Principal Software Engineer
Principal Engineer · Principal · Full Time · Remote
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Role
What you'll do.
Principal Software Engineer role at Panoptyc, an AI-powered loss prevention platform combining computer vision and retail integrations. You will serve as the technical anchor for Core and Service Delivery teams, owning architectural decisions, test automation strategy, CI/CD pipelines, and cross-team technical leadership. Requires deep production backend expertise in .NET/C#, frontend proficiency in Angular, Node.js frameworks (Nest.js, Next.js), AWS/Heroku infrastructure knowledge, and demonstrated systems thinking across complex distributed systems.
Responsibilities
- Architectural Leadership and Systems Design: Drive comprehensive architectural decisions across Core and Service Delivery teams, defining API design patterns, service boundaries, data flow models, and scalability patterns that support expansion into new verticals. Lead formal design reviews, serve as final decision-maker on high-impact technical approaches, and design secure, maintainable authentication flows including JWT, Auth0 token lifecycle management, and multi-tenant identity patterns.
- Test Automation and Quality Culture: Establish and own test-driven development (TDD) culture across both teams by actively implementing complex automated testing strategies for async pipelines, third-party integrations, multi-tenant edge cases, and video processing workflows. Write proof-of-concept tests demonstrating achievability, enforce meaningful test coverage requirements, and ensure quality gates prevent shipping untested code.
- CI/CD Pipeline Engineering and Developer Experience: Own and optimize continuous integration and continuous deployment pipelines, creating fast and reliable feedback loops that enable confident code shipping. Design and implement integration testing, contract testing, and load testing stages as first-class pipeline components. Automate repetitive manual processes and eliminate bottlenecks in the developer workflow.
- Cross-Team Technical Leadership: Serve as technical force multiplier for senior engineers across Core and Service Delivery teams through code reviews that educate, design discussions that sharpen architectural thinking, and partnership with CV, HITL, Growth, and Loss Prevention teams on cross-cutting infrastructure patterns and shared platform concerns.
- Production Systems Oversight: Maintain oversight of production systems spanning mixed cloud environments (AWS and Heroku), ensure SOC 2 Type 2 compliance standards are embedded in development practices, and oversee the technical health of foundational platform services that other teams depend upon.
Qualifications
What we look for.
Technical
Production .NET/C# Backend Systems
Extensive hands-on experience building, deploying, and maintaining production-grade backend systems in .NET/C#. Demonstrated expertise beyond CRUD applications, including performance optimization, complex business logic implementation, and architectural patterns at scale.
Frontend Development - Angular
Solid production experience with Angular framework including component architecture, dependency injection, RxJS reactive programming patterns, and integration with backend APIs. Ability to evaluate frontend patterns and contribute meaningfully to frontend architecture decisions.
Node.js Backend Frameworks
Production-level expertise with Nest.js and Next.js frameworks, including building scalable backend APIs, middleware patterns, authentication integration, and serverless deployment considerations. Understanding of TypeScript in Node.js environments.
AWS Infrastructure and Cloud Architecture
Deep practical knowledge of AWS services extending beyond basic usage—IAM policies, VPC networking, compute options (EC2, Lambda, ECS), cost optimization at scale. Experience with multi-region deployments, auto-scaling strategies, and infrastructure-as-code practices.
Authentication and Identity Management
Proven expertise debugging complex authentication scenarios at production scale: JWT token expiration handling, refresh token flows, audience claim validation, role-based access control (RBAC), and multi-tenant isolation patterns in Auth0 or equivalent platforms.
Test-Driven Development (TDD) and Test Automation
Advanced TDD practice that catches actual bugs rather than passing by default construction. Experience designing and implementing comprehensive automated test suites for complex scenarios including async operations, external service integrations, and edge cases. Portfolio-quality CI/CD pipelines.
Systems Design and Distributed Systems
Systems-thinking approach to architecture demonstrated through experience designing service boundaries, API contracts, data consistency patterns, and scalable distributed systems. Ability to identify coupling antipatterns and design for maintainability and future change.
Education
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or Related Field
Formal education in computer science, software engineering, mathematics, or related technical discipline, or equivalent professional experience demonstrating equivalent depth of computer science fundamentals.
Experience
10+ Years Software Engineering Experience
Minimum 10 years of professional software engineering experience with significant focus on backend systems, distributed architecture, and production infrastructure. Track record of working in senior technical roles, influencing architectural decisions, and mentoring engineering teams.
5+ Years Production Backend Development
At least 5 years of hands-on development in production backend systems, not limited to single technology stack. Experience shipping features that scale to millions of transactions and managing technical debt at scale.
Retail Technology or Loss Prevention Domain
Preferred experience in retail technology, e-commerce platforms, loss prevention systems, or adjacent high-throughput event processing domains. Understanding of retail operational challenges and technology integration requirements.
End-to-End Testing Framework Experience
Hands-on experience with BDD (Behavior-Driven Development) testing frameworks, specifically Playwright BDD for cross-team test alignment. Ability to write maintainable end-to-end tests that serve as executable specifications.
Skills
Required
.NET and C# Backend Development
Production-grade backend engineering with .NET Framework and C#, including async/await patterns, LINQ, Entity Framework, dependency injection containers, and middleware design.
Angular Frontend Framework
Component-based architecture, reactive programming with RxJS, dependency injection, HTTP client integration, state management patterns, and performance optimization in single-page applications.
Node.js with Nest.js and Next.js
Backend API development with Nest.js including decorators, dependency injection, middleware, and microservices patterns. Full-stack development with Next.js including API routes, server-side rendering, and static generation.
AWS Cloud Services
Practical expertise with EC2, S3, RDS, Lambda, ECS, IAM, VPC, CloudWatch, and cost optimization. Understanding of compute tradeoffs and infrastructure scaling patterns in production environments.
JWT and OAuth2 Authentication
Deep understanding of JWT token structure, lifecycle management, refresh token patterns, audience and subject claims, and integration with Auth0. Multi-tenant authentication and authorization patterns.
CI/CD Pipeline Design
Building reliable, fast feedback loop pipelines with automated testing stages, contract testing, integration testing, load testing, and deployment orchestration. Infrastructure-as-code for pipeline configuration.
Test-Driven Development
Unit testing frameworks (xUnit, Jest), mocking libraries, test design patterns, and the discipline to write meaningful tests that catch real bugs. Async test patterns and complex scenario testing.
Systems Architecture and Design
API design principles, service-oriented architecture, data modeling for scale, handling coupling and cohesion, designing for change, and architectural patterns for complex distributed systems.
Docker and Container Orchestration
Docker Compose for local development, containerization patterns, image optimization, and container networking. Familiarity with Kubernetes concepts for production orchestration.
Preferred
Playwright BDD Framework
Nice to haveExperience with Playwright for end-to-end testing using Behavior-Driven Development patterns. Ability to write executable specifications that align across engineering and non-technical stakeholders.
Computer Vision Integration
Nice to haveExperience integrating machine learning models and computer vision APIs into production systems, handling asynchronous processing, and designing workflows around HITL (human-in-the-loop) review patterns.
Heroku Platform Experience
Nice to havePractical deployment and operational experience with Heroku, including dynos, add-ons, buildpacks, and cost management. Comfort working across heterogeneous cloud environments.
SOC 2 Compliance Development
Nice to haveDevelopment practices and architectural patterns for SOC 2 Type 2 compliance, including audit logging, access controls, encryption, and security-aware development workflows.
Retail Tech and Loss Prevention Domain
Nice to haveBackground in retail technology, e-commerce, loss prevention systems, or inventory management. Understanding of retail operations, shrinkage challenges, and point-of-sale integration requirements.
High-Throughput Event Processing
Nice to haveExperience designing systems for processing high volumes of events, time-series data, or streaming pipelines. Understanding of backpressure, buffering, and eventual consistency patterns.
Multi-Tenant Architecture
Nice to haveHands-on design and implementation experience in multi-tenant SaaS systems, including data isolation strategies, tenant-aware queries, billing integrations, and security considerations.
Tech stack
Languages
Frameworks
Databases
Tools
Other
Compensation
Pay and benefits.
Base·USD 180,000 – 250,000
Benefits
Remote-First Work Environment
Fully distributed team structure with async-friendly communication practices, enabling work from anywhere with flexible scheduling.
Competitive Compensation Package
Market-competitive salary and comprehensive total compensation reflecting Principal-level seniority and technical contribution.
High Ownership and Impact
Small team structure means architectural decisions and code contributions appear in production within weeks, not quarters. Real influence on product direction and technical strategy without committee-driven consensus.
Diverse Technical Challenges
Opportunity to work across computer vision integration, multi-tenant SaaS architecture, high-throughput event processing, and retail technology expansion into grocery, hardware, and apparel verticals.
Mentorship and Technical Leadership
Lead technical direction for senior engineers across Core and Service Delivery teams, shaping engineering culture and raising organizational technical capability.
Full posting
Original listing.
Principal Software Engineer — Core & Service Delivery
Panoptyc · Full-Time · Remote · Reports to CTO
About Panoptyc
Panoptyc builds AI-powered loss prevention for the real world — micromarkets, corporate dining, grocery, and beyond. Our platform combines computer vision, human-in-the-loop review workflows, and deep retail integrations to help operators detect theft, reduce shrink, and protect margins at scale. We run on a mix of AWS and Heroku and build on proprietary computer vision AI. Small team, high ownership. Everyone here moves the needle.
The Role
We are looking for a Principal Software Engineer to be the technical anchor for our Core and Service Delivery teams. You are not a manager — you are the engineer who makes the whole system make sense. You will own architectural decisions, raise the quality bar on testing and CI/CD, and be the person others turn to when something is genuinely hard.
Core owns the foundational platform: customer-facing SaaS features, data models, and the infrastructure everything else depends on. Service Delivery owns the operational layer — integrating Computer Vision solutions for use by our internal Loss Prevention team of HITL investigators. You will be the connective tissue between both.
What You will Own
Architecture and systems design. Drive architectural decisions across both teams — API design, service boundaries, data flow, and scalability patterns that hold up as we enter new verticals. Lead design reviews and be the final word on approaches that will be costly to undo. Design auth and identity flows that are secure and maintainable: JWT, Auth0, token lifecycle, multi-tenant patterns.
Test automation and quality. Own TDD culture across both teams — not just evangelizing it, but writing the hard tests that prove it is achievable. Design automated test strategies for complex scenarios: async pipelines, third-party integrations, multi-tenant edge cases, video processing workflows. If it does not have meaningful test coverage, it does not ship.
CI/CD and developer experience. Own the pipelines. Fast, reliable feedback loops that let engineers ship with confidence instead of anxiety. Integration, contract, and load test stages baked in — not bolted on later. If engineers are doing something manually more than twice, you automate it.
Cross-team technical leadership. Be a force multiplier for senior engineers on Core and SD — code reviews that teach, design discussions that sharpen thinking. Partner with our CV, HITL, Growth, and Loss Prevention teams on cross-cutting concerns and shared infrastructure patterns.
What We are Looking For
You have real .NET/C# backend depth — production systems, not CRUD apps that happen to compile. You know Angular well enough to be dangerous. You have built production apps in Nest.js and Next.js. Your AWS fluency goes beyond having touched S3 — you understand IAM, networking, compute tradeoffs, and what things cost at scale — and you are comfortable working across a mixed cloud environment that includes Heroku. You have debugged JWT token expiry at midnight, understand refresh flows, audience claims, and multi-tenant isolation in Auth0, and you can explain it to someone else without condescension.
Most importantly: you think in systems before you write code. You understand how pieces interact, where coupling creates fragility, and how to design for change. Your TDD practice catches actual bugs rather than passing by construction. Your CI/CD pipelines are something you would show as portfolio work, not YAML held together by hope.
Strong signals: experience in retail tech, loss prevention, or high-throughput event processing; background spanning both core infrastructure and client-facing delivery contexts; familiarity with Playwright BDD for cross-team end-to-end test alignment; SOC 2-aware development instincts.
What We are Not Looking For
Architects who do not code. Engineers who mistake framework familiarity for system design skill. Anyone who thinks PHP is having a renaissance. People who configure CI/CD by copy-pasting Stack Overflow and call it pipeline engineering. Resume-driven development.
The Stack
Core runs on .NET/C# with Angular on the frontend. Service Delivery runs on Nest.js and Next.js. Each team owns their own unit testing approach; both teams align on end-to-end testing through Playwright BDD. We run on a mix of AWS and Heroku with Docker Compose locally. Authentication runs through Auth0 using JWTs. We are aiming at being SOC 2 Type 2 compliant this year.
Why Panoptyc
Your architectural decisions will be visible in the product within weeks, not quarters. We are actively expanding into grocery, hardware, and apparel — new technical challenges are on the roadmap right now. Small team means real ownership and no committee-driven design-by-consensus. Competitive compensation, remote-first, async-friendly.
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