Principal Software Engineer - AI Platform

Western Governors University; Salt Lake City (UT); On-site; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Tuition discount

Flexible paid time off

11 paid holidays

Wellbeing program

Health savings account

Job summary

Western Governors University is building a new AI platform to empower students, staff and applications with secure, scalable AI experiences. The Principal Software Engineer, AI Platform, will shape retrieval, inference, orchestration, and tool calling across WGU systems.

This hands-on role defines foundations, standards, and capabilities that enable teams to deliver trusted AI-powered solutions in a production environment.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required.
• 12+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• Experience owning architecture across multiple teams or systems.
• 2+ years building and deploying LLM-powered applications in production (RAG, tool calls, evaluation).
• Experience designing APIs and integration contracts for internal/external teams.
• Production experience with Java, Python, TS/Node.js, C#, or Go.
• Ability to influence across engineering, security, governance and business stakeholders while remaining hands-on.

Responsibilities

• Architect and build a conversational AI platform with retrieval over content/data, inference, orchestration, tool calling, and multi-application experiences.
• Own the platform’s security and privacy model with FERPA-aligned controls.
• Build guardrails and governance: input/output filtering, escalation workflows, prompt injection resistance, audit logging.
• Establish evaluation and observability frameworks for groundedness, quality, latency, reliability, and cost.
• Define MCP servers, tool contracts, APIs, templates, libraries, and reference implementations.
• Design, build, test, operate, and modernize production services, APIs, integrations, and interfaces in Java and Angular on AWS.
• Provide technical leadership through architecture guidance, mentoring, documentation, and production support.

Skills

Software architecture

LLM in production

API design

Java

Python

TypeScript/Node.js

AWS

Security & governance

Mentoring

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science/Information Technology or related field

Tools

AWS Bedrock

Amazon SageMaker

LLM observability

Authorization frameworks

CI/CD pipelines

Infrastructure as code

Job description

• Hiring Manager interview

If you’re passionate about building a better future for individuals, communities, and our country—and you’re committed to working hard to play your part in building that future—consider WGU as the next step in your career.

Driven by a mission to expand access to higher education through online, competency-based degree programs, WGU is also committed to being a great place to work for a diverse workforce of student-focused professionals. The university has pioneered a new way to learn in the 21st century, one that has received praise from academic, industry, government, and media leaders. Whatever your role, working for WGU gives you a part to play in helping students graduate, creating a better tomorrow for themselves and their families.

The salary range for this position takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs.

At WGU, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their position, and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range is:

Grade: Technical 412

Pay Range: $180,300.00 - $279,500.00

Job Description

Make an Impact

WGU’s Student Experience team builds the digital experiences that help working adults balance education, careers, and family responsibilities. We are creating a conversational AI platform that empowers students, staff, and applications to accomplish meaningful work through secure, intelligent experiences grounded in WGU systems and data.

As Principal Software Engineer, AI Platform, you will architect and build this platform from the ground up. You will shape retrieval, inference, orchestration, guardrails, evaluation, security, and API capabilities that enable teams across WGU to create trusted AI-powered experiences.

This is a hands‑on product engineering role focused on delivering scalable, secure, and observable AI solutions. You will establish the technical foundations, standards, and platform capabilities that other engineering teams will leverage as they build the next generation of AI-driven products.

What You'll Do

• Architect and build a conversational AI platform that supports retrieval over WGU content and data, inference integration, orchestration, tool calling, conversation state management, and multiple application experiences.


• Own the platform’s security and privacy model, ensuring retrieval, generation, and tool execution are authorization‑aware and maintain strict student data protections aligned with FERPA requirements.


• Build guardrails and governance capabilities including input and output filtering, escalation workflows, prompt injection resistance, audit logging, and explainability controls.


• Establish evaluation and observability frameworks that measure groundedness, quality, latency, reliability, and cost across AI-powered systems.


• Define MCP servers, tool contracts, APIs, templates, libraries, and reference implementations that enable engineering teams to build AI-powered workflows securely and consistently.


• Design, build, test, operate, and modernize production services, APIs, integrations, and interfaces using modern software engineering practices in a Java and Angular environment on AWS.


• Provide technical leadership through architecture guidance, mentoring, documentation, operational excellence, and production support.

What You'll Bring

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field.


• 12+ years of professional software engineering experience designing, building, and operating production web applications and services.


• Demonstrated experience owning architecture across multiple teams or systems and defining platforms, shared services, or standards used by other engineering teams.


• 2+ years of hands‑on experience building and deploying LLM‑powered applications in production environments, including retrieval augmented generation (RAG), tool or function calling, and evaluation of AI system performance.


• Experience designing APIs and integration contracts consumed by internal and external engineering teams within complex enterprise environments.


• Production experience with at least one server‑side programming language such as Java, Python, TypeScript/Node.js, C#, or Go.


• Proven ability to influence and partner across engineering, architecture, security, governance, and business stakeholders while remaining a hands‑on technical contributor.

Experience in lieu of education:

equivalent relevant experience performing the essential functions of this job may substitute for education degree requirements. Generally, equivalent relevant experience is defined as one year of experience for one year of education and is at the discretion of the hiring manager.

Bonus Points

• Experience building MCP servers or clients, agent orchestration frameworks, AWS Bedrock, Amazon SageMaker, evaluation platforms, LLM observability solutions, or AI safety testing capabilities.


• Experience designing authorization‑aware retrieval systems, multi‑tenant data isolation, identity and access management solutions, SSO, OIDC, SAML, or systems handling FERPA, HIPAA, or similarly regulated data.


• Experience with Java, Angular, AWS, infrastructure as code, CI/CD pipelines, application modernization initiatives, conversational interfaces, higher education technology, student information systems, or online learning platforms.

What To Expect

At WGU, our mission drives everything we do, including how we hire. Our interview experience is designed to give qualified candidates the opportunity to show their best work through meaningful conversations and collaboration.

We thoughtfully review every application and invite forward the candidates whose experience and potential best align with the role and our mission.

• Hiring Manager interview


• Senior Manager, Software Engineering interview


• Senior Solutions Architect interview

Work Location

This is a full‑time, in‑office position requiring five days per week in our Salt Lake City, Utah office, designed to foster the collaboration and connection that fuel our best work.

Travel Requirement

This position requires occasional travel of up to 20%, including required attendance at designated company summits (typically one to two per year). Additional travel may include conferences, visits to company locations, and other business‑related events as needed. Additional travel may be assigned as needed to support business requirements.

Position & Application Details

Full-Time Regular Positions (classified as regular and working 40 standard weekly hours): This is a full-time, regular position (classified for 40 standard weekly hours) that is eligible for bonuses; medical, dental, vision, telehealth and mental healthcare; health savings account and flexible spending account; basic and voluntary life insurance; disability coverage; accident, critical illness and hospital indemnity supplemental coverages; legal and identity theft coverage; retirement savings plan; wellbeing program; discounted WGU tuition; and flexible paid time off for rest and relaxation with no need for accrual, flexible paid sick time with no need for accrual, 11 paid holidays, and other paid leaves, including up to 12 weeks of parental leave.

Additional Information

Disclaimer: The job posting highlights the most critical responsibilities and requirements of the job. It’s not all-inclusive.

Accommodations: Applicants with disabilities who require assistance or accommodation during the application or interview process should contact our Talent Acquisition team at [e-mail].

Equal Employment Opportunity: All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to any protected characteristic as required by law.