Principal Software Engineer (Remote)

8thlightrebuild; United States; Remote; USD 152,000 - 221,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote-first

Learning stipend

Flexible PTO

New-parent leave (12 weeks)

Job summary

8thlightrebuild is seeking a senior technical strategist to lead complex consulting engagements, turning ambiguous goals into durable software platforms and measurable outcomes. You will advise on architecture and platform direction, contribute hands-on across varied technology environments, and help client teams adopt emerging approaches, including production AI systems.

You will mentor colleagues, surface practical options, and guide teams through decisions while balancing technical needs with

Qualifications

• Typically 10+ years delivering software across varied projects and client contexts.
• Leadership in high-stakes consulting and production-grade platforms.
• Experience taking AI or agent-based systems from prototype to production.
• Ability to lead modernization, replatforming and architecture balancing tech and outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Build client trust by understanding domain, objectives and constraints.
• Set platform engineering strategy and guide delivery aligning architecture with software.
• Advise on scalability, reliability, security, performance and platform evolution.
• Deliver systems across the machine learning lifecycle from data to monitoring.
• Surface options, document decisions and facilitate feedback and retrospectives.
• Mentor colleagues and share practices to improve delivery and quality.

Skills

10+ years

Consulting leadership

AI production systems

Architecture strategy

Cross-functional leadership

Job description

Role overview

Lead complex consulting engagements as a senior technical strategist, helping clients turn ambiguous goals into durable software platforms and measurable outcomes. You'll advise on architecture and platform direction, contribute hands-on across varied technology environments, and help client teams adopt emerging approaches, including production AI systems.

Responsibilities

• Build client trust quickly by understanding their domain, objectives, and constraints.
• Set platform engineering strategy and guide delivery, connecting long-term architecture to working software.
• Advise on scalability, reliability, security, performance, and platform evolution in relation to product and business goals.
• Help deliver systems across the machine learning lifecycle, from data preparation through deployment, integration, and monitoring.
• Surface practical technical and product options, facilitate feedback and retrospectives, and document decisions and follow-up actions.
• Mentor colleagues and share practices that improve delivery, collaboration, and technical quality.

Requirements

• Typically 10 or more years of repeated success delivering software across a variety of projects and client contexts.
• Demonstrated leadership in high-stakes consulting and the delivery of production-grade platforms, reusable tools, infrastructure, or workflows.
• Broad experience across programming languages, frameworks, and technology ecosystems, with a record of building maintainable software collaboratively.
• Experience taking AI or agent-based systems from prototype to production, including attention to infrastructure, authentication, and observability.
• Ability to lead modernization, replatforming, and architecture work while balancing technical needs with product and user outcomes.
• Strong communication and facilitation skills for guiding stakeholders through complex or uncertain decisions; experience mentoring teams and applying AI development tools effectively.

Benefits and work setup

• Remote-first, distributed across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, with regional hubs and coworking support. Most engagements do not require travel.
• Learning resources, annual learning time and stipend, flexible paid time off, and 12 weeks of new-parent leave for eligible employees.
• Published US base salary bands vary by geographic structure, from $151,535-$189,418 to $176,705-$220,881.