Principal Software Engineer — Commerce, Payments & Connected Platforms, Agentic AI

Panasonic Avionics Corporation; Irvine (CA); On-site; USD 171,000 - 268,000; Full time

Job summary

Panasonic Avionics Corporation in Irvine, CA is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to define the technical direction for platforms connecting e-commerce, payments, and data across cloud services and connected hardware. You will lead architectural decisions, mentor engineers, and deliver production-grade systems that work under intermittent connectivity.

This role emphasizes strong collaboration, measurable reliability, and the practical application of agentic AI to improve efficiency and

Qualifications

• 12+ years of production software experience with leadership across multiple teams
• Ability to define architecture and own production outcomes
• Deep expertise in distributed systems, APIs, event‑driven architectures, data modeling, and cloud platforms
• Strong experience in commerce or payments, with knowledge of transaction lifecycles, consistency, idempotency, and reconciliation
• Experience integrating software with connected devices, embedded platforms, or other hardware‑dependent systems
• Strong programming skills in one or more production languages such as Java, Kotlin, Go, Python, C++, or TypeScript
• Experience improving reliability through observability, performance engineering, automated testing, and incident analysis
• Ability to influence without direct authority, navigate ambiguity, and communicate clearly with engineering, product, operations, and business leaders
• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Responsibilities

• Set technical direction and roadmaps across commerce, payments, and connected platforms.
• Build reliable commerce and payment systems with secure catalog, pricing, checkout, order management, payment orchestration, and reconciliation.
• Connect hardware and software with cloud‑to‑device workflows for constrained compute and intermittent connectivity.
• Establish trusted data foundations with event models, data contracts, and pipelines for analytics and personalization.
• Engineer for offline operation and edge environments, addressing synchronization, retries, and data consistency.
• Lead through implementation by building prototypes, contributing production code, and reviewing critical designs.
• Mentor senior engineers and drive decisions across teams to improve engineering effectiveness.

Skills

12+ years experience

Architecture leadership

Distributed systems

Commerce/payments

Embedded hardware integration

Programming languages

Observability & testing

Influence without authority

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/engineering

Job description

Who We Are

Ever wonder who brings the entertainment to your flights? Panasonic Avionics Corporation is #1 in the industry for delivering inflight products such as movies, games, Wi‑Fi, and now Bluetooth headphone connectivity!

Overview

Who We Are

Ever wonder who brings the entertainment to your flights? Panasonic Avionics Corporation is #1 in the industry for delivering inflight products such as movies, games, Wi‑Fi, and now Bluetooth headphone connectivity! How exciting would it be to be a part of the innovation that goes into creating technology that delights millions of people in an industry that’s here to stay! With our company’s history spanning over 40 years, you will have stability, career growth opportunities, and will work with the brightest minds in the industry. If you want to learn more about us, visit us at www.panasonic.aero. And for a full listing of open job opportunities go to https://careers.na.panasonic.com/avionics/jobs.

The Avionics Way

The Avionics Way captures the essence of what makes our employees special, and by extension, our organization. It’s comprised of 5 core identifiers - Pioneers, Problem Solvers, Accountable, Collaborative, and Customer Focused - that together form a robust, working framework for our continued success. Beyond a philosophy, the Avionics Way is our guide to daily practices. It provides a clear, actionable model to help employees, at all levels, realize their ambitions through outsized contributions to their teams and the company. This model clearly defines expectations for performance at all levels of the organization, as well as establishes specific actions and modes of working that reinforce our philosophy on the path to achieving our goals.

Responsibilities

We are seeking a Principal Software Engineer to define the technical direction for platforms that connect e‑commerce, payments, and data across cloud services and connected hardware. You will solve complex engineering problems spanning digital experiences, distributed transactions, device integration, and environments with intermittent connectivity. This is a senior individual contributor role with influence across multiple engineering teams. You will combine architectural leadership with hands‑on engineering, turn ambiguous business needs into clear technical strategies, and raise the quality of systems delivered to customers. You will also guide practical applications of agentic AI to improve engineering productivity, operational reliability, and customer experiences.

What You Will Do

• Set technical direction. Own the architecture and technical roadmap across commerce, payments, and connected platforms. Align teams around clear system boundaries, interfaces, and engineering standards.
• Build reliable commerce and payment systems. Guide the design of catalog, pricing, checkout, order management, payment orchestration, and reconciliation capabilities, with strong attention to transaction correctness, security, and failure recovery.
• Connect hardware and software. Design cloud‑to‑device workflows that account for constrained compute, intermittent connectivity, software and firmware compatibility, remote configuration, and fleet observability.
• Establish trusted data foundations. Define event models, data contracts, and pipelines that support operational intelligence, analytics, personalization, and traceability across customer and transaction journeys.
• Engineer for real‑world conditions. Address offline operation, synchronization, retries, duplicate events, partial failures, and recovery across cloud and edge environments.
• Make quality an engineering responsibility. Establish measurable reliability and performance targets, automated validation, representative integration testing, and release readiness criteria. Partner with teams to reduce escaped defects and improve detection and recovery.
• Apply agentic AI with measurable value. Identify and deliver focused use cases such as test generation, incident investigation, and operational assistance. Establish evaluations, permission boundaries, human oversight, and auditability appropriate to each use case.
• Lead through implementation. Build prototypes, contribute production code, review critical designs, and resolve the most difficult technical problems.
• Multiply engineering effectiveness. Mentor senior and staff engineers, develop technical leaders, and drive decisions across organizational boundaries through clear reasoning and evidence.
• Connect technical choices to business outcomes. Communicate tradeoffs involving customer experience, delivery speed, reliability, cost, and long‑term maintainability.

The salary range of $171,000 - $268,000 is just one component of Panasonic’s total package. The final offer amount may vary based on factors including but not limited to individual’s knowledge, skills, experience, and location. Base pay offered may vary depending on skills, experience, job‑related knowledge and location.

Qualifications

What we are looking for:

Basic Qualifications

• Significant experience building and operating production software systems, typically 12+ years, including technical leadership across multiple teams or major platform initiatives.
• Demonstrated ability to define architecture, lead adoption, and remain accountable for production outcomes.
• Deep expertise in distributed systems, APIs, event‑driven architectures, data modeling, and cloud platforms.
• Strong experience in commerce or payments, with a working understanding of transaction lifecycles, consistency, idempotency, and reconciliation.
• Experience integrating software with connected devices, embedded platforms, or other hardware‑dependent systems.
• Strong programming skills in one or more production languages, such as Java, Kotlin, Go, Python, C++, or TypeScript.
• Experience improving reliability through observability, performance engineering, automated testing, and incident analysis.
• Ability to influence without direct authority, navigate ambiguity, and communicate clearly with engineering, product, operations, and business leaders.
• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with payment gateways, processors, tokenization, fraud controls, and systems operating within PCI DSS scope.
• Experience with edge computing, offline transaction workflows, device telemetry, remote software updates, or large connected‑device fleets.
• Experience designing data platforms that support analytics, experimentation, personalization, or machine learning.
• Practical experience building LLM‑powered applications or agentic workflows, including tool integration, evaluation, and production monitoring.
• Experience in travel, aviation, mobility, retail, or other environments where digital services depend on physical infrastructure.
• A track record of simplifying complex platforms and delivering incremental modernization without disrupting customers.

What success looks like

• Teams execute against a clear technical strategy with well‑defined ownership and interfaces.
• Commerce and payment journeys remain correct and reliable under real‑world connectivity and device constraints.
• Releases demonstrate measurable improvements in quality, performance, and operational readiness.
• Data is trustworthy and usable across engineering, product, and operations.
• AI capabilities deliver demonstrated value with appropriate controls.
• Engineers across the organization make better decisions and deliver more effectively through your leadership.

What We Offer

• Paid time off: Exempt Salaried employees receive unlimited PTO. This means that there is no fixed number, range, or limit to the amount of Personal and Vacation Days that may be taken for exempt employees. Non‑exempt hourly employees accrue 14 vacation days per year + 7 sick days + 3 personal days. Accrual rate increases with tenure. All employees receive 11 company paid holidays per year plus a paid company‑wide shut down in the U.S. between Christmas and New Year.
• Insurance: Medical insurance offerings from Aetna and Kaiser (CA &HI). Options for Employee Only, Employee + Spouse/Domestic Partner, Employee + Children, or Family. Dental PPO and DMO options & Vision insurance through EyeMed or VSP.
• 401K with 50% match on up to 8% contribution, full vested from day 1.
• Other offerings include: Wellness Program, Counseling services, FSA & HSA, Life Insurance for employee, spouse and child, AD&D Insurance, Long‑term and Short‑term disability, Critical Illness Insurance, Accident Insurance, Legal Assistance, Pet Insurance, Identity Theft Protection, Dependent Care FLSA, Education Assistance, Commuter Program, Employee Purchase Program, Service Award Program.

Panasonic is proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, and any other characteristic protected by law or company policy. All qualified individuals are required to perform the essential functions of the job with or without reasonable accommodation. Pre‑employment drug testing is required for safety sensitive positions or as may otherwise be required by contract or law. Due to the high volume of responses, we will only be able to respond to candidates of interest. All candidates must have valid authorization to work in the U.S. Thank you for your interest in Panasonic Avionics Corporation.

Salary Range

$171,000 - $268,000 annually REQ-156195