Principal Software Engineer - AI

Principal Software Engineer

Since 1906, New Balance has empowered people through sport and craftsmanship to create positive change in communities around the world. We innovate fearlessly, guided by our core values and driven by the belief that conventions were meant to be challenged. We foster a culture in which every associate feels welcomed and respected, where leaders and creatives are inspired to shape the world of tomorrow by taking bold action today.

New Balance is seeking an experienced Principal Software Engineer to join our Enterprise AI Solutions team. This team is responsible for researching and delivering AI based solutions across the company to improve internal workflows, decision-making, and operational efficiency across a wide range of business functions, including operations, supply chain, finance, product, and corporate services.

A core focus of this role is designing and building enterprise-grade AI assistants and automations using RAG and agentic AI techniques —software agents that can plan, coordinate tools, interact with systems, and execute multi-step workflows with appropriate guardrails. These approaches are becoming an important part of modern enterprise software architectures, particularly for scaling automation responsibly across complex organizations. In this role, you will work closely with cross-functional partners, data and platform teams, and other engineers to design, implement, and deploy AI-enabled systems that are reliable, maintainable, and aligned with business needs.

This position is based in our Brighton, MA corporate office with occasional travel to Lawrence, MA.

Major Responsibilities:

• Architect Agentic Systems: Define the architectural blueprint for autonomous and semi-autonomous agents that execute multi-step business processes across disparate enterprise systems.
• Strategic Collaboration: Partner with leadership in Finance, Supply Chain, and Product to identify high-value automation opportunities and translate them into scalable AI solutions.
• AI Platform Development: Lead the selection and implementation of models, tools, frameworks, and SDKs across Open Source and Microsoft AI ecosystem (Microsoft Foundry and Copilot Studio) ensuring all solutions meet enterprise standards for security, privacy, and cost-efficiency.
• System Design & Guardrails: Design robust "human-in-the-loop" systems and technical guardrails to ensure AI agents operate reliably and safely within a complex corporate environment.
• Prototype to Production: Oversee the full lifecycle of AI deployments—from initial Proof of Concept (PoC) to production-grade integration with internal APIs and databases.
• Technical Mentorship: Act as a subject matter expert on Large Language Model (LLM) orchestration, guiding other engineers on best practices for RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) and agentic reasoning.

Requirements for Success:

• 10+ years of experience in software development, with at least 4 years focused on AI/Machine Learning and Large Language Models.
• Proven Experience in Agentic Frameworks: Hands-on experience building with frameworks such as LangChain, LangGraph, or Semantic Kernel.
• Mastery of the Microsoft AI Ecosystem: Experience with Azure OpenAI Service, Azure AI Search, Microsoft Copilot Studio and related areas
• Advanced Python: Expert-level Python skills, with a focus on building scalable, highly concurrent, maintainable enterprise backends.
• Comfortable with Front End development using React or similar
• Systems Integration: Strong background in designing RESTful APIs and integrating AI agents with legacy and modern enterprise systems (ERPs, CRMs, and SQL/NoSQL databases).
• Architectural Vision: Ability to distinguish between "hype" and "utility," choosing the right AI approach (RAG vs. Fine-tuning vs. Prompt Engineering) for the specific business problem.
• Effective Communicator: Ability to explain complex AI logic and agentic workflows to non-technical business stakeholders using clear, visual communication.
• Education: Degree in Computer Science, Data Science, or a closely related field.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Vector Database Proficiency: Experience with specialized vector stores such as Azure AI Search.
• Agentic Memory & State: Familiarity with implementing persistent memory and long-term state management for multi-session AI agents.
• DevOps for AI: Experience setting up LLMOps pipelines for monitoring model performance, drift, and hallucination rates.
• Frontend Basics: Familiarity with Chainlit or Streamlit for rapid internal prototyping of agent interfaces.
• Security Background: Understanding of prompt injection mitigation and secure data handling in GenAI applications.

Boston, MA 80 Guest Street Only Pay Range: $120,000.00 - $150,000.00 - $180,000.00 Annual (actual base pay varying based upon, but not limited to, relevant experience, time in role, internal equity, geographic location, and more.)

Regular Associate Benefits

Our products are only as good as the people we hire, so we make sure to hire the best and treat them accordingly. New Balance offers a comprehensive traditional benefits package including three options for medical insurance as well as dental, vision, life insurance and 401K. We also proudly offer a slate of more nontraditional perks – opportunities like online learning and development courses, tuition reimbursement, $100 monthly student loan support and various mentorship programs – that encourage our associates to grow personally as they develop professionally. You'll also enjoy a yearly $1,000 lifestyle reimbursement, 4 weeks of vacations, 12 holidays and generous parental leave, because work-life balance is more than just a buzzword – it's part of our culture.

Temporary associates are provided three options for medical insurance as well as dental and vision insurance and an associate discount.

Part time associates are provided 401k, short term disability, a yearly $300 lifestyle reimbursement and an associate discount.

Flexible Work Schedule

For decades we have fostered a unique culture founded on our values with a particular focus on in-person teamwork and collaboration. Our North American hybrid model encourages rich in-person experiences, showcasing our commitment to teamwork and connection, while maintaining flexibility for associates. New Balance Associates currently work in office three days per week (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday). Our offices are fully open, and amenities are available across our North American office locations. To continue our focus on hybrid work we have introduced "Work from Anywhere" (WFA) for four weeks per calendar year. This model will help us enhance our culture while continuing to maintain elements of flexibility.

Equal Opportunity Employer

New Balance provides equal opportunities for all current and prospective associates to ensure that employment, training, compensation, transfer, promotion and other terms, conditions and privileges of employment are provided without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, handicap, genetic information and/or status as an Armed Forces service medal veteran, recently separated veteran, qualified disabled veteran or other protected veteran, or any other protected status.