Principal Software Engineer

Fuel Talent LLC; Bellevue (WA); On-site; USD 280,000 - 350,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus potential

Equity opportunities

Benefits

In-office Bellevue

Job summary

Fuel Talent LLC is hiring multiple Principal Engineers in Bellevue, WA, to lead large-scale distributed systems and AI-enabled platforms. These roles require deep architecture skills and hands-on coding across Java and Python, with a focus on reliability, scalability, and observability.

Ideal candidates will mentor teams, influence technical direction, and thrive in fast-moving, ambiguous environments, while collaborating with Product, Data, Infrastructure, and AI/ML groups.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• 4+ years operating at the Principal Engineer level or equivalent senior technical leadership role.
• Strong hands-on coding ability and active engineering involvement.
• Experience designing and operating large-scale distributed systems.
• Deep architecture and system design expertise.
• Strong backend engineering experience with Java and/or Python.
• Experience with modern cloud-native infrastructure and platform architectures.
• Strong communication, technical leadership, and mentorship skills.
• Proven ability to thrive in fast-moving, ambiguous environments.

Responsibilities

• Designing and building large-scale distributed systems and backend services.
• Architecting cloud-native platforms and infrastructure.
• Building AI-native applications, orchestration systems, and intelligent automation frameworks.
• Developing scalable data pipelines and operational data systems.
• Driving reliability, scalability, observability, and engineering best practices.
• Partnering closely with Product, Data, Infrastructure, and AI/ML teams.
• Mentoring engineers and elevating technical standards across the organization.
• Leading technical direction through ambiguity and rapid growth.
• Remaining hands-on in implementation and architecture decisions.

Skills

Hands-on coding

Backend engineering

Architecture & design

Mentorship

Cloud-native

Tools

Java

Python

Azure

AWS

Job description

# Principal Software EngineerApplyApplyPosted about 22 hours agoShareFull TimeBellevue, Washington$280,000 - $350,000 Annually## About the RoleWe are hiring multiple Principal Engineers across several technical domains, including:* AI Enablement & Forward Deploy Engineering* AI/ML & Semantic Intelligence Platforms* Core Platform Engineering & InfrastructureThis is a highly technical leadership role for engineers who enjoy operating across architecture, implementation, systems design, mentoring, and technical strategy.This is **not** a people-management-only position. Ideal candidates are still highly hands-on and actively writing production code.You will help shape the technical direction of large-scale systems while mentoring engineers and solving highly ambiguous engineering challenges.## What You’ll DoDepending on team alignment and background, responsibilities may include:* Designing and building large-scale distributed systems and backend services* Architecting cloud-native platforms and infrastructure* Building AI-native applications, orchestration systems, and intelligent automation frameworks* Developing scalable data pipelines and operational data systems* Driving reliability, scalability, observability, and engineering best practices* Partnering closely with Product, Data, Infrastructure, and AI/ML teams* Mentoring engineers and helping elevate technical standards across the organization* Leading technical direction through ambiguity and rapid growth* Remaining deeply hands-on in implementation and architecture decisions## What We’re Looking For### Required Qualifications* 10+ years of professional software engineering experience* 4+ years operating at the Principal Engineer level or equivalent senior technical leadership role* Strong hands-on coding ability and active engineering involvement* Experience designing and operating large-scale distributed systems* Deep architecture and system design expertise* Strong backend engineering experience with Java and/or Python* Experience with modern cloud-native infrastructure and platform architectures* Strong communication, technical leadership, and mentorship skills* Proven ability to thrive in fast-moving, ambiguous environments## Preferred Technical BackgroundsWe are especially interested in candidates with experience in one or more of the following areas:* AI-native application development* Agentic systems and orchestration frameworks* Data engineering and large-scale processing systems* Distributed backend systems* Semantic intelligence platforms* Infrastructure and platform engineering* Reliability engineering and observability* Spark, SQL, Python, Java, and cloud platforms such as Azure or AWS## Ideal Candidate Traits* Builder mentality* Strong ownership mindset* High technical curiosity* Pragmatic problem solver* Comfortable challenging assumptions* Passionate about mentoring and raising engineering standards* Excited about practical applications of AI beyond simple chatbot experiences## Additional Details* Competitive compensation package including base salary, bonus/equity potential, and benefits* Collaborative, highly technical engineering culture* In-office environment with close collaboration across teams* Opportunity to influence architecture and technical direction at scale## ApplyDrop files to attach,orbrowseBrowse to attach file for Resume Upload. Allowed file types: .pdf,.docx,.doc