Principal Software Engineer – Distributed Systems

Alteryx

Principal Software Engineer driving software architecture for large-scale distributed systems at Alteryx. Collaborating with teams to enhance modern business decision-making through data and AI.

Posted 5/30/2026full-timeRemote • 🇺🇸 United StatesLead💰 $215,000 - $300,000 per yearWebsite

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

AWSAzureCloudDistributed SystemsGoogle Cloud PlatformJavaJavaScriptKafkaKubernetesNode.jsPythonRedis

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Define, evolve, and own the architectural vision and roadmaps for the major platform domains (e.g. orchestration, job execution, data pipelines, sidecar services)
Perform architecture reviews, assess proposals from teams, and vet designs for adherence to standards, scalability, performance, reliability, and security
Lead or contribute hands-on to critical subsystems (e.g. orchestrator, scheduling, service mesh, job pipelines, stateful services)
Drive and enforce cross-team architectural patterns
Provide thought leadership: prototype proofs-of-concept, evaluate new tools/technologies, bring innovation into the platform
Mentor and coach architects, senior engineers, and guide teams through architectural change
Collaborate with infrastructure, operations, SRE, security, and DevOps to ensure the architecture is operable, observable, and maintainable in production
Help define and lead architecture governance (e.g. architecture review board, reference architectures, standards, guidelines)
Participate in tech strategy, roadmap planning with product & engineering leadership
Diagnose and resolve technical debt or architectural "smells" across the codebase, enforcing consistency

Requirements

What you’ll need

~10+ (or more) years of software engineering experience
At least 3–5 years in senior architect or principal-level roles (or equivalent)
Proven track record of designing and operating large-scale, distributed systems in a production environment
Deep hands-on experience with orchestration, scheduler systems, job pipelines, or workflow engines
Strong proficiency in one or more of: Java / JVM ecosystem, Python, Node.js, or equivalent high-level backend languages
Experience with message/event systems (e.g. Kafka or similar), queueing, streaming architectures
Familiarity with in-memory data stores and caching (e.g. Redis or equivalents)
Strong knowledge of containerization, Kubernetes, sidecar patterns, service meshes, proxies, etc.
Understanding or experience in split-plane architectures (control plane / data plane separation) is highly desirable
Strong skills in API design, data modeling, integration patterns, error handling, consistency
Experience with observability (metrics, tracing, logging) and designing systems for operability and failure modes
Ability to conduct performance analysis, capacity planning, scaling, fault tolerance strategies
Excellent communication skills—able to articulate tradeoffs, convince stakeholders, write design docs, lead design reviews
Ability to function autonomously, make decisions in ambiguity, drive consensus across teams, and adopt/evict technologies as needed
Strong judgment about when to optimize vs. when to simplify
Familiarity with high-scale cloud deployments (e.g. AWS, Azure, GCP) and infrastructure-as-code is a plus

Benefits

Comp & perks

Medical, dental, and vision coverage
401(k) with company match
Paid parental leave, caregiver leave, and flexible time off
Mental health support and wellness reimbursement
Career development and education assistance
Connectivity Plus stipend of $150 to support remote work-related expenses
An annual $200 home office reimbursement

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills & Tools

software engineeringarchitectural designdistributed systemsorchestrationjob pipelinesJavaPythonNode.jsKubernetesAPI design

Soft Skills

communicationmentoringdecision makingconsensus buildingleadershipproblem solvingautonomyjudgmentcollaborationinnovation