(Remote) Principal Engineer

First American Financial Corp.; Santa Ana (CA); Remote; USD 166,000 - 223,000; Full time

Job summary

Join a leading company in the real estate technology sector as a Principal Engineer. You will lead projects to modernize their core Title & Settlement Platform, utilizing modern tools and architectures. The role emphasizes engineering leadership, collaboration with product teams, and driving operational excellence. Ideal candidates have extensive experience in large-scale distributed systems and a passion for backend services. Enjoy a competitive salary and a comprehensive benefits package in a supportive, diverse environment.

Benefits

Medical

Dental

Vision

401k

PTO

Sick Leave

Employee Stock Purchase Plan

Qualifications

• 12+ years of engineering leadership with operational experience.
• Experience leading engineering best practices with tools and automation.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to the codebase, designing, developing, testing, and deploying code.
• Work with product management to envision future features and plan roadmaps.

Skills

Leadership

Collaboration

Communication

Tools

C#

.NET

React

Node.js

AWS Cloud Services

Job description

Who We Are

Join a team that puts its People First! Since 1889, First American (NYSE: FAF) has believed in its people. We are passionate about fostering an environment where everyone feels welcome, supported, and empowered to innovate and reach their full potential. Our inclusive, people-first culture has earned us numerous accolades, including ten consecutive years on the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list. We have also been recognized as a top place to work for women, diversity, and LGBTQ+ employees, and featured on over 50 regional best places to work lists. For more information, visit www.careers.firstam.com.

What We Do

Remote Work Welcome

Be part of a transformative team shaping how First American builds and delivers technology products for the real estate industry. We seek top-tier technology experts to envision, design, build, and deliver innovative solutions that create exceptional experiences and lasting value for our customers.

We are looking for software engineering candidates to grow our team. An ideal candidate has strong technical expertise, a product mindset, and a hands-on approach to building high-quality, sustainable software products. As a Principal Engineer, you will lead projects within focused engineering teams to develop fast, clean, reliable code that drives business value. You will be part of the Strategic Platform Development Team, tasked with modernizing our core Title & Settlement Platform using modern tools, event-driven architecture, and cloud-native services. If you're passionate about pushing technological boundaries in the real estate industry, join us on this exciting journey.

What You’ll Do

• Code: Contribute actively to the codebase, designing, developing, testing, and deploying code supporting complex functional areas. Architect and implement scalable, highly available, and fault-tolerant modern services.

• Collaborate/Partner: Work with product management to envision future features and plan roadmaps. Define solution architectures aligned with business needs, facilitate design discussions, and lead design reviews.

• Leadership: Develop a clear vision for products/projects, create long-term strategies, and provide technical expertise. Advocate for technology investments and architecture improvements.

• Operational Excellence: Implement secure, high-quality, observable solutions. Participate in design, code, and artifact reviews, and monitor metrics.

• Continuous Improvement: Drive ambitious goals, provide feedback, and improve architectural standards. Build proof-of-concepts to validate approaches and explore emerging technologies.

What You’ll Bring

• 12+ years of engineering leadership, with 5-10+ years in large-scale distributed systems, including operational experience.

• Experience leading engineering best practices with tools and automation.

• Passion for building large-scale backend services and APIs using modern architectures.

• Knowledge of data structures, asynchronous architectures, and distributed algorithms.

• Strong understanding of software engineering principles and cloud infrastructure.

• Ability to develop robust, reusable solutions.

• Experience mentoring teams on development best practices.

• Familiarity with deployment and observability strategies supporting continuous delivery and high availability in cloud environments.

• Data-driven approach to measure and improve development productivity.

• Excellent communication skills, with strong collaboration and organizational abilities.

Ideally, you will also have experience with:

• 15+ years of coding experience in modern languages and stacks.

• C# and .NET, React, and Node.js.

• Relational and NoSQL databases.

• Automated testing and infrastructure automation tools.

• AWS Cloud Services and working in regulated industries like Financial Services or Healthcare.

Pay Range: $166,750 - $222,325 annually. Pay depends on experience, skills, and location.

This range is an estimate and may vary based on various factors.

Additional Notes

For candidates working from unincorporated areas within Los Angeles County, First American will consider all qualified applicants, including those with criminal records, in accordance with applicable laws.

What We Offer

We embrace individuality and support diversity, equity, and inclusion. Our People First Culture celebrates your unique self. We offer a comprehensive benefits package, including medical, dental, vision, 401k, PTO, sick leave, and other benefits like an employee stock purchase plan.