Principal Software Engineer - (Reston or Cambridge)

Akamai Technologies, Inc.; Cambridge (MA); Hybrid; USD 169,000 - 305,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Healthcare

401K

Paid time off

Sick time

Parental leave

Employee assistance program

ESPP

Job summary

Akamai is seeking a Principal Software Engineer Lead to architect complex distributed systems and drive reliability across web apps, APIs, and automation platforms. You will define standards, establish SLOs, and supervise deployment safety pipelines, while mentoring teams to raise the bar in design and collaboration.

The role requires 12+ years of experience, a Bachelor's degree, and deep skills in Python, JavaScript, APIs, and microservices. U.S.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required.
• 12+ years of relevant experience in software engineering.
• Experience developing full-stack web apps, APIs, and microservices.
• Proficient in Python, JavaScript, SQL, Ruby, or PHP.
• Knowledge of CI/CD, containerization, automated testing, and Git workflows.
• Solid grounding in SRE principles, including SLI/SLO tracking, toil reduction, and RCA.
• Experience creating architectural blueprints, evaluating emerging technologies, and mentoring peers.
• US Citizenship and eligibility to undergo security clearance (active clearance not required).

Responsibilities

• Architect complex distributed software systems and author technical blueprints to eliminate operational toil.
• Establish development standards, PR review frameworks, and SLOs to maintain system resilience.
• Design deployment safety pipelines, CI workflows, and automated testing frameworks for secure production releases.
• Serve as the Tier-3 escalation authority for complex application failures and lead postmortem reviews.
• Mentor engineering teams on system design while cultivating an inclusive and collaborative technical culture.

Skills

Full-stack web apps

APIs

Microservices

Python

JavaScript

SQL

Ruby

PHP

CI/CD

Containerization

Automated testing

Revision control

SRE principles

SLI/SLO

Toil reduction

Root-cause analysis

Architectural blueprints

Mentoring peers

US Citizenship

Security clearance

Education

Bachelor's degree

Job description

Are you passionate about architecting scalable systems and leading technical innovation?

Do you want to build mission-critical solutions for public sector cloud platforms?

Join our team!

Our team's mission is to accelerate innovation by making computing simple, scalable, accessible, and affordable for all. We provide the infrastructure and services that enable developers to build next-generation applications. We take ownership of the design and development of core compute interfaces, virtualization management, APIs, and low-level platform services.

Partner with the best

As a technical authority, you will drive engineering excellence through robust solution design. You will integrate Site Reliability Engineering principles to ensure web applications, APIs, and automation platforms excel in reliability. Additionally, you will build specialty tooling to maintain our globally distributed infrastructure.

As a Principal Software Engineer Lead, you will be responsible for:

• Architecting complex distributed software systems and authoring technical blueprints to eliminate operational toil
• Establishing development standards, pull request review frameworks, and Service Level Objectives to maintain system resilience
• Designing deployment safety pipelines, continuous integration workflows, and automated testing frameworks for secure production releases
• Serving as the Tier-3 escalation authority for complex application failures and leading postmortem reviews
• Mentoring engineering teams on system design while cultivating an inclusive and collaborative technical culture

Do what you love

To be successful in this role you will:

• Have 12 years of relevant experience and a Bachelor's degree
• Have experience developing full-stack web applications, APIs, and microservices in Linux or Unix environments
• Possess expertise in languages such as Python, JavaScript, SQL, Ruby, or PHP
• Be knowledgeable about CI/CD pipelines, containerization, automated testing, and revision control workflows
• Demonstrate solid grounding in SRE principles, including SLI/SLO tracking, toil reduction, and root-cause analysis
• Demonstrate success creating architectural blueprints, evaluating emerging technologies, and mentoring engineering peers
• Possess US Citizenship, and be eligible to undergo the required security clearance process; an active clearance is not required.

About us

At Akamai, we make life better for billions of people, trillions of times a day. Whether you're streaming live events, scrolling social media, watching your favorite series, or managing your savings, we're the engine behind the scenes. We provide the world's most distributed platform from Cloud to Edge to help the giants of the digital world work faster and stay more secure, making the internet a better experience for everyone.

Our focus is simple:

Cloud and Edge: Running apps closer to users for instant performance.

Security: Neutralizing threats before they ever reach your data.

Content Delivery: Scaling the world's biggest moments without a glitch.

AI: Enabling our customers to build, secure, and scale AI apps on the world's most distributed cloud platform.

At Akamai, we don't just support the internet; we power and protect it, because behind every great digital experience is a massive hidden challenge. And we're the ones who solve it. When millions of people hit play or pay, Akamai ensures it just works.

Benefits at Akamai

We support your health, well-being, finances, and life beyond work. See our benefits.

FlexBase adapts to your job's needs

Akamai's FlexBase program is yet another way we show our commitment to providing employees with an exceptional workplace experience. It's not about telling employees where to work; it's about supporting employees to do their best work.

We trust our incredible employees to work in ways that suit them best: at home, in an office, or a combination of both.

Connect with us on social and see what life at Akamai is like!

Compensation

Akamai is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. For US based candidates only - the base salary for this position ranges from $169,300 - $304,700/year; a candidate's salary is determined by various factors including, but not limited to, relevant work experience, skills, certifications and location. Compensation for candidates outside the US will vary. The compensation package may also include incentive compensation opportunities in the form of annual bonus or incentives, equity awards and an Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP). Akamai provides industry-leading benefits including healthcare, 401K savings plan, company holidays, vacation (in the form of PTO), sick time, family friendly benefits including parental leave and an employee assistance program including a focus on mental and financial wellness; Eligibility requirements apply.