Principal Software Engineer

Principal Software Engineer

On-site in Los Angeles, CA

Our client seeks a Principal Software Engineer to lead backend services and APIs for a payment processing platform supporting prominent technology partners. The role will drive technical leadership across release engineering, DevOps pipelines, observability, reliability, and secure SDLC in an AI-enabled environment.

This is a contract to hire opportunity. Applicants must be willing and able to work on a w2 basis and convert to FTE following contract duration. For our w2 consultants, we offer a great benefits package that includes Medical, Dental, and Vision benefits, 401k with company matching, and life insurance.

Rate: $70.00 to $76.00/hr. w2

Responsibilities:

• Analyze, design, program, debug, and modify software enhancements and new products across local, networked, cloud, or internet applications.
• Develop backend services and RESTful APIs supporting platform operations, release engineering, DevOps pipelines, and integrations.
• Collaborate with QA, Security, and Infrastructure to ensure reliable deployments and performance.
• Lead initiatives to improve CI/CD workflows, observability, and platform reliability.
• Implement monitoring and alerting to meet SLAs and enable rapid incident response.
• Mentor engineers and promote best practices across the domain.
• Translate platform requirements into scalable technical solutions with stakeholders.
• Operate in an AI-driven SDLC and leverage AI code assistants.
• Implement intelligent testing frameworks that auto-generate tests, predict defects, and enable self-healing.
• Lead test automation frameworks using standard tools for REST-based APIs on Azure.
• Integrate test suites into CI/CD pipelines.
• Lead test strategy, planning, and execution for functional, integration, system, end-to-end, accessibility, database validation, and automation.

Experience Requirements:

• 8+ years of software engineering experience with 2+ years in a technical lead role.
• Proficiency with C#, .NET, SQL Server, and Azure cloud solutions.
• Strong understanding of RESTful API design, OAuth2, and microservices.
• Familiarity with DevOps tools such as GitHub Actions.
• Knowledge of queuing mechanisms, multithreading, multitasking, and distributed computing.
• Experience with containers, release automation, and observability tools such as Datadog.
• Secure coding practices and compliance workflows in regulated environments (e.g., PCI DSS, SOC 2).
• Strong analytical, multitasking, and organizational skills.
• Experience with Agile methods and tools such as JIRA.
• Preferred: fintech experience, peer-to-peer payments, stability and release management, open-source or publications, and leadership in scalable platform engineering.

Education Requirements:

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field, or equivalent work experience.