Principal Software Engineer

Job Details

The Principal Architect for Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) is responsible for defining and driving the enterprise architecture strategy for warehouse and distribution center technology platforms. This role provides technical leadership for WMS solutions, integration architecture, automation technologies, and end-to-end supply chain systems that support inventory management, fulfillment, transportation, and omnichannel operations.

The Principal Architect partners with business stakeholders, product teams, engineering teams, vendors, and operational leaders to design scalable, reliable, and innovative solutions that enhance warehouse productivity, inventory accuracy, operational efficiency, and customer satisfaction.

Duties & Responsibilities:

• WMS Architecture Strategy
• Define and maintain the long-term architecture roadmap for Warehouse Management Systems.
• Lead architecture decisions for WMS platforms.
• Develop enterprise architecture standards, reference architectures, and best practices for warehouse technology.
• Ensure alignment between business strategy and technology investments.

Solution Design & Delivery

• Design scalable, resilient, and secure warehouse solutions supporting distribution center operations.
• Provide technical leadership across inbound, outbound, inventory, labor management, slotting, replenishment, and fulfillment processes.
• Lead architecture reviews and approve solution designs across multiple initiatives.
• Drive modernization efforts including cloud transformation and microservices adoption.
• Leadership & Collaboration by mentoring Solution Architects, engineers, and technical leads.
• Integration Architecture Design integrations between:
• WMS
• Transportation Management Systems (TMS)
• Order Management Systems (OMS)
• Automation Control Systems (WCS/WES)
• Supplier and carrier platforms
• Collaborate with business leaders, operations teams, and product managers to prioritize capabilities.
• Influence executive stakeholders regarding technology direction and investment decisions.
• Lead cross-functional architecture forums and design councils.

Job 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:

• Strong hands-on development background in C, C++, Java, and SQL with the ability to guide engineering teams on design patterns, coding standards, performance optimization, and scalability.
• Experience designing and supporting mission-critical warehouse applications developed using Java and C/C++ technologies.
• Deep understanding of database architecture, SQL optimization, transaction processing, and large-scale data integration.
• Ability to review code, conduct architecture assessments, and establish engineering best practices across distributed development teams
• Experience integrating WMS platforms with automation systems, robotics, and real-time control applications that leverage C/C++ and Java-based services.
• 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)
• Deep expertise in one or more WMS platforms.