Do you want to build the system a whole company runs on, not one more feature in someone else's product? Do you use AI coding tools every day, and still read every line before it ships? Would you rather spend an hour watching how a warehouse actually works than a week guessing from a requirements document?
United Material Handling (UMH) is looking for a Principal Software Engineer, AI & Business Platforms to take technical ownership of UMH-os, our internal operating system, and UMH Connect, our distributor partner portal. The foundation is already in place: Azure infrastructure, single sign-on, CI/CD, a design system, an approved catalog of applications across ten departments, and a written blueprint. Our CEO has been building much of it himself with Claude Code. Now we need a professional engineer to own it, build it out, and run it. You will work directly with the CEO, ship to production in your first two weeks, and build AI agents that produce real proposals for real distributors.
KEEP READING IF: YOU ARE A BUILDER WHO SHIPS. You measure progress in working software that people use, not in plans. You like small, frequent releases, and you can take a feature from a conversation on the warehouse floor to production in days. When you inherit code, you assess before you rewrite, fix what is fragile, and leave alone what works.
YOU ARE SERIOUS ABOUT AI IN PRODUCTION. You have put LLM agents into production, not just demos, and you know the hard part is evaluation, logging and guardrails, especially when an agent is putting prices on a proposal. You treat AI coding tools as power tools, not authors, and you can explain every line in production no matter who or what wrote it.
YOU ARE THE ENGINEER THE BUSINESS TRUSTS. You can sit with a buyer, a warehouse lead or the CFO, figure out what they actually do, write it down in plain English and get their sign-off before you build. You push back with a reason and an alternative, and once a decision is made, you commit.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES MAY INCLUDE: In the first 30 to 60 days and ongoing: - Learns the business: tours our Corona headquarters and Moreno Valley distribution center and sits with Sales Operations, Supply Chain, Operations and Finance to see how work gets done.
- Reads the UMH-os codebase, standards and blueprint end to end, and delivers a written assessment of what to strengthen first.
- Ships a first production change within two weeks and takes ownership of the deployment pipeline.
- Agrees a clear working split with our IT Administrator, who owns accounts, devices and user support.
By the third month and ongoing: - Reviews and approves every change to UMH-os and UMH Connect before production, including work from AI tools and outside partners.
- Takes a major new application, starting with Order Management, from specification to daily use.
- Tightens the engineering standards so AI-written code comes out consistent the first time.
- Becomes the technical owner of our outside development partners.
By the sixth month and ongoing: - Runs one shared agent runtime for both platforms, with evaluation, logging and guardrails.
- Launches UMH Connect with pilot distributors, including a proposal agent and a proposal check agent.
- Connects Fellow, Dialpad and Microsoft 365 activity to Salesforce so customer records stay current automatically.
- Recruits and leads a small nearshore engineering team if the work calls for it.
By the twelfth month and ongoing: - Brings order management into UMH-os, with job costing, WIP and field time capture under way.
- Documents the platform well enough that a new engineer ships within two weeks of joining.
- Plans the next stage of our ERP roadmap with the CEO.
EDUCATION, SKILLS & EXPERIENCE: - 8+ years of professional software engineering, including 3+ years leading or architecting production business applications, required
- Expert TypeScript, React and Node.js, required
- Microsoft Azure (App Service, Azure SQL, Entra ID) and GitHub Actions CI/CD, required
- Relational data modeling and SQL for operational workflows, required
- LLM agents or tool-calling features shipped to production (Claude, Azure OpenAI or AI Foundry; MCP or similar), required
- Integrations with Salesforce, Microsoft Graph and an ERP, required
- Daily use of AI coding assistants such as Claude Code, required
- Application security fundamentals, including securing an external portal, required
- Experience as one of a small number of engineers owning a platform end to end, required
- Microsoft Dynamics NAV or Business Central experience, preferred
- Salesforce platform development, preferred
- Manufacturing, distribution or logistics experience, preferred
- Experience leading remote or nearshore engineers, a plus
- Bachelor's degree in computer science or a related field, or equivalent experience
THIS OPPORTUNITY WILL OFFER THE RIGHT INDIVIDUAL: - The chance to architect the operating system of a growing company: orders, projects, supply chain, finance approvals, hiring, budgeting and a partner portal, all on one platform.
- Real AI work on a modern stack, connected to a live CRM, ERP and CPQ, with leadership that uses these tools daily and invests in them.
- A direct line to the CEO, decisions in days rather than quarters, and work the whole company sees.
- A growth path to leading a small team and the platform as it scales.
This is a full-time, hybrid position based in Corona, California, with two to three days per week on site and the rest remote. Occasional visits to our Moreno Valley distribution center are part of the job. Travel beyond that is limited, at up to 10 percent.
OUR HIRING PROCESS: We use a structured process: a screen with Employee Experience, an interview with the hiring manager, a hands-on work sample using our real codebase and AI tools, and a final conversation with leadership. The work sample takes about three hours and needs no preparation.
Pay Range: $175,000 - $215,000 per year
