Principal Software Engineer, Workload Orchestration (Distributed Compute))

You’ll be the “solver” for our most complex technical challenges. This isn’t a narrowly-scoped domain expert role or a focus on quarterly deliverables-you’ll architect solutions over 1-3 years that compound in value, define our platform direction, and unlock entirely new capabilities. What makes this unusual: You’ll have genuine autonomy to identify the highest-leverage problems across the entire platform. Your “domain” is making the system coherent-from customer interfaces to infrastructure to how we build software. You’ll enable deep specialists to build increasingly sophisticated features without the system collapsing under complexity., Year 1: Identify and solve 2-3 critical architectural bottlenecks limiting the team today. Drive at least one foundational platform initiative from design through deployment. Establish yourself as the technical escalation point. Years 2-3: Define architectural direction for major platform capabilities that will serve us for 3+ years. Lead multi-quarter initiatives that fundamentally change how we build or how customers use our platform. Your impact is measured by what others can now accomplish. This is compound-interest work, early decisions multiply in value over time.

• 8+ years software engineering with increasing scope and demonstrated impact across multiple teams
• Deep platform/infrastructure expertise: APIs, abstractions, system architecture, performance at scale
• Track record of improving software quality and engineering velocity, not just building features
• Leadership without authority- you build consensus through technical credibility and clarity
• Experience mentoring engineers and elevating team capabilities

Valued:

• High-performance computing, scientific computing, or CAD/CAM systems
• Programming language design or domain-specific languages
• Working with technically sophisticated customers

You’re Probably NOT a Fit If:

• You prefer deep specialization over broad platform thinking
• You want clearly defined scope rather than self-directed problem-finding
• You need significant structure and direction to be productive

The base pay range for this role is $165,000 - $215,000 per year. Please note that nTop may use AI products to assist in the recruiting process. All resumes are reviewed by, and all employment decisions are made by, nTop’s Hiring Team. If you require a reasonable accommodation during the interview process, please don’t hesitate to email us directly.

nTop builds computational design software for engineers designing next-generation aircraft, defense systems, and performance vehicles. Our platform uses fundamentally different approaches to geometry representation and computation, enabling designs traditional CAD systems cannot express. Our team includes world-class specialists in computational geometry, meshing, rendering, and simulation-brilliant innovators who need a generalist who can see across domains and untangle complexity at the system level.