Principal Software Development Engineer

Sonos; Boston (MA); Hybrid; USD 160,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Sonos is seeking a Principal Embedded Software Engineer to drive performance and reliability in the Player API stack. You will own critical latency and responsiveness initiatives across the player architecture and collaborate with App, Cloud, Security, Data, and QA teams to deliver impactful improvements for millions of listeners.

You will mentor peers, design architectural enhancements, and guide end-to-end development from planning through testing.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in CS, Software Engineering, or equivalent experience.
• 8+ years in embedded or systems-level software.
• Strong proficiency in C++.
• Experience with REST and/or WebSocket-based APIs.
• Experience debugging complex, multi-threaded systems.
• Experience with telemetry, instrumentation, or performance measurement.
• Deep understanding of networking fundamentals (TLS/mTLS, WebSocket, HTTP, LAN).
• Must commute to main engineering office in Seattle or Boston.

Responsibilities

• Lead performance and reliability initiatives across Sonos APIs.
• Work on Player Control components and develop software for new products.
• Mentor junior engineers and facilitate internal development and testing.
• Participate in all SDLC activities including planning, development, and testing.
• Act as customer advocate in product definition and planning.

Skills

Embedded systems

C++

REST/WebSocket APIs

Multithreading

Telemetry/Performance

Networking fundamentals

8+ years experience

Education

Bachelor's Degree in CS/Software Eng or equivalent

Job description

At Sonos we want to create the ultimate listening experience for our customers and know that it starts by listening to each other. As part of the Sonos team, you'll collaborate with people of all styles, skill sets, and backgrounds to realize our vision while fostering a community where everyone feels included and empowered to do the best work of their lives.

At Sonos we want to create the ultimate listening experience for our customers and know that it starts by listening to each other. As part of the Sonos team, you'll collaborate with people of all styles, skill sets, and backgrounds to realize our vision while fostering a community where everyone feels included and empowered to do the best work of their lives.

As a Principal Embedded Software Engineer on the Player API & Control team, you will lead performance-critical and customer-facing initiatives across the Sonos player stack. You will have a direct impact on the responsiveness, scalability, and reliability of core playback and control experiences. This role sits at the intersection of embedded systems, distributed communication protocols, telemetry, and cross-platform API design.

You will work across teams including App, Cloud, Security, Data, and QA to identify performance bottlenecks, design architectural improvements, and ensure measurable customer impact. If you love solving deep technical challenges, analyzing real-world data, and delivering meaningful improvements to millions of listeners, we want to talk with you.

This is a hybrid position, allowing for a combination of remote work and in-office collaboration. Qualified applicants must live within commuting distance of our Boston or Seattle office locations and should expect to be in office a minimum of 3 days per week.

What You'll Do

• Lead performance and reliability initiatives across the Sonos APIs.
• This engineer will work on Player Control components and participate in developing software for enabling new products
• Collaborate across teams to mentor local junior peers and facilitate internal development and testing.
• Participate in all aspects of the software development life cycle including planning, requirements, development, and testing.
• Act as a customer advocate by participating in the product definition and planning process.
• Support service initiatives that adhere to best practices for security, scalability, cost, and overall performance.
• Identify and eliminate latency bottlenecks in player‑to‑app and player‑to‑cloud communication.
• Design and implement architectural improvements (e.g., async command execution, protocol optimizations, reduced handshake overhead).
• Use telemetry and customer data to correlate code changes to real-world impact.
• Partner cross‑functionally with App, UX, PM, and Data teams to improve end‑to‑end user experience.
• Mentor engineers through design reviews, code reviews, architecture discussions, and root cause investigations.
• Proactively investigate system‑level issues before they elevate into customer‑impacting problems.
• Present performance findings and architectural proposals to engineering leadership and broader forums.

What You'll Need

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or equivalent experience.
• 8+ years of experience in embedded or systems-level software engineering.
• Strong proficiency in C++.
• Experience working with REST and/or WebSocket-based APIs.
• Experience debugging complex, multi‑threaded systems.
• Experience working with telemetry, instrumentation, or performance measurement frameworks.
• Deep understanding of networking fundamentals (TLS/mTLS, WebSocket, HTTP, LAN communication).
• This role requires commuting distance to our main engineering office in Seattle or Boston.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience optimizing embedded systems for performance and memory constraints.
• Experience with secure communication protocols (TLS, DTLS, authentication flows).
• Experience analyzing large‑scale telemetry datasets to drive engineering decisions.
• Familiarity with distributed systems and device‑to‑device communication.
• Experience with CI/CD systems and modern Git workflows.
• Familiarity with Sonos architecture or similar control‑plane systems.
• Experience presenting technical proposals to senior engineering leadership.

Impact of This Role

This role will directly influence:

• Playback latency and responsiveness
• Player Control components
• Command execution performance across devices
• Customer‑reported reliability metrics
• Cross‑team API usability and scalability
• The long‑term architecture of the Player API platform

This is a senior‑level IC5 role expected to operate with autonomy, technical depth, and cross‑team influence.

Research shows that candidates from underrepresented backgrounds often don't apply for roles if they don't meet all the criteria. We encourage you to apply even if you don't meet every requirement.

Visa Sponsorship : Sonos is unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment visa for this r