Principal Software Engineer

Work Where You Matter

At Dollar General, our mission is Serving Others! We value each and every one of our employees. Whether you are looking to launch a new career in one of our many convenient Store locations, Distribution Centers, Store Support Center or with our Private Fleet Team, we are proud to provide a wide range of career opportunities. We are not just a retail company; we are a company that values the unique strengths and perspectives that each individual brings. Your difference truly makes a difference at Dollar General. How would you like to Serve? Join the Dollar General Journey and see how your career can thrive.

Company Overview

Dollar General Corporation has been delivering value to shoppers for more than 80 years. Dollar General helps shoppers Save time. Save money. Every day.® by offering products that are frequently used and replenished, such as food, snacks, health and beauty aids, cleaning supplies, basic apparel, housewares and seasonal items at everyday low prices in convenient neighborhood locations. Learn more about Dollar General at .

Job Details

A Principal Software Engineer (PSE) is recognized as a master software engineer able to solve the most complex technical problems. They lead and manage system-wide/cross-functional teams consisting of on-shore and off-shore staff and can easily communicate project risks, concerns and updates to senior management. They possess an expert knowledge of IT tools and a thorough understanding of all applications in their functional domain as well as how each is used to forward the goals of the business. The PSE coaches and mentors team members and instructs them in new tools, processes and procedures to ensure standardization.

Duties & Responsibilities:

• Application-level software design and development 40%

• Lead teams to delivery project/product solutions 35%

• Industry research, strategic planning, team formation and cost estimation 10%

• Mentors/coaches application team members 5%

• Evaluates and applies emerging and evolving technologies 5%

• Provides support and leads cross-functional swat teams to determine root causes 5%

Qualifications

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (KSAs):

• Ability to communicate highly complex technical information in a condensed manner to various stakeholders both verbally and in writing.

• Proactively advises Product Owners of developments and advancement in technology that can impact business operations.

• Experienced leader with proven capability to grow talent and partner with other disciplines.

• Participates in identifying career opportunities, growing talent, and planning for succession.

• Able to train and mentor software engineers in all aspects of the software delivery process.

• Able to participate in or guide the software selection process to meet the business requirements.

• Applies emerging and evolving technologies to current and future business needs at strategic and tactical levels.

• Reviews, evaluates, recommends and pilots emerging technologies prior to investment or deployment.

• Accountable for code quality, standards, and processes for the domain.

• Tracks and evaluates software team and supplier performance to ensure product and process conformance to project plans and industry standards.

• Extensive knowledge of software engineering principles, methodologies, and current best practices.

• Energetic multitasker able to maintain detailed oversight and technical leadership on multiple development teams delivering highly complex solutions.

• Oversees internal and external project dependencies and critical paths.

• Sets direction for the team and guides the engineering vision.

• Educate team on technology changes applicable to their domain.

• Understands and implements architectural vision for performance, extensibility, and availability.

• Knowledgeable of all deployed production and development systems within their domain.

• Accountable for overall technical designs for in-house solutions and performance for all solutions within domain (inc. SaaS).

• Expert analytical skills with a demonstrated mastery in design, implementation, integration, testing, deployment, and support spanning multiple technologies.

• Able to champion technical investigations and cost estimates.

• Extensive knowledge of IT Security principles and controls to ensure systems operate safely and securely.

Work Experience &/or Education:

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science or related field, trade school or equivalent work experience

• Proven ability to lead architectural design decisions, define design patterns, and drive system integrations

• Experience developing and integrating AI agents to support workflow automation and decision-making.

• Working knowledge of LLM orchestration, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) patterns, and agent monitoring and governance.

• Experience modernizing legacy applications to cloud-native or microservices architectures

• Hands-on experience with Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

• Extensive experience with CI/CD pipelines, telemetry/monitoring, and Kubernetes-based deployments

• Proficiency with source control, build and quality tools such as GitLab

• 9+ years of software development experience in an enterprise IT environment

• 7+ years of experience as a full stack Java developer

• 5+ years of experience with a higher-level language (C, Java, Python)

• 3+ years of hands-on development using PL/SQL, shell scripting

• 2+ years of experience with real time streaming platform (Kafka)

• 2+ years delivering software supporting Merchandising or retail-related applications