The Principal Software Engineer is the highest-level individual contributor within Software Engineering and is responsible for defining, influencing and collaborating enterprise level solution designs, engineering strategy, software engineering governance standards, and long-term technology direction across multiple platforms, systems, and engineering domains.
This role serves as a recognized technical authority who influences enterprise technology decisions, establishes reusable engineering standards and patterns, and drives software engineering across the organization. Principal Software Engineers operate with significant autonomy and are accountable for balancing reliability, scalability, security, regulatory requirements, cost optimization, and business outcomes across systems.
Working closely with engineering leadership, architects, business leaders, risk and compliance partners, and external vendors, this role ensures software solutions align with organizational strategy and engineering standards are enforced while enabling sustainable, scalable, and resilient technology solutions.
As a Principal Software Engineer, you will:
Technology Leadership & Enterprise Influence
- Guide long-term technical direction for Salesforce .
- Create alignment and accountability across teams for strategic technical outcomes without relying on formal reporting authority.
- Serve as a recognized organizational expert, advising engineering leaders, architects, product leaders, and delivery teams on complex tradeoffs.
- Mentor other engineers, raise engineering capability through design guidance, code reviews, pairing, and communities of practice.
- Influence product and technology strategy by connecting engineering decisions to enterprise outcomes, risk, cost, scalability, and customer value.
Architecture, APIs & Integration Strategy
- Collaborate with architecture and engineering leaders to define reusable application, API, eventing, and integration patterns across platforms.
- Influence enterprise integration strategy, data movement standards, service boundaries, and cross-system orchestration approaches.
- Drive consistent use of OpenAPI specifications, contract-first practices, integration testing, and dependency management.
- Evaluate complex cross-domain designs and make or strongly influence enterprise-level technical decisions and standards.
Engineering Excellence, Security & Reliability
- Collaborate with engineering leaders to define organization-wide code quality, maintainability, SDLC, testing, and governance expectations.
- Establish secure-by-design engineering patterns and influence controls for access, data protection, auditability, traceability, and regulatory readiness.
- Define reliability, resilience, observability, and operational readiness expectations for critical systems and shared services.
- Lead root cause analysis for systemic issues and sponsor improvements that reduce recurring incidents and operational risk.
- Define technical debt strategy, modernization roadmaps, platform retirement approaches, and investment recommendations.
Delivery, Innovation & AI-Native Engineering
- Lead high-impact initiatives spanning multiple teams or programs, resolving ambiguity and removing cross-team technical blockers.
- Identify transformative opportunities that improve security, data integrity, performance, scalability, cost efficiency, and developer productivity.
- Assist and Influence on AI-native engineering patterns, adoption strategy, governance, and productivity measurement for software delivery.
- Partner with product and business leaders to sequence technical investments and balance near-term delivery with long-term sustainability
To be successful in this role you will need:
- Bachelor’s degree required in Information Systems or equivalent.
- 12+ years of software engineering experience, working in Sales Cloud, Service Cloud and Experience Cloud or related areas
- Expert level experience leading technical design reviews and establish standards across teams
- Expert level experience providing technical directions for complex Salesforce initiatives
- Experience with identification of platform limitations and develops scalable patterns, least privileged architecture and deep understanding of Salesforce security framework
- Advanced knowledge of developing and supporting Lightning web Components and the Aura framework
- In depth knowledge of HTML and CSS
- In depth knowledge of JavaScript
- Advanced level of knowledge of APEX Language, SOQL, SOSL
- Advanced level of knowledge of APEX triggers, batch classes and scheduled classes
- Advanced level of knowledge of data modeling
- Advanced level of knowledge of flows including screen and record triggers auto launch flows
- Advanced level of knowledge of secure programming within the Salesforce Platform to avoid any security pitfalls.
- Advanced level of knowledge of Developer Console, Query Optimizer, Data loader, CLI and Debug Logs
- Advanced level of knowledge and implementation experience on Integration patterns and salesforce APIs.
- Advanced level of knowledge of REST/SOAP API concepts and experience utilizing rest-based services from external parties and implementing rest-based services in Salesforce
- Advanced knowledge of working with Git and source control management processes like pull request reviews, branch management and merge conflict resolution
- Intermediate level of knowledge of working with Salesforce in a CI/CD environment using a tool like Gearset
- In-depth experience of working in a Scrum and Agile Software Development Methodology is required
- Experience with the SAFe, agile framework is a plus
- Advanced level of experience in troubleshooting and isolating root causes in Salesforce applications
- Ability to read, use and produce system design artifacts such as flowcharts and wireframes
- Demonstrated experience defining/enforcing solution design standards, engineering strategy, or governance across multiple platforms, products, or technology domains.
- Experience in at least one other technology ecosystem that is outside of Salesforce
- Proven ability to influence enterprise technology decisions and drive cross-functional alignment without direct authority.
Skills & Abilities
- Expert knowledge of software engineering principles, solution design patterns, and distributed systems.
- Strong understanding of cloud technologies, automation practices, infrastructure, integrations, and modern engineering approaches.
- Advanced systems thinking and ability to connect technical decisions to organizational outcomes.
- Deep understanding of platform reliability, observability, security, governance, and operational excellence.
- Experience designing and governing technology standards used by multiple teams.
- Strong solution decision-making skills with the ability to evaluate tradeoffs across cost, risk, performance, and scalability.
- Ability to anticipate future technology needs and develop long-term platform strategies.
- Strong negotiation and collaboration skills and ability to develop and manage stakeholder expectations
- Create inclusive team environments that foster trust and a sense of empowerment
- Effectively prioritize and execute tasks in a high-pressure environment and excels at communicating shifts in prioritization
- Ability to lead through expertise, mentorship, and organizational influence.
- Strong push to always gain a combination of business and technical knowledge of financial industry
- Must be systems-oriented, enjoy working with new tools and be a self-motivated learner
- Entrepreneurial attitude, with the ability to thrive in a fast-paced work environment
- Strong sense of urgency and follow-through in addressing issues and meeting timelines
- Experience operating within regulated, complex, or enterprise-scale environments preferred.
Sharing rewards is an integral part of our culture. We believe in the value of hard work and reward our employees beyond the paycheck. Our total rewards package is based on eligibility and includes:
Financial Benefits
- Competitive Compensation
- Monthly Bonuses for Eligible Employees
- 401(k) and Company Match
- Annual Profit Sharing
- Paid Time Off
Health, Wellbeing, and Family Planning Benefits
- Paid Vacation
- Paid Sick Days
- Paid Holidays
- Gym Reimbursement
- Health Insurance
- Dental Insurance
- Vision Insurance
- Short-Term and Long-Term Disability
- Company Paid Life Insurance
- Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA)
- Health Savings Accounts (HSA)
- Employee Assistance Program
- Parental Leave
Education and Career Planning Benefits
- Tuition Assistance
- Networking Opportunities
- Leadership Development Opportunities
Perks
- Paid Parking
- Service Awards
- Hybrid work arrangements
- Business casual environment
If your experience aligns closely, please apply. We value diverse backgrounds and adding new perspectives. We encourage you to apply if you can make a strong impact in this role at www.greatamerica.com/careers.
