Sr. Principal - Software Engineer

About the Role:

In this role, you will be a pivotal leader driving the AI & Data transformation journey for a core CBRE Advisory business unit. Your strategic vision will be crucial in integrating cutting‑edge AI, machine learning, and advanced analytics to deliver measurably better client outcomes and drive CBRE's continued leadership in advisory services.

This exciting opportunity requires an innovative technology leader with a proven track record of building and leading world‑class global technology teams and platforms, attracting top industry talent, and possessing deep technical expertise in AI, Data, Cloud, and modern software development. You will lead the development, enhancement, and evolution of client systems of the highest complexity and importance. You will collaborate closely with Product, Design, and Business Operations partners to maximize user benefit and ROI — ultimately accelerating our transformational objectives through an iterative, client‑centric approach. If you're ready to architect the future of real estate through groundbreaking innovation, seize this chance to make a monumental impact.

What you'll do

• Strategic Leadership & AI Transformation: Provide visionary thought leadership to drive the AI transformation journey, integrating cutting‑edge AI/ML, Data, and advanced analytics to revolutionize services and drive leadership in advisory services.
• Operational Excellence: Spearhead operational excellence across all engineering functions, ensuring the continuous delivery of high‑quality, impactful software and data applications. Identify and significantly improve existing methods, processes, and standards within the job discipline.
• Values‑Driven Leadership: Lead by example, modelling behaviours consistent with CBRE RISE values. Persuade and influence managers and colleagues, aligning actions with functional business plans.
• Critical Thinking: Identify and solve multi‑dimensional, complex, operational, and organisational problems, leveraging internal and external resources.
• Stakeholder Collaboration: Influence and collaborate with key business stakeholders at all levels to define, build, and implement a strategy and roadmap for business teams, ensuring products deliver maximum user benefit and ROI.
• Driving Data Strategy: Stay abreast of emerging technologies and market trends in AI & Data, applying learnings to improve business and customer experience. Drive a forward‑looking data strategy that can realise long‑term and commercial objectives.
• Develop, maintain, enhance, and test systems of the highest complexity. Manage the implementation of other systems. Serve as the primary technical point of contact on engagements of the highest complexity and critical value to the organization. Perform or oversee the investigation and resolution of advanced and critical data, system, and software issues in the production environment.
• Liaise with clients on strategic engagements and with strategic partners on system and data integration.
• Apply mastery level expertise and breadth of knowledge of the job function and the industry. Provide an external thought leadership mentality that impacts industry developments and trends.

What you'll need

To excel in this transformative role, you will need a unique blend of strategic vision, technical prowess, and leadership capabilities:

• Minimum of a bachelor’s degree in computer science, Engineering, or a related field
• At least 7 years of experience in software engineering or data engineering
• At least 7 years of experience in full‑stack enterprise application development
• 7+ years of experience with modern enterprise application frameworks
• 7+ years of experience with enterprise relational databases
• 7+ years of experience architecting and building RESTful APIs or Microservices
• At least 2 years of experience in architecting & building platforms powered by AI/ML models.

Preferred Skills & Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in computer science or engineering.
• Experience managing the technology strategy for an organization’s product.
• Proven ability to architect highly resilient, cyber‑secure, and cost‑effective enterprise platforms that adhere to the highest engineering standards
• Machine Learning Fundamentals: Deep understanding of various machine learning algorithms, statistical modeling, and advanced deep learning techniques including Generative AI, LLMs, and emerging AI paradigms
• 10+ years designing and implementing cloud‑native architectures, including serverless, containerized, and event‑driven systems
• 10+ years of experience across public cloud platforms
• 10+ years of experience building or managing large‑scale data consumption, management, or governance platforms
• 10+ years leading multi‑functional data engineering and full‑stack teams
• 10+ years with large‑scale data processing frameworks
• 10+ years with Agile project management tools and CI/CD pipelines
• Experience with enterprise observability, monitoring, and NoSQL database platforms
• Tech Stack: Modern full‑stack frameworks, cloud‑native infrastructure, enterprise databases, and AI/ML tooling

Personal Attributes:

• Independent judgment skills to determine methods, techniques, and evaluation criteria for measuring success.
• Ability to recognise and resolve situations of substantial significance in a field of expertise or knowledge.
• Must be meticulously organised and have a masterful inquisitive mindset. Strong engineering and technology background - ability to learn quickly and go deep into solutions.
• Expert organisational skills and an advanced inquisitive mindset.
• Effective communicator: Excellent listener; proven collaborator with senior leaders, peers, and staff.
• Bold: History of taking smart, calculated risks and aggressively leading through change.
• Curious: Hands‑on, "roll up your sleeves" collaborative style of working.
• Passionate: Bring energy and enthusiasm to the job and organisation.
• Outcome Focused: Consistently attain/exceed individual & team goals while solving constraints through creative problem solving.
• Reasoning Ability: Ability to comprehend, analyse, and interpret complex documents. Ability to solve problems involving several options in situations. Requires advanced analytical and quantitative skills. Ability to direct others and teams to these tasks.

• Effective Delegation: Decisions made with a thorough understanding of technical best practices and a general understanding of procedures and company policies to achieve set results and deadlines. Ability to direct others and teams to these tasks taking full accountability of the outcomes.

About CBRE

CBRE Group, Inc. (NYSE: CBRE) is a Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company headquartered in Dallas, and the world's largest commercial real estate services and investment firm. With more than 100,000 employees serving clients in over 100 countries, CBRE delivers an integrated suite of services spanning facilities, transaction and project management, property management, investment management, appraisal and valuation, leasing, strategic consulting, and development services.

Working at CBRE

When you join CBRE you will have the support and resources of a global firm where an entrepreneurial mindset is encouraged. You'll realise your potential with challenging work, fast‑paced assignments, an environment of constant learning, and a commitment to results. Our collaborative culture is built on our RISE values and reflects the needs and perspectives of our clients and our people.

Our work is guided by our North Star: Creating the real estate solutions of tomorrow, so businesses and people thrive. At CBRE, we believe that the more perspectives we have, the more dimensions we see. We welcome people with different backgrounds and experiences across industries to apply even if you do not match every element of the required skills.