Principal Software Engineer

Hybrid 50% ON SITE, half remote, work site either Jersey City, NJ or Westlake, TX

Our client seeks a Principal Software Engineer to advance an enterprise AI/ML platform

within a large, highly regulated industry environment. This role is ideal for a seasoned engineer who has “been around the block” — someone who has designed, built, and operated enterprise-scale platforms and can provide long-term architectural and technical leadership.

The role will design and deliver reliable, secure, and cost-efficient capabilities for model packaging, deployment, serving, and observability. You will collaborate with platform engineers and data scientists to operationalize models at scale on AWS, drive standards, and improve reliability and velocity across teams. In this role, you will address complex technical challenges using Python code and have a focus area in delivering machine learning solutions at an enterprise scale. You’ll work on core platform services that enable machine learning and generative AI models to be safely, securely, and cost‑effectively deployed across the organization. A major focus of this role is a Python-based web service that acts as a gateway for AI models.

You will be responsible for developing, building, and enhancing platform capabilities that are reliable, secure, and cost-efficient. This position offers the opportunity to collaborate with multiple teams to implement practical and robust solutions widely used in production.

Due to client requirements, applicants must be willing and able to work on a w2 basis. 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: $65.00 to $70.00/hr. w2

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and evolve enterprise-scale Python services that support AI/ML and generative AI use cases.
• Lead the technical direction and standards for model packaging, deployment, serving, and observability.
• Partner closely with data scientists and application teams to operationalize models and accelerate adoption across the business.
• Own and enhance a Python-based API and web service used as a gateway for AI tools, including usage tracking and cost controls.
• Drive best practices for cloud-native architecture in AWS, with a focus on reliability, security, and cost efficiency.
• Define and improve CI/CD pipelines, reusable frameworks, and paved paths to increase engineering velocity.
• Lead incident response, root cause analysis, and post-mortems; implement systemic improvements to prevent recurrence.
• Mentor senior and mid-level engineers and provide cross-team technical leadership.
• Develop and evolve Python based platform capabilities for enterprise-scale ML packaging, deployment, serving, and observability. This will focus on fullstack work as well as model and data observability including drift detection, prediction quality monitoring, uncertainty signals, and diagnostics.
• Partner with Data Scientists to package, scale, and operationalize models with clear APIs, guardrails, and automation, work to enable secure, scalable access to traditional and generative models through enterprise gateways and services.
• Set platform strategy and standards for ML packaging, deployment, serving, and observability.
• Lead cross-platform incident response and post-mortems, driving systemic fixes.
• Introduce reusable frameworks and CI/CD templates to enhance engineering velocity.
• Reduce cost and complexity across the ML ecosystem through strategic technology choices.

Experience Requirements

• 8 years, typically 10 , building and operating production platforms at scale.
• Deep Python development experience and distributed systems expertise with production-grade services. Requires In-depth Python development experience, including building APIs and production-grade services.
• Familiarity with Java or Groovy (HIGHLY preferred).
• Technical Expertise:
• Deep expertise in Python and distributed systems, requires strong background in distributed systems and enterprise-scale platforms.
• Proficiency in Linux and scripting.
• Cloud platform leadership, particularly in AWS (S3, Lambda, Batch). Requires extensive experience designing and operating applications deployed in AWS (S3, Lambda, Batch, and related services).
• Experience with DevOps and CI/CD, including Jenkins and Git-based workflows.
• Expertise in Infrastructure as Code (CloudFormation, Terraform/OpenTofu).
• ML enablement in production, including model packaging and deployment strategies, requires practical experience enabling ML in production, including deployment strategies, performance tuning, and observability.
• Leadership: Cross-organizational technical leadership and mentoring experience.Proven ability to provide long-term design input and technical leadership on complex, enterprise initiatives.
• Strong communication skills — able to clearly explain complex systems and design decisions to technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Nice to Have

• Exposure to Java or Groovy in enterprise environments.
• Familiarity with Docker-based frameworks for model packaging and deployment.
• Experience with generative AI platforms and managing secure access to tools such as large language models.
• Exposure to Azure or GCP in addition to AWS.
• Experience in cost governance or usage monitoring for shared platforms.

Education Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree, Controller’s degree, or equivalent experience in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field.
• AWS certification (preferred).

Eliassen Group values transparency in our recruitment practices. Please be advised that Eliassen Group utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) tools as part of its initial application screening process. You may receive email and SMS notifications from the Eliassen Virtual Recruiting Team (noreply@eliassen.com, 781-808-2924) inviting you to complete a brief voice screening as part of your application process. These tools assist our hiring teams in different ways, including but not limited to, assistance in reviewing application materials to help identify candidates whose qualifications most closely match the requirements of the position. All AI-assisted evaluations and responses are reviewed by human recruiters before any hiring decisions are made. The use of AI in our process is intended to support fairness, efficiency, and consistency, and Eliassen Group takes measures to prevent bias or discrimination in connection with its hiring practices. By proceeding, you acknowledge, agree, and consent to Eliassen Group’s use of these tools, including AI tools, as part of the application and hiring process.

Skills, experience, and other compensable factors will be considered when determining pay rate. The pay range provided in this posting reflects a W2 hourly rate; other employment options may be available that may result in pay outside of the provided range.

W2 employees of Eliassen Group who are regularly scheduled to work 30 or more hours per week are eligible for the following benefits: medical (choice of 3 plans), dental, vision, pre-tax accounts, other voluntary benefits including life and disability insurance, 401(k) with match, and sick time if required by law in the worked-in state/locality.

Please be advised- If anyone reaches out to you about an open position connected with Eliassen Group, please confirm that they have an Eliassen.com email address and never provide personal or financial information to anyone who is not clearly associated with Eliassen Group. If you have any indication of fraudulent activity, please contact InfoSec@eliassen.com.

Job ID: JN -032026-106119