Senior Principal Software Engineer

IBM

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Similar $193k
$132k most similar roles pay here $246k

This listing doesn't post a salary. Most similar roles pay $173,537–$212,327.

Based on 240 similar postings.

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About IBM

IBM is a US-based global technology company providing hybrid cloud, AI, consulting, enterprise software, and IT infrastructure products and services.

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TL;DR · Senior Principal Software Engineer

Senior Principal Software Engineer joins the Data And AI team to drive digital transformation by building a strategic AI Factory platform. This role involves taking ownership of end-to-end AI/ML systems, where you will design and evolve ML pipelines for data ingestion, preprocessing, training, and deployment. You will also build MCP servers, Skills, and Agents to automate business workflows while translating research prototypes into production-quality code. Key responsibilities include mentoring junior engineers, conducting code reviews, and ensuring model performance through advanced metrics like ROC-AUC and precision/recall. The role requires expertise in Python, Go, Java, or Rust, along with experience in enterprise data platforms involving high governance. Preferred technical skills include Snowflake, Fivetran, dbt, Airflow, Vector Databases, and RAG Pipelines to solve complex problems regarding automated scaling and infrastructure reliability.

What does a Software Engineer earn?

Median $196750 from 2011 postings across 148 companies.

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What you'll do

  • Design, build, and evolve ML pipelines covering data ingestion, preprocessing, training, and deployment.
  • Develop MCP servers, Skills, and Agents to improve business efficiency for internal users.
  • Translate research prototypes into production-quality code that is robust, scalable, and maintainable.
  • Select algorithms, perform hyperparameter tuning, and conduct comparative experiments for model development.
  • Evaluate model performance using advanced metrics like ROC-AUC, precision/recall, and drift detection.
  • Integrate ML services into broader systems by collaborating with software engineering and DevOps teams.
  • Instrument models with monitoring, logging, alerting, and automated scaling mechanisms.
  • Mentor junior engineers and lead code reviews to establish ML lifecycle and quality standards.

What we're looking for

  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related field.
  • 5+ years of software development experience focused on machine learning pipelines, applications, or platforms.
  • Proficiency in at least one general-purpose programming language such as Python, Go, Java, or Rust.
  • Experience building enterprise data platforms with high levels of governance and compliance requirements.
  • Strong communication skills to interact with cross-functional business and engineering teams.
  • Familiarity with open source/inner source development, data mesh principles, Snowflake, Fivetran, dbt, and Airflow (preferred).
  • Hands-on knowledge of Vector Databases and RAG Pipelines (preferred).

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