Principal Software Engineer, Backend

Optimal Ways

full-time

Posted on: 10/3/2025

Location Type: Remote

Location: Remote • 🇺🇸 United States

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💰 $200,000 - $240,000 per year

Lead

AWSCloudKafkaPythonTerraform

About the role

Platform Architecture & Evolution: Design, implement, and scale core infrastructure to ensure reliability, performance, and security.
Developer Experience (DevEx): Build and improve tooling, CI/CD pipelines, and workflows, optimizing developer productivity and minimizing friction.
Security & Compliance: Champion security-by-design principles, implementing controls that safeguard systems and data without slowing innovation.
Mentorship & Influence: Serve as a technical leader across teams, coaching engineers, and driving alignment on platform strategy.
Collaboration: Partner with product and engineering leaders, balancing speed, cost, and resilience in every decision.

Educated: Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, or equivalent technical experience.
Experienced:
Principal-level expertise in Infrastructure & Platform Engineering
Proven track record of scaling cloud-native systems
Strong Python 3 expertise
Strong AWS expertise
Familiarity with event-driven architectures (Kafka or similar).
Hands-on experience with IaC tools (i.e. Terraform, CloudFormation), observability, monitoring, & incident response.
Optimization-Driven:
Proven track record of improving DevEx by leveling up tooling, pipelines, & automation.
Experience improving monorepo developer workflows (Bazel, Buck, Pants).
Security-Focused:
Knowledge of compliance frameworks (SOC 2, ISO 27001, etc.) and how to operationalize them.
Experience leading security initiatives(i.e. hardening environments; building secure-by-default workflows)
Leader: A history of mentoring engineers and shaping technical direction across teams.

Benefits

Competitive compensation, including Series C level equity
Health / Dental / Vision 100% covered for employee and 50% for dependents
Life Insurance, with optional supplemental insurance
Flexible Spending Account (FSA)
Health Spending Account (HSA)
401(k) with match
Unlimited PTO (vacation, personal days, sick days, jury duty, military leave, bereavement)
11 Holidays
Paid Parental Leave for all employees
Short-term and Long-term Disability Insurances, and AD&D Insurance
Fitness membership reimbursement
Commuter benefits

Tip: use these terms in your resume and cover letter to boost ATS matches.

Infrastructure EngineeringPlatform EngineeringPython 3AWSEvent-driven architecturesTerraformCloudFormationObservabilityMonitoringIncident response

MentorshipTechnical leadershipCollaborationCoachingInfluence

Bachelor’s degree in Computer ScienceMaster’s degree in Computer ScienceSOC 2ISO 27001