# Principal Software Engineer

**Company:** [Astronomer](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/astronomer)
**Location:** New York, NY
**Role:** Backend Engineering
**Salary:** $277k – $390k/yr
**Experience:** 10+ years
**Skills:** Kubernetes, kubernetes operators, custom resource definitions, Helm, kubernetes api, Go, Python, TypeScript, Prometheus, OpenTelemetry, Grafana, apache airflow, AWS, GCP, Azure
**Posted:** 2026-08-03

> Provides principal-level technical leadership for a self-contained, cloud-agnostic platform that provisions and orchestrates Apache Airflow in enterprise and air-gapped environments. Requires 10+ years of software engineering experience, control-plane and API architecture expertise, Kubernetes proficiency, and strong distributed-systems design skills.

## Job Description

## Responsibilities
- Own the end-to-end definition, design, and implementation of control plane and data plane services for a self-contained infrastructure platform.
- Build resilient interconnections between control plane and data plane services.
- Design extensible platform APIs, including data modeling, versioning, and backward compatibility for REST or gRPC interfaces.
- Architect telemetry frameworks covering metrics, logs, and traces for platform services and provisioned Apache Airflow instances.
- Ensure services, images, dependencies, and configurations operate across connected private clouds and isolated, zero-egress environments.
- Provide technical leadership by translating enterprise infrastructure needs into execution roadmaps and partnering with product management and executive stakeholders.
- Mentor senior engineers through design reviews, high-leverage code contributions, and career development.

## Requirements
- 10+ years of professional software engineering experience, including significant Staff, Senior Staff, or Principal-level experience in enterprise infrastructure, DBaaS, or private cloud organizations.
- Experience building production-grade infrastructure control planes and customer-facing APIs.
- Experience designing and implementing observability stacks for isolated environments.
- Strong Kubernetes operational and architectural expertise, including custom Kubernetes Operators, CRDs, Helm deployments, and the Kubernetes API.
- Systems design experience spanning AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, Red Hat OpenShift, and bare-metal on-premises infrastructure.
- Expert software development skills in languages such as Go, Python, or TypeScript.
- Deep knowledge of distributed state stores, concurrency, and network security patterns.
- Exceptional written and oral technical communication skills, including technical one-pagers and RFCs.
- Ability to present to executive leadership and engage strategic enterprise clients.

## Compensation and Benefits
- Estimated salary range: **$277,000–$390,000**, based on leveling and geography.
- Equity component.
- Comprehensive benefits package.

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**Apply:** https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/674dfff7-f5c7-4913-977f-cece47200073
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