Principal Software Engineer: Hybrid, Cloud-Native & AI

Laudio; Leawood (KS); Hybrid; USD 135,000 - 193,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health, dental, and vision insurance

401(k) with company match

Paid time off and parental leave

Employee assistance program

Wellness programs and charitable match

Job summary

Ascend Learning, LLC is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to lead architecture and hands-on development across multiple services used by learners, educators, and healthcare professionals. You’ll set direction, drive platform modernization, and guide teams to scalable, secure solutions.

You will mentor engineers, balance tech debt with innovation, and apply AI-assisted practices to improve product quality and outcomes. Hybrid work from Leawood, KS, with remote within the U.S. is acceptable.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in software development for web-based apps.
• 3+ years in technical leadership or architecture.
• Experience defining engineering standards and patterns.
• Hands-on with AI-assisted tools and responsible use policies.
• Experience with .NET 8+, Angular, SQL Server, ASP.NET Core.
• Distributed systems, microservices, API design for scalability.
• Secure SDLC practices and WCAG/privacy considerations.
• Observability, SLOs, incident response, and CI/CD quality gates.
• IaC experience with Terraform or Bicep; cloud cost awareness.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and evolve scalable cloud-native apps and platforms.
• Own the technical vision, architecture, and long-term evolution.
• Lead cross-functional initiatives from concept to production.
• Mentor engineers and promote best practices and code quality.
• Adopt emerging tech and AI-enabled development approaches.
• Ensure operational excellence, deployments, incidents, and on-call support.
• Communicate strategy and decisions to leadership and teams.
• Present key initiatives to senior leaders and the software community.

Skills

Software architecture

Distributed systems

Leadership / mentoring

AI-assisted development

Security best practices

Observability & SRE

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/SE or related field

Tools

Azure

Kafka

Docker

Kubernetes

ASP.NET Core

Angular

TypeScript

SQL Server

GitLab

Terraform/Bicep

Job description

Ascend Learning, LLC is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to lead architecture and hands-on development across multiple services used by learners, educators, and healthcare professionals. You’ll set direction, drive platform modernization, and guide teams to scalable, secure solutions.

You will mentor engineers, balance tech debt with innovation, and apply AI-assisted practices to improve product quality and outcomes. Hybrid work from Leawood, KS, with remote within the U.S. is acceptable.