Principal Software Engineer

Nerdy

Principal Software Engineer at Nerdy shaping technical vision and architecture for large-scale systems. Mentoring engineers and advancing AI capabilities in education technology.

Posted 7/28/2026full-timeRemote • 🇧🇷 BrazilLeadWebsite

Core Competencies

Role fit

Core Competencies

Use this summary to align your resume positioning with the role.

Demonstrates expertise in architecting scalable systems and leading technical direction across teams, with a strong focus on AI-native tools and best practices in software development. Proven ability to mentor engineers and communicate complex technical concepts effectively to diverse audiences.

Highest-signal resume keywords

10+ Years Software Engineering ExperienceService-Oriented Architecture ExpertiseAI/ML Production ExperienceStrong Coding Fundamentals in Python, Java, Go, TypeScriptAWS Services Familiarity

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills

Architecting Scalable SystemsMicroservices ArchitecturePerformance OptimizationAccessibility StandardsData StructuresAlgorithmsEvent-Driven ArchitectureService-Oriented ArchitectureModel ServingRAG Pipeline Design

Soft Skills

Clear CommunicationEmpathyMentoringLeadershipGrowth Mindset

Tools & Technologies

CursorClaude CodeChatGPTMake.comN8nSupabaseNetlifyVercelGrokBolt

Industry Keywords

Distributed SystemsCloud EnvironmentsCustomer-Facing SolutionsTechnical DirectionIncident Response

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

AWSCloudDistributed SystemsDynamoDBEC2GoJavaMicroservicesPythonTypeScript

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Set the org-wide architectural strategy and guardrails; create reference designs and patterns that align teams on a coherent technical direction.
Serve as the technical point of reference for the broader engineering team, ensuring best practices in architecture, performance optimization, and accessibility standards are upheld.
Architect and deliver cross-cutting, highly scalable systems.
Leverage AI-native tools and approaches to improve development speed, product capabilities, and engineering effectiveness across the software lifecycle.
Drive performance, scalability, and resiliency; own SLOs and observability.
Partner with product, data science/ML, design, and engineering leadership to sequence investments and align on outcomes and trade-offs.
Contribute to the engineering department's strategy and vision, bringing innovative ideas to improve our customer-facing experiences.
Mentor and uplevel engineers lead architecture forums/guilds; influence through clarity, empathy, and data.
Operate iteratively with a focus on quality; participate in on-call, lead incident response/postmortems, and drive reliability and cost stewardship.

Requirements

What you’ll need

10+ years of software engineering with deep hands-on experience building and operating large-scale distributed systems; and leading technical direction across multiple teams.
Expertise in service-oriented and event-driven architectures; microservices for UX and APIs in cloud environments (AWS preferred).
Explicit mentoring of senior-level engineers regularly, leading to results.
AI/ML experience shipping to production: designing RAG pipelines, model serving, recommendations/ranking, monitoring, and drift/quality management.
AI-native developer productivity: skilled with tools that accelerate teams (e.g., Cursor, Claude Code, ChatGPT, Make.com, n8n, Supabase, Netlify, Vercel, Grok, Bolt) and with prompt/tool orchestration and evaluation.
Strong coding fundamentals (OO design, algorithms, data structures) in one or more languages (e.g., Python, Java, Go, TypeScript).
Clear communicator with executive presence; able to translate complex technical trade-offs for technical and non-technical audiences.
Familiarity with AWS services (e.g., EC2, RDS, Kinesis, DynamoDB), Supabase or/and Netlify and deploying large-scale web applications.
Aptitude to quickly learn new languages/technologies; growth mindset and high ownership.
Ability to implement customer-facing solutions that solve the customers' true needs with exceptional user experiences.
Understand and appreciate that Nerdy is an apolitical company, united in the focus on helping people learn.

Benefits

Comp & perks

Competitive USD Compensation: Enjoy a market-leading rate.
100% Remote (Home Country Only): Work from anywhere in your home country—no relocation required, no borders crossed.
Flexible Time Off: Our flexible PTO lets you recharge on your own terms and when you need it the most.
Local Holiday Pay: We honor your nation’s official holidays with paid time off—celebrate what matters to you.
Continuous Learning: Get a free, all-inclusive learning membership for you and your household—including 1-on-1 tutoring hours, unlimited on-demand classes, and access to our full suite of learning products and services.
Supercharge with AI: Gain exclusive access to cutting-edge AI tools that boost your productivity, making you feel almost super-human (cape not included).
Feedback-Rich, Collaborative Culture: Tap into regular training, peer reviews, and a team that treats every team member as a vital collaborator and owner in our success.
Make a Global Impact: Your expertise fuels an innovative platform used by learners around the world—be part of something transformative.