Principal Software Engineer - Data Center Engineering

Principal Engineer, Data Center Controls Innovation

Johnson Controls is building the next generation of intelligent building systems for the world's most demanding environments, hyperscale data centers. We are looking for a deeply technical principal engineer with a native development background to join our Data Center Controls Innovation team — someone who thrives at the system level, owns hard platform problems, and sets the technical direction for the engineers around them.

This role sits inside our Data Center Controls Innovation Engineering team at our Controls Product Development Center in Glendale, WI. You will design and lead the development of high-performance native platform services and middleware running on Linux-based building management systems and network engine devices deployed in critical data center infrastructure globally. If you want to own the platform layer, shape architecture from the ground up, and build systems where correctness and performance genuinely matter, this is the role for you.

This position is 100% on-site at our new Controls Product Development Center and Lab in Glendale, WI, where you will collaborate closely with cross-disciplinary teams and work hands-on with real products. The role may include up to 20% travel.

How You Will Do It

• Defining and owning the technical architecture for native platform services and middleware, including IPC mechanisms, service APIs, and system-level resource management
• Leading design and implementation of high-performance C/C++ components running on embedded and desktop Linux platforms
• Establishing and enforcing engineering standards for native development: memory safety, concurrency patterns, error handling, and performance profiling
• Driving containerization strategy for native services using Docker on Linux, ensuring clean isolation and reliable deployment across device targets
• Serving as a hands-on technical lead and individual contributor — writing production code, conducting deep design reviews, and resolving the hardest system-level issues
• Mentoring and growing engineers on the team; elevating native development skills and instilling a culture of rigorous engineering
• Collaborating with firmware, controls, and application engineers to define clean interfaces and data contracts between platform services and higher-level software
• Participating in and leading agile planning activities including PI planning, story refinement, effort estimation, and cross-team dependency resolution
• Evaluating new native technologies and patterns and applying them pragmatically to real platform challenges
• Communicating technical decisions and trade-offs clearly to both engineering and non-engineering stakeholders

What We Look For

Required Qualifications

• JCI does not provide visa sponsorship for this role. Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States without current or future sponsorship.
• Bachelor of Science degree in Software Engineering, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or equivalent practical experience
• 8+ years of software engineering experience with a strong focus on native C/C++ development
• Deep expertise in systems programming on Linux: process management, threading, IPC, memory management, and performance optimization
• Proven track record designing and delivering production-grade platform services or middleware in C/C++
• Strong experience with software development on both desktop and embedded Linux environments
• Strong experience with Docker containerization of native Linux services
• Demonstrated ability to own technical architecture decisions and drive them through to implementation
• Ability to work effectively as both a hands-on individual contributor and a technical leader
• Excellent communication skills; able to write clear design documents and articulate trade-offs to cross-functional teams
• Experience working in agile teams using Git, GitHub, JIRA, and CI/CD tooling
• Must be authorized to work in the U.S.; no sponsorship available
• Must be able to work 100% on-site in Glendale, WI; up to 20% travel

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Rust for systems programming
• Experience with Kubernetes container orchestration
• Familiarity with data center infrastructure, HVAC systems, or Building Automation Systems
• Experience with industrial protocols or IoT communication layers (BACnet, Modbus, MQTT)
• Experience with managed development in C# and the.NET framework
• Experience with Microsoft SQL Server or PostgreSQL in production environments
• Experience implementing CI/CD pipelines with Jenkins or equivalent
• Experience with automated testing frameworks (Python, Robot Framework, or similar)
• Experience working with cross-functional or globally distributed engineering teams

HIRING SALARY RANGE: $100,000 - $164,000 (Salary to be determined by the education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities of the applicant, internal equity, and alignment with market data.) This role offers a competitive Bonus plan that will take into account individual, group, and corporate performance. This position includes a competitive benefits package. The posted salary range reflects the target compensation for this role. However, we recognize that exceptional candidates may bring unique skills and experiences that exceed the typical profile. If you believe your background warrants consideration beyond the stated range, we encourage you to apply. To support an efficient and fair hiring process, we may use technology assisted tools, including artificial intelligence (AI), to help identify and evaluate candidates. All hiring decisions are ultimately made by human reviewers.

Johnson Controls International plc. is an equal employment opportunity and affirmative action employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, protected veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity, status as a qualified individual with a disability or any other characteristic protected by law. To view more information about your equal opportunity and non-discrimination rights as a candidate, visit EEO is the Law . If you are an individual with a disability and you require an accommodation during the application process, please visit here.