Principal Software Engineer

Paramount; New York (NY); On-site; USD 203,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Attractive compensation

Comprehensive benefits packages

Generous paid time off

Job summary

Paramount Pictures is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to build and scale AI-driven tools and engineering platforms. This role involves designing intelligent systems to enhance developer productivity and quality engineering. The ideal candidate will have over 8 years of backend development experience, proficiency in Java or Python, and a strong understanding of microservices. This position offers a competitive salary range of $203,000 – $260,000 depending on experience and location, along with comprehensive benefits and opportunities for growth.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of software engineering experience with robust backend development expertise.
• Proven experience architecting and building production‑grade AI or ML‑powered systems.
• Strong knowledge of distributed systems and microservices.

Responsibilities

• Design and build AI‑powered tools that accelerate test creation.
• Architect retrieval‑augmented generation systems tailored to GQE workflows.
• Mentor engineers on AI tooling and platform engineering.

Skills

Backend development expertise

Architecting production-grade AI systems

Knowledge of distributed systems

Microservices

Cloud platforms

Vector databases

CI/CD integration

Architectural judgment

Education

8+ years of software engineering experience

Tools

Java

Kotlin

Python

Docker

Kubernetes

Job description

Job Title: Principal Software Engineer — AI Tooling & Quality Engineering Platforms

Team: Global Quality Engineering (GQE)

Location: New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco

Overview

Paramount Skydance Corp. is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to architect, build, and scale AI‑driven tooling and engineering platforms that accelerate quality, automation, and developer productivity across the Global Quality Engineering organization. This senior technical leadership role focuses on designing intelligent systems, internal developer tools, and automation accelerators to elevate testing maturity and modernize how GQE delivers quality at scale.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and build AI‑powered tools that accelerate test creation, code generation, defect triage, log/telemetry summarization, and root‑cause analysis.
• Architect retrieval‑augmented generation (RAG) systems, embeddings pipelines, and domain‑specific LLM integrations tailored to GQE workflows.
• Develop internal developer tools, CLIs, services, and micro‑platforms that integrate seamlessly with existing automation frameworks and CI/CD systems.
• Build scalable APIs and services that expose AI capabilities to GQE teams across brands and platforms.
• Create systems that automatically evaluate test failures, classify flakiness, detect patterns, and recommend fixes.
• Build AI‑assisted test authoring tools that generate high‑quality test scaffolds, assertions, mocks, and data models.
• Integrate AI‑driven insights into CI/CD pipelines to reduce triage time, improve signal quality, and accelerate release readiness.
• Partner with automation framework owners to embed AI capabilities into existing Java‑based frameworks.
• Serve as a senior technical leader guiding the vision for AI‑enabled quality engineering across the organization.
• Mentor engineers on AI tooling, platform engineering, and modern software development practices.
• Evaluate emerging AI technologies and frameworks to identify high‑impact opportunities.
• Establish engineering best practices for reliability, observability, performance, and maintainability of AI systems.
• Collaborate with Platform Engineering, Data Engineering, Playback/Video Engineering, and Product teams to integrate AI tooling into core workflows.
• Work with QE leadership to understand pain points, define requirements, and prioritize high‑value AI capabilities.
• Collaborate with DevOps and CI/CD teams to ensure AI tools operate reliably in production pipelines.
• Build high‑performance backend services using Java, Kotlin, Python, or Node.js.
• Implement vector databases, embeddings pipelines, and retrieval systems using Pinecone, Weaviate, FAISS, or OpenSearch.
• Develop microservices, event‑driven systems, and distributed architectures deployed on Kubernetes and cloud platforms.
• Integrate with GitHub, GitHub Actions, Jenkins, and internal automation frameworks to deliver seamless developer experiences.

Required Qualifications

• 8+ years of software engineering experience with robust backend development expertise (Java, Kotlin, Python, or similar).
• Proven experience architecting and building production‑grade AI or ML‑powered systems, including LLM integrations, RAG pipelines, or intelligent automation tools.
• Strong knowledge of distributed systems, microservices, cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, OCI, or Azure), and containerization (Docker, Kubernetes).
• Hands‑on experience with vector databases, embeddings, prompt engineering, and LLM orchestration frameworks.
• Experience integrating tools into CI/CD pipelines and developer workflows.
• Strong architectural judgment, systems thinking, and ability to design scalable internal platforms.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to influence across engineering, product, and quality organizations.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience building internal developer platforms, productivity tools, or automation accelerators.
• Familiarity with test automation frameworks, quality engineering workflows, or large‑scale testing systems.
• Experience with observability stacks (Grafana, Prometheus, DataDog, NewRelic) and telemetry pipelines.
• Background in media/streaming, distributed playback systems, or device‑level testing environments.

Key Competencies

• Technical Leadership – sets architectural direction and elevates engineering maturity.
• AI Fluency – practical judgment on where AI delivers measurable value.
• Systems Thinking – ability to design platforms that scale across teams and brands.
• Innovation – identifies opportunities to transform workflows through intelligent automation.
• Ownership – drives complex initiatives end‑to‑end with autonomy and clarity.

Success Metrics

• Delivery of AI tooling that reduces triage time, accelerates test creation, and improves signal quality.
• Adoption of AI‑powered tools across GQE teams and measurable improvements in productivity.
• Reduction in flakiness, false positives, and manual triage effort through intelligent automation.
• Increased engineering efficiency and faster release cycles enabled by AI‑augmented workflows.
• Strong cross‑functional alignment and consistent usage of AI platforms across brands and pillars.

Salary

Hiring Salary Range: $203,000.00 – $260,000.00 (applies to New York, California, Colorado, Washington state, and most other geographies). Start pay depends on location, market demands, experience, training, and education. Position is bonus eligible.

Benefits

• Attractive compensation and comprehensive benefits packages.
• Generous paid time off.
• An exciting and fulfilling opportunity to be part of one of Paramount’s most dynamic teams.
• Opportunities for both on‑site and virtual engagement events.
• Unique opportunities to make meaningful connections and build a vibrant community, both inside and outside the workplace.
• Explore life at Paramount: https://www.paramount.com/careers/life-at-paramount

Equal Opportunity Employer

Paramount is an equal‑opportunity employer (EOE) including disability/vet. Paramount is proud to be an equal‑opportunity workplace and is committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, creed, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship status, marital status, disability, gender identity, gender expression, and Veteran status.

Reasonable Accommodations

If you are a qualified individual with a disability or a disabled veteran, you may request a reasonable accommodation if you are unable or limited in your ability to use or access https://www.paramount.com/careers as a result of your disability. You can request reasonable accommodations by calling 212.846.5500 or by emailing [e-mail]. Only messages left for this purpose will be returned.