Principal Software Engineer 

Principal Software Engineer  (AI-Driven Development)

Role Overview

This position requires a Principal Software Engineer to provide technical leadership and oversee software architecture. The role involves acting as a technical authority, selecting appropriate technologies, and driving the adoption of Spec-Driven Development and AI-assisted workflows. A core component of this role involves working directly with customers to build new features and modernize their entire technology estate, with the explicit goal of increasing business growth.  This is a hands-on technical leadership role focused on building, iterating, and enabling engineering excellence

Key Responsibilities

• Strategic Modernization & Growth: Partner with customers to assess current technology estates. Lead engineering efforts to refactor legacy systems and architect new features that drive measurable business outcomes and scalability. Provide clarity and direction within ambiguous or evolving problem spaces.
• Spec-Driven Development (SDD): Lead  a "spec-first" or "spec-as-source" methodology using Generative AI. Create structured, behavior-oriented specifications (requirements and designs) that serve as the primary source of truth, guiding AI agents to generate, verify, and maintain implementation code. Ensure that generated code, tests, and documentation align with the spec and architectural standards.
• Architectural Leadership: Design scalable, resilient systems. Translate complex business requirements into technical specifications that AI agents and engineering teams use as the foundation for development. Review implementations to ensure alignment with patterns, performance, and security expectations.
• AI-Assisted Engineering: Integrate AI tools like Cursor, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Speckit into development workflows. Evolve engineering practices  from manual coding to auditing, validating and refining AI-generated solutions based on rigorous specifications. Establish repeatable AI-driven development patterns.
• Polyglot Development: Evaluate and implement production-grade code across multiple languages and paradigms (e.g., TypeScript, Python, Go, .NET, Java) based on specific problem domains. Ramp quickly into unfamiliar stacks or codebases to provide clarity and direction.
• Technology Evaluation: Rapidly assess new technologies, frameworks, and patterns to determine viability and production readiness. Make informed recommendations balancing performance, maintainability, and team skill sets.
• Mentorship: Raise and maintain the engineering bar through code reviews, architectural designs, and mentoring other engineers on the team. Help engineers adopt SDD, AI-assisted workflows, and modern architectural practices.

Requirements

• 10+ Years of Experience: Proven experience as a Senior/Principal Engineer or Software Architect delivering complex distributed systems.
• Full Stack Mastery: Deep expertise in both frontend and backend development.

• Frontend: Advanced proficiency with modern JavaScript/TypeScript frameworks (e.g., React, Next.js, Vue, Svelte), state management, and modern CSS workflows (Tailwind, CSS-in-JS).
• Backend: Robust experience designing APIs (REST, GraphQL, gRPC) and server-side architecture using languages such as Node.js, Go, or Python.

• Polyglot Proficiency: Proficiency in at least three distinct programming languages (e.g. TypeScript, Python, Go, .NET, Java).
• Generative AI & SDD Experience: Experience utilizing Spec-Driven Development tools and workflows where specifications (natural language or structured docs) drive AI code generation. Ability to write "prompts as specs" and manage the lifecycle of AI-generated artifacts.
• Business-Aligned Engineering: Demonstrated ability to align technical refactoring and feature development with customer business goals and growth metrics.
• Rapid Skill Acquisition: Ability to quickly acquire proficiency in unknown codebases or new languages.
• System Design: Knowledge of microservices, event-driven architecture, cloud-native patterns (Kubernetes, Docker), and database internals (SQL & NoSQL).
• Experience Cloud Providers: AWS or Azure

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience transforming brownfield applications into modern architectures.
• Experience migrating and modernizing applications from on-premise to the Cloud.

Benefits

Compensation & Perks

• Competitive compensation package (CAD 190K-220K / year)
• Retirement Savings Matching Program (RRSP)
• Partnership with Perkopolis Discounts

Flexibility & Time Off

• Remote first work environment
• Flexible work hours & location
• Paid parental leave options

Health & Wellness

• Employer-paid health & dental premiums
• GreenShield+ Counselling Mental Health
• $500 in Health Care Spending Account annually

Growth & Development

• Training reimbursement (e.g courses on Udemy, Coursera, a-cloud-guru etc.)
• Peer recognition rewards

At OpsGuru, a Carbon60 Company, we encourage employees to bring their whole, authentic selves to work. By sharing and embracing unique backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives, we learn from each other, innovate, and create a dynamic environment where we can be and achieve our best.

We're dedicated to ensuring each member feels a sense of belonging, safety, and respect. At OpsGuru, your unique voice is heard and embraced, and you meaningfully contribute to decision-making and the organization's growth.

OpsGuru is committed to an equitable employee experience, opportunity, and support.

If you require accommodations or support during the recruitment process, please email us at careers@opsguru.io.

We thank all applicants for their interest in this exciting opportunity. Only candidates that meet the qualifications will be contacted for an interview.