Principal Software Engineer

Job Description

The Principal Software Engineer is the primary technical leader of the department. This is a practitioner who ships production software, earns credibility through results, and sets the standard others follow. The Principal works inside the systems they influence, understands their limitations from firsthand experience, and translates that into action that resolves problems rather than merely identifying them.

This role demands expertise in AI-assisted development, agentic engineering, cloud-native architecture, and platform thinking. The Principal evaluates every technical decision through the build, buy, borrow, or bot lens, understanding what is fiscally responsible, operationally sustainable, and fastest to value.

The Principal holds the trust of engineering teams, product partners, and executive leadership. They influence through example: building prototypes, delivering working software, and taking ownership when critical issues arise. This person must be fluent in business fundamentals (P&L, cost of delay, unit economics) and connect engineering decisions to business results. The ideal candidate brings a track record of delivering at scale within large enterprise environments, ideally across more than one industry vertical. They maintain a culture of accountability, velocity, and quality grounded in the WGU Leadership Principles. Success in this role is defined by delivery: what ships, what improves, and what problems get solved.

Job Duties

• Partner with engineering and product leadership to define technical strategy and delivery roadmaps that improve the student experience at scale
• Build and ship production-grade software while establishing engineering standards others follow
• Lead Agile delivery practices that balance rigorous planning with rapid execution and predictable outcomes
• Design and evolve cloud-native architectures with strong emphasis on scalability, observability, reliability, security, and operational supportability
• Evaluate technical decisions through a build, buy, borrow, or bot lens with focus on speed-to-value, sustainability, and fiscal responsibility
• Mentor engineers on modern software engineering practices, AI-assisted development workflows, and emerging technologies
• Prototype new tools, frameworks, and architectural patterns through proof-of-value initiatives
• Drive engineering excellence across multiple teams by establishing repeatable delivery patterns and operational standards
• Partner closely with infrastructure, cloud, security, architecture, and product teams as a peer technical leader
• Identify architectural inefficiencies and technical debt, proposing practical and cost-effective solutions grounded in data
• Communicate technical strategy, dependencies, tradeoffs, and risks clearly to executive leadership
• Support operational readiness, incident response, and day-2 supportability across enterprise systems
• Lead through accountability, urgency, ownership, and attention to detail
• Participate in critical operational events and provide leadership during high-impact incidents when needed

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Software Engineering, or related field
• 10+ years of progressive software engineering experience including architecture, delivery leadership, and technical mentorship across multiple teams
• Experience building and operating web applications using Java, REST APIs, SQL, and Git in enterprise environments
• Experience designing and delivering system integrations with third-party and internal platforms
• Track record in large-scale enterprise IT organizations with established operational processes
• Equivalent relevant experience may substitute for education (1 year experience per 1 year education, at hiring manager discretion)

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related field
• Experience with Kafka/Confluent and integration middleware (Apache Camel, MuleSoft, or similar)
• Hands-on AWS experience: ECS/EKS, Lambda, SNS/SQS, API Gateway, Terraform
• Spring Boot, Kubernetes, and container orchestration in production
• Observability stacks (Dynatrace, Datadog, or similar) including custom metrics and SLO management
• Familiarity with AI/ML platforms, LLM integration, and agentic frameworks
• Higher education, EdTech, or regulated industry experience
• ITIL v4 Foundation or higher; AWS Solutions Architect or CKA certification
• Experience across multiple industry verticals