Principal Software Engineer

Foundant

$135K — $160K *
US-AnywhereRemote in United States
Information Technology
11 - 15 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 12+ years of professional software engineering experience, particularly in senior individual contributor roles.
  • Mastery of architectural patterns relevant to applications and services.
  • Deep expertise in technologies like Java, C#, TypeScript, Node.js, React, Python, and Flutter.
  • Proven experience managing production services, ensuring reliability and performance.
  • Experience leveraging AI-assisted development tools such as Claude Code in a production setting.
  • Skill in diagnosing complex issues across multiple components and teams.
  • Legal eligibility to work in the U.S. or Canada.

Responsibilities

  • Embed with product teams to solve complex technical problems and deliver functional code.
  • Make architectural decisions that hold under production load and are clear to future engineers.
  • Oversee changes and maintenance of Foundant's shared services.
  • Diagnose systemic architectural issues across service boundaries.
  • Lead solution design initiatives with a collaborative approach to engineering teams.
  • Set standards for effective use of AI-assisted development methods.
  • Transition fluidly across different products and domains, enhancing team capabilities.

Benefits

  • Commitment to innovation and making a positive societal impact.
  • Flexible PTO policy that supports personal and professional work-life balance.
  • Development opportunities through collaboration across teams in diverse industries.
  • Support for internal mobility, allowing for career growth and exploration.
  • Employee recognition culture to celebrate contributions and successes.
  • Competitive salary and benefit offerings, including tuition and lifestyle reimbursements.
Full Job Description
Where You'll Work:
  • As a remote-first workplace, we believe in offering flexibility and the freedom to work where it suits you best, while staying connected through technology. Our global network of talent is supported by physical office hubs and virtual collaboration, fostering a dynamic environment where innovation and growth thrive.
  • With office locations in Bozeman, MT, Toronto, Canada, and Dublin, Ireland, you'll be part of a globally connected team. Whether you're working remotely or from one of our office locations, you'll be contributing to a vibrant, collaborative culture focused on driving meaningful impact across the world.


WhatYou'll Do:

This role has two centers of gravity. You'll be dispatched into product teams to help design and implement solutions, solve hard engineering problems, and you'll own the shared services that every one of our products depends on.

  • You'll embed with product teams across our portfolio to take on their hardest technical problems, and you'll deliver working code - not just direction. This is a hands-on role at every level of seniority it carries.
  • You'll own architectural decisions at both the application and service level, making calls that hold up under real production load and remain understandable to the engineers who inherit them.
  • You'll own oversight of changes to Foundant's shared services, along with their ongoing production care and feeding.
  • You'll diagnose systemic and architectural issues that cross component and service boundaries, including the ambiguous ones where the cause isn't in any single team's code.
  • You'll lead solution design on significant initiatives, bringing a small group of engineers along with clear, well-articulated direction rather than handing down a finished answer.
  • You'll set the standard for how AI-assisted development is used well at Foundant - where generation accelerates the work, where it needs a harder look, and how teams around you can raise their own bar.
  • You'll move fluidly across products, domains, and service boundaries, leaving each team better equipped than you found it.
  • Other duties as assigned.
WhatYou'll Need:
  • 12+ years of professional software engineering experience, including significant time at a principal, staff, or equivalent senior individual contributor level.
  • Demonstrated mastery of architectural patterns and the judgment to know which apply in a given context, at both the application and service level.
  • Deep expertise in one or two of the technologies in our stack, with the ability to become productive in the others. Our environment includes Java, C#, TypeScript, Node.js, React, Python, and Flutter.
  • Proven experience owning production services, including reliability, performance, and incident response.
  • Professional experience using AI-assisted development tools in production work. Foundant uses Claude Code; deep expertise with a comparable tool is acceptable.
  • Experience diagnosing complex issues that span multiple components, services, or teams.
  • Must be legally eligible to work in the United States or Canada.
WhatYou'll Bring to our Team Dynamics:
  • Adaptive Achievement: Moves between unfamiliar codebases, domains, and problem spaces without losing momentum, and delivers high-quality solutions under shifting priorities and incomplete context.
  • Productive Collaboration: Leads engineers through complex initiatives by influence rather than authority - entering a team as a guest, earning trust quickly, and articulating direction clearly enough that the team can carry it forward without you.
  • Service Orientation: Treats internal engineering teams as clients, and understands that the reliability of a shared service is ultimately felt by the foundations and nonprofits depending on our software to do their work.
  • Business Insight: Weighs the blast radius of shared-service decisions across every product and client, balancing technical elegance against what actually advances the business and the communities we serve.
  • Active Learning: Builds working depth in unfamiliar stacks quickly, and applies rigorous judgment to AI-generated code - knowing when to lean on it, when to scrutinize it, and how to help colleagues do the same.
Why You'll Love Working at Foundant:
  • At the heart of everything we do is a commitment to innovation and making a positive impact. Whether you're working on projects that empower not-for-profits, community foundations, or corporations, your contributions will help drive real-world change.
  • We offer competitive salary and benefits, including tuition, and lifestyle reimbursements, and bespoke mindfulness and fitness initiatives.
  • With our Flexible PTO policy, you'll have the freedom to manage your time in a way that supports your personal well-being and professional success.
  • We're committed to your professional and personal development. With our merger, you'll have the chance to collaborate across teams, giving you exposure to diverse ideas, expertise, and projects that span multiple industries.
  • As part of a larger organization, you'll have even more opportunities to grow your career. Whether it's exploring new roles, leadership opportunities, or shifting to a different department, we support internal mobility to help you achieve your career goals
  • You'll enjoy autonomy and responsibility, empowering you to approach your work creatively and independently, fostering innovation and independent thought.
  • Employee recognition is a core part of our culture. When you do a great job, we make sure everyone knows about it!


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