Principal Software Engineer

Quick Facts

• Title: Principal Software Engineer
• Location: VA (Primary), US
• Compensation: $110,000–$160,000
• Education: Bachelor’s Degree
• Citizenship: U.S. Citizen or Permanent Resident

Description

The Principal Software Engineer provides technical leadership for cloud-native application development supporting NASA Earth science data systems. The role owns key platform components, leads architecture discussions, and mentors engineers while translating mission requirements into robust technical solutions. You will build and maintain production-grade web and backend applications and APIs at scale on AWS.

Responsibilities

• Lead architecture discussions and make authoritative technical design decisions for web application and platform components
• Design, develop, and maintain high-performance production-grade web and backend applications
• Implement RESTful and GraphQL APIs at scale for data access, processing, and dissemination
• Apply AWS cloud and serverless expertise to deliver scalable, observable platform components
• Champion automated testing (unit, integration, E2E) and CI/CD standards
• Translate complex mission requirements into maintainable cloud-native solutions
• Mentor and guide senior and mid-level engineers; review code and drive quality standards
• Participate in SAFe planning, PI planning, sprint ceremonies, backlog refinement, and technical reviews
• Collaborate across cross-functional Agile teams to deliver capabilities on schedule
• Contribute to CI/CD automation, code review, testing, and documentation

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree and 10+ years of software engineering experience
• Expert-level proficiency in React, Node.js, Python, and Java
• Deep REST and/or GraphQL API design experience at scale
• In-depth knowledge of AWS cloud and serverless architecture
• Demonstrated technical design and architecture leadership
• Strong automated testing background (unit, integration, E2E)
• CI/CD pipeline experience with GitHub Actions, Jenkins, or equivalent

Benefits

• Health, dental, vision
• FSA
• Life and disability insurance
• 401K with matching
• Tuition reimbursement
• Bonus/incentive programs
• Other plans