Software Principal Engineer / Autonomous AI Software Engineering

Dell Inc.; Hopkinton (MA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Dell Inc. in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, is seeking a Software Principal Engineer for the AI Governance Engineering team.

You will turn autonomous AI agents from demos into dependable engineering practice, set up proofs of concept against real codebases, and measure what agents can and cannot do within our architecture. This onsite role emphasizes hands-on work, rapid experimentation, and daily human‑AI collaboration inside a startup‑like AI-native team that shapes how software engineers work with

Job description

Software Principal Engineer – Autonomous AI Software Engineering

Software engineering is being reshaped by autonomous AI agents that can plan, write, test, and review code with increasing independence. Our team works at the forefront of that shift, bringing agent-driven autonomy into the software development lifecycle so that engineers set direction and make key decisions while agents handle more execution.

Because the agent landscape evolves rapidly, we stay hands‑on: exploring the most promising approaches, proving them with rigorous experiments on real engineering work, and turning successful patterns into standard development practices. We are a small, AI-native team operating like a startup—prioritizing high autonomy, rapid experimentation, and daily human-AI collaboration.

Join us to do the best work of your career and make a profound impact as a Software Principal Engineer on our AI Governance Engineering team in Hopkinton, Massachusetts. This is an onsite role.

What You'll Achieve

You will be the hands‑on engineer who turns autonomous agents from impressive demos into dependable engineering practice. You will set up and run proofs of concept of agent platforms and approaches against real codebases and tasks, measure objectively what they can and cannot do, and integrate viable solutions into our development lifecycle—operating within the architecture and evaluation framework defined by our architect.

You will spend most of your time building and experimenting (70%+), using AI agents as a core part of your daily workflow.