Principal Software Engineer, Payer Portal

athenahealth

Boston (MA)

Hybrid

USD 164,000 - 280,000

Full time

3 days ago

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Benefits offered by this job

Commuter support

Tuition assistance

Health and financial benefits

Flexible work

Dog-friendly offices

Job summary

athenahealth is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to lead backend design for the Collector product in a hybrid Boston environment. You will partner with product, architecture, and engineering teams to solve revenue cycle challenges using distributed systems, Java, Spring Boot, AWS, and Kubernetes.

You will mentor engineers, drive architectural decisions, and define engineering standards while integrating AI coding assistants into everyday workflows.

Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree in CS/Engineering or equivalent experience.
12+ years in product engineering with technical leadership.
Strong backend in distributed systems; production-grade software.
Proficient in Java and Spring Boot for backend development.
Experience making architectural decisions across teams.
Hands-on use of AI coding assistants or agentic tools (e.g., Claude Code, Copilot).
Experience with PostgreSQL, Oracle, AWS, Kubernetes, Terraform; React preferred.

Responsibilities

Lead design, development, and delivery of backend software in an agile, cross-functional team.
Address complex system challenges across monoliths and platform services; ensure reliability.
Establish engineering standards, code review, and test-driven development.
Partner with product/engineering to surface risks and guide decisions.
Mentor engineers and grow senior staff to higher impact roles.
Integrate AI coding assistants into workflows and establish norms for usage.

Skills

Distributed systems

Technical leadership

Agile delivery

Mentorship

Architectural decisions

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Java

Spring Boot

AWS

Kubernetes

Terraform

PostgreSQL

Oracle

React

Job description

Join us as we work to create a thriving ecosystem that delivers accessible, high-quality, and sustainable healthcare for all.

The Principal Software Engineer leads the design and delivery of backend software for athenahealth’s Collector product. Based in Boston, MA with a hybrid work arrangement, this role partners with product, architecture, and engineering teams to solve complex revenue cycle challenges using distributed systems, Java, Spring Boot, AWS, Kubernetes, and related technologies.

Team Summary:

athenaCollector is a critical part of the athenaOne platform, helping medical provider organizations manage revenue cycle operations with accuracy, scale, and reliability. The product supports essential workflows across claims submission, claims follow-up, payment processing & posting, billing, payer connectivity, and exception handling, all of which contribute to improved financial performance and stronger operational visibility. The team works on a complex environment that includes both a large enterprise monolith and newer platform components, requiring thoughtful technical decisions, careful integration, and a balance between near‑term delivery and long‑term maintainability. By improving automation and streamlining revenue cycle processes, athenaCollector helps healthcare organizations spend more time focused on patient care and less time managing manual administrative work.

Essential Job Responsibilities:

Lead the design, development, and delivery of high-quality software within an agile, cross-functional team, owning technical decisions and guiding implementation in alignment with architectural standards and business goals.
Solve complex system challenges across both an existing enterprise monolith and newer platform services in parallel, while driving production readiness through sound practices for testing, reliability, observability, and operational readiness.
Establish and improve engineering standards across teams, including code review practices and spec‑driven and test‑driven development approaches.
Partner with product and engineering stakeholders to surface risks early, clarify tradeoffs, and support timely decision‑making.
Mentor engineers and help grow senior engineers into more independent, higher‑impact contributors.
Integrate AI coding assistants and agentic development tools into everyday workflows, evaluate their fit for the team, and help establish shared norms for effective and responsible use in design, coding, testing, and review.
Communicate complex technical concepts clearly to both technical and non‑technical audiences.
Support collaboration between product and engineering by creating clarity around scope, dependencies, and delivery risks.
Contribute to planning, estimation, and prioritization discussions as needed.
Participate in design reviews, retrospectives, and continuous improvement activities.
Support hiring, interviewing, and onboarding efforts when needed.
Share technical knowledge through mentorship, documentation, and team learning sessions.
Help strengthen delivery practices in Agile environments, including adapting workflows to support AI‑assisted engineering.

Expected Education & Experience:

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
12+ years of engineering experience in a product engineering organization, with demonstrated progression into technical leadership.
Deep backend experience in distributed systems, with a track record of designing and shipping production‑grade enterprise software.
Strong experience with Java and Spring Boot in backend development.
Proven experience making and defending system‑level architectural decisions, not only implementing within an existing design.
Hands‑on production experience with AI coding assistants or agentic development tools such as Claude Code, Codex, GitHub Copilot, or Cursor, including experience helping teams adopt shared usage norms.
Experience defining engineering standards, code review practices, spec‑driven development, test‑driven development, and testing strategy across multiple teams.
Experience working with PostgreSQL, Oracle, AWS services, Kubernetes, and Terraform; React experience is strongly preferred.
Ability to work effectively across a complex enterprise monolith and a newer technology platform in parallel.
Healthcare domain experience, especially in revenue cycle management (RCM), claims processing, or billing, is a plus.
Experience improving Agile delivery environments, ideally with exposure to adapting team processes for AI‑assisted delivery.

Expected Compensation

$164,000 - $280,000

The base salary range shown reflects the full range for this role from minimum to maximum. At athenahealth, base pay depends on multiple factors, including job‑related experience, relevantknowledge and skills, how your qualifications compare to others in similar roles,and geographical market rates. Base pay is only one part of our competitive Total Rewards package - depending on role eligibility, we offer both short and long‑term incentives by way of an annual discretionary bonus plan, variable compensation plan, and equity plans.

About athenahealth

In an industry that becomes more complex by the day, we stand for simplicity. We offer IT solutions and expert services that eliminate the daily hurdles preventing healthcare providers from focusing entirely on their patients — powered by our vision to create a thriving ecosystem that delivers accessible, high-quality, and sustainable healthcare for all.

Our vision:

Our company culture:

Our talented employees — or athenistas, as we call ourselves — spark the innovation and passion needed to accomplish our vision. We are a diverse group of dreamers and do‑ers with unique knowledge, expertise, backgrounds, and perspectives. We unite as mission‑driven problem‑solvers with a deep desire to achieve our vision and make our time here count. Our award‑winning culture is built around shared values of inclusiveness, accountability, and support.

Our DEI commitment:

Our vision of accessible, high‑quality, and sustainable healthcare for all requires addressing the inequities that stand in the way. That's one reason we prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion in every aspect of our business, from attracting and sustaining a diverse workforce to maintaining an inclusive environment for athenistas, our partners, customers and the communities where we work and serve.

What we can do for you: