product managers, UX designers, legacy-system SMEs, and customers to translate operational workflows and prototype feedback into buildable designs and acceptance criteria.
• Guide engineers on application architecture, service boundaries, data access patterns, and reuse of shared platform capabilities; document consequential design decisions.
• Break work into well-scoped tasks and direct AI-assisted engineering workflows, including code generation, refactoring, test creation, and documentation, while applying human review and verification to every production change.
• Establish and model engineering practices for code review, automated unit and integration testing, secure development, CI/CD, and maintainable software delivery.
• Integrate application features with approved AI/ML or LLM-based services where there is a validated user need, including appropriate authorization, monitoring, and human oversight.
• Partner with platform engineering and SRE to make applications observable, performant, resilient, deployable, and supportable in production.
• Contribute to integration and migration designs so new capabilities can coexist with legacy systems and customer data can transition safely as releases mature.
• Mentor engineers and contractors, review designs and pull requests, resolve complex technical issues, and raise the quality of delivery across the team.
• Participate in release readiness, production troubleshooting, root-cause analysis, and continuous improvement of the AI-enabled software development lifecycle.
• Comply with applicable ABS security, quality, Health, Safety, and Environmental requirements and other internal policies.

What You Will Need:

Education and Experience Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field, or an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.

Approximately 10+ years of relevant software engineering experience, including substantial hands‑on delivery of production web or SaaS applications.

Experience serving as a technical lead for a product team or major application area, including design decisions, code review, mentoring, and delivery accountability.

Demonstrated experience building modern user‑facing applications, APIs, and integrations across front‑end and back‑end systems.

Experience deploying and supporting applications in a cloud environment; Azure experience is preferred.

Experience using AI‑assisted development tools in real engineering workflows, with the ability to explain how generated work was reviewed, tested, and maintained.

Experience with mobile or intermittent‑connectivity workflows is a plus, particularly for operational or field‑based users.

Technical Skills

• UI: Strong TypeScript, HTML, and CSS skills. React is preferred; substantial Svelte/SvelteKit, Vue, or Angular experience is also relevant.
• Server: Experience with .NET preferred; strong Go, Python, Node.js or Java API experience is also relevant.
• Data and integration: Experience with PostgreSQL, Cosmos DB, or comparable relational/NoSQL stores; familiarity with event‑driven services, Kafka, Redis, or object storage is a plus.
• Cloud and identity: Azure and Microsoft Entra ID preferred; equivalent production cloud and enterprise single‑sign‑on experience is welcome.
• Engineering delivery: Automated testing, Git‑based collaboration, CI/CD, application observability, secure coding, and containerized deployment.
• AI: Experience integrating LLM, RAG, or other AI‑enabled services into applications is preferred; ability to use coding agents responsibly and evaluate their output is important.

Knowledge Skills and Abilities

Strong command of full‑stack application design, API contracts, system integration, data access, and maintainable service‑based architecture.

Ability to lead engineers through ambiguity, make pragmatic technical tradeoffs, and align implementation with validated product and UX decisions.

Judgment to use AI for engineering leverage without delegating accountability for design quality, security, testing, or correctness.

Understanding application security, identity and access control, protection of customer data, and reliable operation of production SaaS services.

Ability to work effectively with product, UX, platform, SRE, data, and AI specialists while maintaining clear ownership of application engineering decisions.

Strong communication and mentoring skills, including the ability to explain technical risks and options to non‑engineering stakeholders.

Reporting Relationships

Reports to the designated FMS engineering manager within ABS Group Digital Solutions. The role provides technical leadership to engineers and contractors on assigned product areas; direct‑report responsibilities, if any, will be confirmed as the team scales.

Working Conditions

Work is primarily sedentary; exerting up to 10 pounds of force occasionally and/or a negligible amount of force frequently or constantly to lift, carry, push, pull or otherwise move objects.

ABOUT US

About ABS Wavesight. ABS Wavesight is the new ABS Affiliate maritime software as a service (SaaS) company dedicated to helping shipowners and operators streamline compliance while maintaining competitive,more efficient, and sustainable operations. Our mission is to develop world‑class software products that improve vessel performance for the health of our seas, environment and self. The ABS Wavesight portfolio is comprised of best‑in‑class proprietary technology and third‑party integrations that offer unparalleled insight into every aspect of a fleet’s operations. Backed by ABS’s 160‑year legacy of maritime innovation and experience, our products are collectively installed on more than 5,000 vessels across the global fleet. Learn more about ABS Wavesight by visiting www.abswavesight.com.

About Our Benefits

• medical insurance (PPO and HD)
• dental and vision insurance
• Health Savings account (HSA)
• Flexible Savings Account (FSA)
• life insurance
• accidental death and dismemberment insurance
• disability leave programs
• parental leave program
• paid holidays
• paid vacation time
• Employee Assistance Plan (EAP) that offers additional support in personal wellness, including work‑life services.
• 401K plan with a generous company match, subject to plan requirements.

Equal Opportunity

ABS Wavesight is committed to the equal employment opportunity of its employees and prohibits discrimination against any employee or qualified applicant based on race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, gender identity, age, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, citizenship status or veteran status, or other non‑work‑related characteristics that may be protected under the law of the Federal Government or specific state employment laws.

Notice

ABS and Affiliated Companies (ABS) will not pay a fee to any third‑party agency without a valid ABS Master Service Agreement (MSA) authorized and signed by Human Resources. Any resume, CV, application, or other forms of candidate submission provided to any employee of ABS without a valid MSA on file will be considered property of ABS, and no fee will be paid.

Other

This job description is not intended, and should not be construed, to be an all‑inclusive list of responsibilities, skills, efforts or working conditions associated with the job of the incumbent. It is intended to be an accurate reflection of the principal job elements essential for making a fair decision regarding the pay structure of the job.