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# Principal Software Development Engineer

- **Company:** Waters
- **Location:** Milford, MA, United States
- **Experience:** Expert
- **Salary:** $149,500.0 - $249,000.0
- **Contract:** Permanent contract
- **Skills:** Microsoft Windows, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Bash Shell, Cloud Engineering, Configuration Management, Encodings, Computer Programming, Continuous Integration, Linux, DevOps, Python (Programming Language), Object-Oriented Software Development, Windows PowerShell, Ansible, Shell Script, Software Engineering, Systems Integration, System Availability, Concurrency, Computerised Systems, HybridCloud, Git, Information Technology, Production Code, Build Tools, Puppet, Docker, Programming Languages
- **Published:** November 7, 2026
- **Apply:** https://diversityjobs.com/career/18859980/Principal-Software-Development-Engineer-Massachusetts-Milford

## About the Role

* Education & Experience: Bachelor's or Master's in Computer Science (or a related field) with 10+ years of DevOps/platform engineering experience, including operating at scale.
 * Programming Expertise: Strong proficiency in Python, with a deep understanding of object-oriented design and maintainable software architecture.
 * Git at Scale: Expert Git; multi-repo/monorepo strategies; branching and governance that platforms enforce.
 * Systems Proficiency: Advanced shell scripting (Bash, PowerShell) with fluency in diverse Linux and Windows operating environments.
 * CI/CD Leadership: Extensive experience designing, implementing, and scaling CI/CD pipelines; proven success driving release reliability and velocity across multiple teams.
 * Scale & Reliability: Track record managing large-scale systems with high availability and performance requirements.
 * Hybrid Cloud Expertise: Hands-on experience with AWS, Azure, and on-premises environments.
 * Automation: Bias toward eliminating manual workflows with durable, tested automation.
 * Technical Leadership: Proven ability to mentor engineers, influence architectural direction, and set standards across teams.
 * Hands-On Development: Strong programming background with the ability to design and deliver production-quality code and raise the bar for platform quality., * Complex System Integration: Experience supporting or integrating with physical instruments or hardware-constrained systems.
 * Proven Leadership: Demonstrated technical leadership experience within software organizations, influencing direction and elevating team performance.
 * Polyglot Engineering: Knowledge of multiple programming languages and build systems, with the ability to choose the right tool for the problem.
 * Scale Experience: Hands-on experience scaling platforms to reliably manage very high volumes and concurrency.
 * Enterprise Context: Background operating within enterprise software development environments, balancing agility with governance.
 * Configuration Management Expertise: Experience with modern configuration management frameworks such as Ansible, Puppet, or Chef.
 * Cloud-Native Practices: Champion of containerization and orchestration technologies such as Docker, Lambda, and ECS.
 * Advanced Python Expertise: Experience developing large-scale, maintainable Python services and frameworks used across the organization.

## Description

Internal Platform Development & Architecture
Design, develop, and evolve internal build platforms (primarily in Python) serving 65+ active software projects.

 * Build and scale platform services that reliably handle 10,000+ jobs, with clear SLIs/SLOs, observability, and failure modes teams can understand.
 * Own platform APIs, CLIs, and self-service workflows so teams can onboard, build, test, and release without tickets.
 * Treat internal developers as customers: gather feedback, prioritize pain points, and iterate on developer experience.

CI/CD Excellence & Process Optimization

 * Implement and improve pipeline primitives, reusable templates, and release automation that raise quality and cadence across teams.
 * Reduce manual toil by encoding policy and workflow into the platform-creating guardrails as code and eliminating tribal knowledge.
 * Support horizontal integration across diverse value streams via shared contracts, plugins, and extension points.

Infrastructure & Technical Leadership

 * Solve hybrid-cloud and on-premises constraints through durable platform abstractions, and eliminate ticket-driven firefighting.
 * Support physical instrument and hardware-constrained workflows with purpose-built platform capabilities where needed.
 * Stay hands-on designing and shipping production-quality code; use ops experience to inform architecture.

Leadership & Collaboration

 * Serve as a technical leader and mentor, elevating the capabilities of engineers across the organization.
 * Drive cross-functional collaboration, ensuring smooth integration across systems, teams, and business functions.
 * Establish and champion best practices, standards, and patterns for DevOps and platform engineering.
 * Communicate technical strategies and trade-offs clearly with engineers, leadership, and stakeholders at all levels.