Principal Software Engineer - Backend

Autodesk; San Francisco (CA); Remote; USD 139,000 - 249,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Benefits in the U.S.

Job summary

Autodesk is seeking a Principal Software Engineer – Backend to lead enterprise-scale backend and distributed systems within the EDM organization. You will drive architecture, APIs, and event-driven designs across multiple teams with high autonomy and impact.

The role emphasizes design leadership, coding, and operational excellence, mentoring engineers, and shaping long-term technology direction while collaborating with product and data partners in a remote-capable environment.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science or related field.
• 10+ years of professional software engineering with backend and distributed systems.
• Experience building enterprise platform services used by multiple teams.
• Python + AWS + API + backend services integration experience.
• Demonstrated expertise building and operating backend services at scale.
• Strong distributed systems design incl. asynchronous processing, messaging and fault tolerance.
• Hands-on with AWS and cloud-native architectures.
• Proven ownership of mission-critical systems and maintainability.
• Strong fundamentals: system design, API design, CI/CD, infrastructure as code.
• Ability to influence architecture across teams without formal authority.
• Excellent written and verbal communication.

Responsibilities

• Provide principal-level technical leadership across multiple backend and platform teams.
• Author and evolve critical backend systems and APIs for long-term scalability and reliability.
• Lead design of distributed, event-driven systems with proper consistency and backpressure.
• Establish and drive service and API standards across domains.
• Act as technical decision-maker for cross-team initiatives and architectural choices.
• Drive operational excellence: observability, incident response, post-incident learning.
• Introduce and reinforce engineering best practices across teams.
• Mentor senior engineers and technical leaders by example and coaching.
• Partner with product, data, and platform leaders to translate problems into technical solutions.
• Remain hands-on where impact is highest: complex system design and high-severity incidents.

Skills

Backend systems

Distributed systems

AWS

Python

Event-driven design

Architecture leadership

APIs

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science

Tools

AWS

APIs

Cloud-native architectures

Job description

California, USA - Remote

Full time

26WD97363

Job Requisition ID #

26WD97363

Position Overview

We are seeking a Principal Software Engineer – Backend to join Autodesk’s Enterprise Data Management (EDM) organization within the COO-GET Engineering group. This is a senior individual contributor role operating at the Principal (P4) level, expected to drive technology direction for large, complex, and business-critical backend and distributed systems.

This role is anchored in backend software engineering excellence: designing, building, and evolving scalable services, APIs, and event-driven systems that operate at enterprise scale. As a Principal Engineer, you will work with high autonomy and ambiguity, shape long-term architecture, and influence multiple teams and domains. Familiarity with data engineering concepts is valuable, but backend systems, service design, and distributed systems are the core competencies.

You will function as a technical authority and force multiplier—guiding design decisions, setting standards, and ensuring Autodesk’s core data services are reliable, resilient, and evolvable over time.

Responsibilities

• Provideprincipal-level technical leadershipacross multiple backend and platform teams, shaping architecture and technical strategy beyond a single squad or service

• Author and evolvecritical backend systems and APIs, ensuring they meet long-term scalability, reliability, and extensibility goals

• Lead design ofdistributed, event-driven systems, addressing consistency, ordering, failure handling, replay, idempotency, rate limiting, and backpressure

• Establish and driveservice and API standardsacross domains, including schema design, versioning strategies, backward compatibility, and consumer experience

• Act as a technical decision-maker for cross-team initiatives; evaluate tradeoffs and make durable architectural choices aligned with business priorities

• Driveoperational excellenceacross systems youinfluence:observability, alerting strategy, incident response, post-incident learning, and systemic remediation

• Introduce and reinforceengineering best practicesfor design reviews, code quality, testing, CI/CD, and production readiness across multiple teams

• Mentor senior engineers and emerging technicalleaders;raise the bar through influence, example, and coaching rather than direct management

• Partner deeply with product, data, and platform leaders to translate ambiguous business problems into clear, actionable technical solutions

• Remain hands-on where impact is highest: complex system design, critical implementations, architectural refactors, and high-severity incident resolution

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s orMaster’s degree in Computer Science, a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience

• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience, with significant depth in backend and distributed systems

• Experience buildingenterprise platform servicesconsumed by many internal and/or external teams.

• Python + AWS + API + backend services integration experience

• Demonstratedexpertisebuilding and operatingbackend services and APIsin production environments at scale

• Strong experience withdistributed systems design, including asynchronous processing, messaging, eventual consistency, and fault tolerance

• Deep hands-on experience withAWSand cloud-native architectures (compute, storage, messaging, IAM, observability, scaling patterns)

• Proven ownership ofmission-critical systems, including design accountability, operational responsibility, and long-term maintainability

• Strong software engineering fundamentals: system design, service-level data modeling, API design, automated testing, CI/CD, andinfrastructure ascode

• Track recordof influencing architecture and engineering outcomesacross multiple teamswithout formal authority

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to clearly articulate complex technical concepts to diverse audiences

Preferred Qualifications

• Familiarity withdata engineering or data platform ecosystems(e.g., streaming pipelines, data warehouses such as Snowflake) as a producer or advanced consumer of data services

• Experience withevent streaming and messaging platforms(e.g., Kafka, Kinesis, or equivalents)

• Background in domains such asmaster data management, identity resolution, data enrichment, or data quality

• Experience integrating backend services with analytics, search/indexing, or ML/AI platforms

• Prior experienceoperatingin large, complex organizations where systems span multiple teams, regions, and business units

About Autodesk

Welcome to Autodesk! Amazing things are created every day with our software – from the greenest buildings and cleanest cars to the smartest factories and biggest hit movies. We help innovators turn their ideas into reality, transforming not only how things are made, but what can be made.

We take great pride in our culture here at Autodesk – it’s at the core of everything we do. Our culture guides the way we work and treat each other, informs how we connect with customers and partners, and defines how we show up in the world.

When you’re an Autodesker, you can do meaningful work that helps build a better world designed and made for all. Ready to shape the world and your future? Join us!

Welcome to Autodesk! Amazing things are created every day with our software – from the greenest buildings and cleanest cars to the smartest factories and biggest hit movies. We help innovators turn their ideas into reality, transforming not only how things are made, but what can be made.

We take great pride in our culture here at Autodesk – it’s at the core of everything we do. Our culture guides the way we work and treat each other, informs how we connect with customers and partners, and defines how we show up in the world.

When you’re an Autodesker, you can do meaningful work that helps build a better world designed and made for all. Ready to shape the world and your future? Join us!

Benefits

• From health and financial benefits to time away and everyday wellness, we give Autodeskers the best, so they can do their best work. Learn more about our benefits in the U.S. by visiting https://benefits.autodesk.com/

Salary transparency

Salary is one part of Autodesk’s competitive compensation package. For U.S.-based roles, we expect a starting base salary between $139,000 and $249,260. Offers are based on the candidate’s experience and geographic location, and may exceed this range. In addition to base salaries, our compensation package may include annual cash bonuses, commissions for sales roles, stock grants, and a comprehensive benefits package.

Equal Employment Opportunity

At Autodesk, we're building a diverse workplace and an inclusive culture to give more people the chance to imagine, design, and make a better world. Autodesk is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and considers all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status or any other legally protected characteristic. We also consider for employment all qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with applicable law.

Belonging

We take pride in cultivating a culture of belonging where everyone can thrive. Learn more here: https://www.autodesk.com/company/global-belonging

In-Person Onboarding and Identity Verification

This role may require in-person onboarding and/or in-person ID verification.

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