Principal Software Engineer

Help shape how cities are designed

We are looking for a Principal Software Engineer to join us in developing the next generation of our AI-powered architecture design platform. Your contributions will have a direct impact on shaping our product and helping teams move faster across the organization. Our teams work on everything from complex 3D workflows in the browser to AI-driven analyses.

As a Principal Engineer, you'll play a key role in setting technical direction and shaping how we build. You communicate complex ideas clearly and bring others along, helping teams make better decisions and move faster. You'll work on systems that combine cloud architecture, performance-sensitive applications, and AI to support complex design and simulation workflows.

Your work will enable architects, planners, and developers to discover smarter,

more sustainable solutions and gain meaningful insights into their projects.

About us

We're on a mission to help design better cities.

With 90% of future population growth expected in urban areas, and construction responsible for around 40% of global CO₂ emissions, the AEC industry must evolve. Our cloud-based Autodesk Forma platform helps users evaluate design choices based on environmental impact, living quality (sun, daylight, noise), and project feasibility. We started as Spacemaker in Norway and became part of Autodesk in 2020.

Learn more about Autodesk Forma here.

How we work

We work in small, autonomous teams with a high degree of trust and ownership. We strongly believe in servant leadership and team accountability. In each team, software engineers work closely together with product managers and designers. To learn more about our way of working, read through our tech and product core beliefs.

Responsibilities

As a Principal Software Engineer, you will use your technical expertise and strategic thinking to drive progress across team boundaries. You'll contribute as a senior individual contributor, combining hands‑on engineering with broad technical influence.

In this role, you will:

• Set technical direction and influence architecture across teams, with a focus on scalability, performance, and reliability
• Contribute to the design and evolution of systems that combine cloud architecture, performance-sensitive applications, and AI-driven capabilities
• Drive high-impact technical initiatives and help align engineering efforts with broader product and business goals
• Navigate trade-offs between performance, cost, and user experience in complex workflows
• Collaborate closely with engineers, product managers, and designers to deliver meaningful user outcomes
• Share knowledge, mentor others, and help grow technical capability across the organization

Desired profile

• Operates with a high degree of autonomy and clarity in ambiguous situations
• Drives architectural and strategic decisions across squads or domains
• Recognized as a domain expert or strong generalist across multiple technologies
• Brings others along by mentoring, enabling, and fostering technical growth
• Continuously identifies areas for improvement in how we work and delivers change
• Collaborates across functions to align engineering with product and user outcomes
• Motivated by our mission and focused on delivering meaningful outcomes at scale

Areas of expertise that might resonate with you

• You get your energy from building the foundations other people rely on, pulling systems apart into simple, observable pieces, owning something in production long enough to feel responsible for it, and reaching for the boring, reliable option before building something new.
• You're drawn to problems where the math is the hard part, geometry, simulation, optimization, and you like taking a model from "this is the theory" to something that runs reliably on real inputs and matches what users expect to see.
• You start from the user and the problem, not the ticket. You are comfortable with a fuzzy brief and a blank repo, shipping fast to learn, and shaping what gets built as much as how it gets built.

What will help you succeed in this role

• Strong hands‑on engineering background building cloud-based, user-facing systems
• Proven experience driving architectural or technical decisions beyond a single team
• Strong collaboration and communication skills across disciplines and seniority levels
• Experience with Agentic AI

You might also bring

• Experience with TypeScript, serverless architectures and AWS
• Background in large-scale systems or platform development
• Experience working in cross-functional, international product teams
• Experience with 3D graphics, WebGL/WebGPU, or real-time rendering in the browser
• Experience with computational geometry, spatial algorithms, or CAD/BIM data models

Why join us

• Work on real-world problems with measurable environmental impact
• Shape technical direction at a platform level
• Collaborate with experienced engineers across disciplines
• Competitive compensation, pension, and benefits

We believe diverse teams build better products, and we're committed to creating a workplace where people can be themselves and do their best work. We encourage you to apply even if your experience doesn't match every requirement listed. Curiosity, empathy, and a growth mindset matter just as much to us.

Learn More

About Autodesk

Welcome to Autodesk! Amazing things are created every day with our software - from the greenest buildings and cleanest cars to the smartest factories and biggest hit movies. We help innovators turn their ideas into reality, transforming not only how things are made, but what can be made.

We take great pride in our culture here at Autodesk - it's at the core of everything we do. Our culture guides the way we work and treat each other, inform how we connect with customers and partners, and defines how we show up in the world.

When you're an Autodesker, you can do meaningful work that helps build a better world designed and made for all. Ready to shape the world and your future? Join us!

Salary transparency

Salary is one part of Autodesk's competitive compensation package. Offers are based on the candidate's experience and geographic location. In addition to base salaries, our compensation package may include annual cash bonuses, commissions for sales roles, stock grants, and a comprehensive benefits package.

Belonging

We take pride in cultivating a culture of belonging where everyone can thrive. Learn more here:

In-Person Onboarding and Identity Verification

This role may require in-person onboarding and/or in-person ID verification.