Principal Software Engineer

Recorded Future; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 152,000 - 228,500; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision insurance

401K

Incentive compensation

Equity

Job summary

Recorded Future in Washington, DC is searching for a Principal Software Engineer to join their Engineering team. This role focuses on designing and enhancing scalable data pipelines and driving vital architectural improvements for the platform.

With at least 5 years of experience in data engineering or backend roles, candidates should have strong skills in Python, cloud infrastructure, and message queues. The company offers a competitive salary range of $152,000-$228,500 along with various benefits.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in data engineering or backend engineering.
• Proficient in Python; experience in Go or Rust is a plus.
• Hands-on experience with message queues like Kafka or RabbitMQ.

Responsibilities

• Design and maintain scalable data pipelines.
• Drive architectural improvements for reliability and performance.
• Collaborate and communicate across technical teams.

Skills

Python

Data Engineering

Backend Engineering

Platform Engineering

CI/CD

Problem-Solving

Cloud Infrastructure

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Engineering

Tools

Kafka

Postgres

MongoDB

Terraform

Flask

Job description

Recorded Future is seeking aPrincipal Software Engineer to join our Engineering team, responsible for building and scaling the pipelines that power the Security Intelligence Graph. As aPrincipal Software Engineer, you will work across application code and infrastructure to collect, transform, and deliver structured threat data: tracking malware infrastructure, phishing campaigns, spam networks, command‑and‑control systems, and more. You will play a key role in driving architectural improvements and ensuring the platform scales effectively as it continues to grow.

What You’ll Do:

• Data Pipeline Ownership: Design, build, and maintain scalable data pipelines that collect, transform, and deliver structured threat intelligence data powering the Security Intelligence Graph.
• Architecture & Scalability: Drive meaningful architectural improvements across data and platform systems to ensure long‑term scalability, reliability, and performance.
• Full‑Stack Engineering: Work across both application code and infrastructure, contributing to backend services, data systems, and platform capabilities.
• Data Processing & Analysis: Apply statistical techniques to large‑scale datasets to generate accurate and impactful insights.
• Reliability & Observability: Ensure production‑grade pipeline reliability through strong observability, error handling, and failure recovery practices.
• Infrastructure & Deployment: Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines and contribute to infrastructure‑as‑code practices to support efficient and repeatable deployments.
• Cross‑Team Collaboration: Communicate technical concepts clearly and collaborate effectively across teams, geographies, and varying levels of technical expertise.
• Technical Leadership: Engage with technical leaders across teams and contribute to raising the engineering bar through knowledge sharing and best practices.

What You’ll Bring:

• At least 5 years of experience in data engineering, backend engineering, or platform engineering.
• Strong proficiency in Python, with experience in Go or Rust considered a plus.
• Experience working with cloud infrastructure, including compute, storage, networking, and IAM fundamentals.
• Hands‑on experience with message queues and pub/sub systems such as Kafka or RabbitMQ.
• Experience with SQL databases such as Postgres or AWS RDS, and NoSQL databases such as MongoDB or Elasticsearch.
• Familiarity with data lake storage frameworks such as Delta Lake and graph databases such as AWS Neptune or Neo4j.
• Experience developing REST APIs using frameworks such as Flask, Django, or FastAPI.
• Proven experience architecting and delivering production‑grade applications and ETL/ELT pipelines.
• Strong understanding of building reliable data pipelines, including observability, error handling, and failure recovery.
• Experience building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines; GitHub Actions experience is a plus.
• Familiarity with infrastructure‑as‑code tools; Terraform experience is a plus.
• Comfort working with high‑volume, complex, and unstructured data.
• Strong problem‑solving skills, including the ability to debug both software and data issues.
• Excellent attention to detail and ability to work independently while delivering high‑quality results.
• Interest in or familiarity with security data domains such as threat infrastructure, malware, or network telemetry.
• Bachelor’s and/or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Engineering, or equivalent experience.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience or interest in cybersecurity data domains such as malware analysis, phishing detection, or network telemetry.
• Experience working with graph‑based data systems or security intelligence platforms.

The base salary range for this full‑time position is $152,000-$228,500. Our salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location. The salary displayed reflects the range for new hire salaries for the position across all US locations. Within the range, individual pay is determined by state, work location and additional factors, including job‑related skills, experience, and relevant education or training. This position may be eligible for incentive compensation, equity, and medical, dental, vision, life insurance and 401K. Your recruiter can share more about the specific details of the compensation and benefit package during the hiring process.

Recorded Future is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer and we encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply. Recorded Future does not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender including pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, marital status, veteran status, disability or any other characteristic protected by law.

Recorded Future will not discharge, discipline or in any other manner discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because such employee or applicant has inquired about, discussed, or disclosed the compensation of the employee or applicant or another employee or applicant.

Recorded Future does not administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. This is in compliance with the law of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and in alignment with our hiring practices across all jurisdictions.

Recorded Future maintains a drug‑free workplace.