Principal Software Engineer (AI Full stack)

Job Title: Principal Software Engineer (AI Full stack)
Location: Houston, TX (hybrid)

Our client is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to own enterprise-level software solutions end to end. The work runs from the first conversation with business stakeholders through design, hands-on development, testing, and delivery. This is a senior, hands-on, full stack role for an engineer who works directly with business users to define requirements, without a Business Analyst or Product Owner, and then designs and builds the solution personally. The right candidate uses agentic AI tools to meaningfully speed up how code gets written, tested, and delivered, and sets the technical direction for the team.
The ideal candidate is language agnostic (strong Java, Python, or .NET/C# backgrounds are all welcome) and brings 10+ years of deep full stack development experience. They should be equally comfortable in a requirements session with business leaders and in the codebase, and have real, practical experience with agentic AI tools such as Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, or similar. This is a software engineering role, not a data engineering role.

Key Responsibilities:
• Partners directly with business stakeholders to discover, elicit, and document requirements without BA or Product Owner support, including running discovery sessions, clarifying ambiguous needs, and defining scope and acceptance criteria.
• Translates business problems into technical designs, solution architectures, and scalable software solutions, and owns them from concept through production.
• Designs, develops, codes, tests, debugs, implements, and maintains enterprise-level full stack applications across the front end and back end, staying hands-on in development day to day.
• Uses agentic AI tools (Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, or similar) throughout the software development lifecycle to accelerate coding, testing, debugging, and delivery.
• Sets technical direction for new solutions and significant enhancements to existing applications, and makes and defends key architecture and design decisions.
• Leads design and coding sessions and collaborates with Architects and other technical team members on enterprise-wide solutions.
• Performs complex analysis of business processes, system requirements, and information systems to identify effective technology solutions.
• Manages stakeholder expectations, prioritization, and trade-offs, and communicates scope, timelines, risks, and recommendations to business and technical audiences.
• Writes SQL to retrieve and write application data within the enterprise data warehouse (Snowflake).
• Resolves technical and design conflicts and drives consensus across teams throughout the development lifecycle.
• Conducts code reviews and establishes enterprise coding standards and development best practices, including the effective and responsible use of AI-generated code.
• Troubleshoots and resolves complex application and customer issues, identifying root causes and implementing durable solutions.
• Gathers and acts on user feedback to drive application enhancements, improvements, and new functionality.
• Leads systems planning, scheduling, implementation, and deployment activities.
• Ensures thorough software testing and debugging for functionality, reliability, and performance.
• Creates and maintains technical documentation, including requirements, designs, system changes, and development processes.
• Mentors and develops engineers at all levels, including helping them adopt AI-assisted development practices and build stakeholder-facing skills.
• Works effectively in a fast-paced environment while managing multiple priorities and meeting deadlines.
• May participate in rotating on-call support as needed.

Required Qualifications:
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Management Information Systems, or a related field, or equivalent relevant experience.
• 10+ years of professional full stack software development experience.
• Proven experience gathering and defining requirements directly with business stakeholders, without BA or Product Owner support, and delivering the resulting solutions hands-on.
• Strong hands-on coding skills in Java, Python, or .NET/C#. The role is language agnostic, so depth of engineering ability matters more than a specific language.
• Extensive experience designing and building both front-end and back-end components of web-based enterprise applications.
• Demonstrated experience in solution design and architecture for enterprise-level systems.
• Hands-on agentic AI development experience, using tools such as Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, or similar to accelerate real-world code delivery (not just autocomplete).
• Working SQL knowledge sufficient to query, retrieve, and write data. Experience with Snowflake is a plus. Data transformation and data engineering experience are not required.
• Strong understanding of software development methodologies and the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC).
• Experience leading code reviews and defining enterprise coding standards.
• Experience with software testing, QA methodologies, debugging, and system analysis.
• Strong technical problem-solving and analytical skills, including the ability to bring structure to ambiguous business problems.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to work credibly with business leaders, users, Architects, and developers.
• Demonstrated ability to mentor and grow engineers.
• Ability to learn and adapt quickly to new and emerging technologies.
• Ability to multitask, meet deadlines, and work effectively in a fast-paced environment.

Preferred Qualifications:
• Experience establishing or championing AI-assisted development workflows within an engineering team.
• Experience with Snowflake as an enterprise data warehouse.
• Experience with imaging technology.
• Experience with system design, systems analysis, software implementation, and upgrades.
• Experience with Unified Modeling Language (UML) or similar modeling methodologies.
• Knowledge of project management and change management principles related to software development lifecycles.
• Experience leading technical teams, driving consensus, and resolving complex technical problems.