Principal Software Engineer

Robert Half is hiring! We are looking for a Principal Software Engineer to lead the design and delivery of modern AI-enabled software solutions. This role combines hands-on engineering with technical leadership across backend services, user-facing applications, and intelligent workflow development. The ideal candidate brings deep experience building scalable platforms, guiding architectural decisions, and partnering closely with product, design, and infrastructure teams to deliver secure, high-performing systems.

Responsibilities:

• Lead full product development efforts from technical planning through production support, ensuring reliable delivery across the software lifecycle.
• Create and refine agentic AI workflows that improve automation, orchestration, and application intelligence.
• Architect, build, and support scalable backend applications using Python frameworks such as Django, Flask, or FastAPI, or Node.js frameworks including Express and NestJS.
• Develop robust RESTful and GraphQL interfaces that enable seamless communication between applications and services.
• Build and improve React-based frontend features with strong integration to backend systems and APIs.
• Design distributed architectures and microservices that support maintainability, resilience, and future growth.
• Improve application efficiency by tuning database interactions, refining performance, and optimizing cloud resource consumption.
• Apply strong security practices across authentication, authorization, and service protection while overseeing containerized deployments and CI/CD processes.
• Partner with product, design, and DevOps stakeholders to deliver solutions and resolve production issues in cloud-based environments.
• At least 8 years of hands-on experience in software engineering with a track record of delivering production-grade applications.
• Strong programming expertise in Python or Node.js for backend development.
• Practical experience building modern frontend applications with React.
• Working knowledge of relational databases such as PostgreSQL or MySQL, and/or NoSQL platforms such as MongoDB or DynamoDB.
• Solid understanding of API design principles, web services, and asynchronous programming concepts.
• Experience using Git within collaborative development environments and team-based workflows.
• Demonstrated analytical thinking, sound problem-solving skills, and the ability to manage competing priorities effectively.
• Commitment to producing readable, maintainable, and well-documented code, supported by clear communication and teamwork.