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# Principal Software Engineer

- **Company:** Spoonflower, Inc
- **Location:** Durham, NC, United States (Remote available)
- **Experience:** Expert
- **Contract:** Permanent contract
- **Skills:** Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), Amazon Web Services, Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems, Distributed Systems, Next.js, Service-Oriented Architecture, Shopify, TypeScript, ReactJS, Backend, Kubernetes, Graphql, Front End Software Development, Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS), Terraform, Webhooks, OpenSearch
- **Published:** November 3, 2026
- **Apply:** https://startup.jobs/senior-principal-software-engineer-shutterfly-10651652

## About the Role

* 8+ years of experience in backend or platform engineering
 * Strong experience building and operating distributed systems and APIs at scale
 * Deep proficiency in GraphQL design and implementation, including federated/supergraph architectures
 * Experience with Shopify or similar eCommerce platforms
 * Strong experience with Node.js / TypeScript
 * Track record of diagnosing hard production failures down to the runtime or transport level, not just restarting services
 * Demonstrated ownership of systems in production (performance, uptime, reliability)
 * Ability to operate independently and drive ambiguous, high-impact work to completion
 * Strong communication skills around tradeoffs and system design decisions, * Hands-on experience with Apollo Federation supergraph architectures
 * Experience with headless commerce architectures
 * Familiarity with AWS event-driven messaging (SNS/SQS)
 * Experience with OpenSearch or similar search/retrieval systems
 * Experience operating services on Kubernetes with Terraform-managed infrastructure
 * Experience integrating third-party commerce platforms at scale
 * Exposure to frontend systems (Next.js / React) for API collaboration

## Description

Spoonflower is evolving its eCommerce platform into a modern, service-oriented architecture supporting a global, made-to-order retail environment. We are hiring a Senior Principal Software Engineer to drive the design and evolution of core backend systems powering our commerce experience. This role reports directly to the Director of Engineering and is for a deeply technical engineer who takes hands-on ownership of major platform areas while partnering closely with other engineers and teams. You will be a key contributor to scaling our platform through Shopify integrations, GraphQL federation, and service-based systems.

What You'll Do Here:

 * Own the design and evolution of core backend services and APIs supporting commerce workflows
 * Lead architecture and implementation of GraphQL services on our Apollo Federation supergraph
 * Build and improve Shopify integrations (Storefront API, Admin API, webhooks, order lifecycle) as part of a cross-team effort
 * Reconcile Shopify's inventory-and-SKU commerce model with our made-to-order, print-on-demand fulfillment flow, where the order lifecycle is the hard problem
 * Define and improve service boundaries, data models, and integration points across systems
 * Partner with frontend, product, and platform teams to simplify how teams build and integrate
 * Diagnose and resolve deep distributed-systems and runtime-level failures, including federation transport behavior, connection-pool issues, and event-loop performance under load
 * Own production systems, including operability, observability, and incident response
 * Act as a technical reference point through design reviews, mentoring, and setting engineering standards
 * Influence roadmap decisions by providing clear tradeoffs grounded in business and system impact