Principal Systems Architect & SRE Lead

Akamai; 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

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.