Remote opportunity at
8th LightPrincipal Software Engineer (Remote)
8th Light seeks a remote Principal Software Engineer to join its technology solutions consultancy. Operating since 2006 and based in Chicago, the firm partners with clients…
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About This Role
8th Light seeks a remote Principal Software Engineer to join its technology solutions consultancy. Operating since 2006 and based in Chicago, the firm partners with clients ranging from startups to major enterprises to tackle complex software challenges and deliver durable results. In this role, you will advise clients on architecture, scale, and platform evolution while building production-grade platforms and agentic AI systems. You will engage with one to two clients…
Job Description
8th Light seeks a remote Principal Software Engineer to join its technology solutions consultancy. Operating since 2006 and based in Chicago, the firm partners with clients ranging from startups to major enterprises to tackle complex software challenges and deliver durable results.
In this role, you will advise clients on architecture, scale, and platform evolution while building production-grade platforms and agentic AI systems. You will engage with one to two clients per year, guiding ambiguous initiatives and aligning technical decisions with business objectives. The position involves facilitating strategic sessions, mentoring engineering teams, and influencing executive decisions.
This opportunity suits experienced technologists with a strong background in software consulting, platform engineering, and modern architecture. Candidates should excel at bridging technical implementation with product requirements and business needs while working remotely.
Responsibilities
- Build trust rapidly with clients by understanding their domain and objectives
- Drive platform engineering and delivery across diverse platform types
- Advise clients on architecture, scalability, and platform evolution
- Contribute to systems spanning the full machine learning lifecycle
- Design and manage high-level technical roadmaps for large client engagements
- Coach client engineering teams and influence executive decisions
- Facilitate retrospectives, strategy sessions, and technical deep-dives
Requirements
- Demonstrated long-term repeated success on various projects over 10 or more years
- Experience building and shipping production-grade platforms and reusable foundations
- Background taking artificial intelligence and agentic systems from prototype to production
- Experience delivering high-stakes consulting engagements across multiple stacks and industries
- Proficiency in languages and frameworks such as Java, C#/.NET, Python, TypeScript, JavaScript, React, Go, Ruby, Scala, R, Rust, and SQL
Qualifications
- Experience in platform engineering, internal developer platforms, and infrastructure
- Data engineering expertise using platforms like Databricks
- Experience delivering production agentic systems and RAG pipelines
- Familiarity with vector search and agentic frameworks such as LangChain, LlamaIndex, CrewAI, AutoGen, and n8n
- Background in DevSecOps, DevOps, MLOps, and Infrastructure as Code
Core Skills
Benefits
- Unlimited access to books, courses, and expert-led training on the O'Reilly learning platform
- Annual financial stipend and time allotment for learning and development
- Coworking support for the global team
- Flexible paid time off
- 12 weeks of new parent leave for eligible employees
Frequently Asked Questions
Answers are based only on the employer’s listing; where it doesn’t say, neither do we.
Is this position remote?
Yes, this is a remote-first role where team members work across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
What is the salary range for this role?
The salary depends on the geographic region, with ranges starting at $151,535 to $189,418 per year for Structure 1 up to $176,705 to $220,881 per year for Structure 4.
How many years of experience are required?
Candidates are typically expected to have 10 or more years of long-term repeated success on a variety of projects.
Sample Interview Questions
AI-generated questions tailored to this specific role — a preview of the full practice set.