Principal Software Developer

Enterprise AI is moving from pilots to production, and the constraint is no longer the model — it's the data. Agents are only as good as what they can sense, trust, and act on in the moment, and real-time, event-driven data is becoming the foundation every serious AI system runs on. Solace is the leading platform for the enterprise AI era. Established enterprises worldwide have built their business around Solace to enable intelligent, real-time experiences, modernize their application and integration landscape, and create seamless digital journeys for their customers, partners, and employees.

This position is for a Principal Software Developer. In this role you will be a key technical leader working on the Solace Agent Mesh: an event-driven Integration and Orchestration Platform for Agentic AI that securely connects, orchestrates, and scales AI agents in real-time. You will take a pivotal role in building world-class products as well as our internal tooling. Your expertise will help us create smarter, more intuitive systems that redefine user interaction and operational efficiency. You will collaborate closely with various teams, providing technical leadership and innovative solutions that push the boundaries of what is possible.

Are You Someone Who:

• Thinks in systems — seeing architecture, tradeoffs, and long-term implications before writing a line of code?
• Has a track record of owning complex, production-grade software from whiteboard to live deployment?
• Leads without a title — naturally elevating the teams and engineers around you?
• Gets energized by hard problems at the intersection of AI, distributed systems, and real-world engineering constraints?
• Communicates technical ideas clearly to both engineers and non-engineers?
• Holds yourself to a high bar for quality, and genuinely cares about the craft?
• Is humble, honest, and open — the kind of person others trust and want to build with?

What You'll Do:

• Architect for Scale: Design and implement robust, maintainable architectures for agentic AI applications — with clean separation of concerns and a long view on system health.
• Own Delivery End-to-End: Drive complex features and initiatives through every SDLC phase, from requirements to production, with a bias toward execution.
• Build Production-Grade Software: Develop high-quality backend services and web frontends using modern JavaScript frameworks, with consistent attention to reliability, performance, and user experience.
• Lead Technically: Mentor engineers, conduct meaningful code reviews, establish best practices, and be a trusted voice in architectural decisions.
• Bridge Product and Engineering: Collaborate with PMs, designers, and stakeholders to shape technically sound, deliverable solutions — not just translate requirements.
• Raise the Quality Bar: Champion testing strategies, CI/CD, and observability practices that keep systems healthy as they grow.
• Stay Sharp: Actively track emerging technologies and bring relevant ideas back to improve the platform and team practices.

What You Bring:

• 10+ Years of Delivery: A real history of taking complex software from concept to production — not just contribution, but ownership.
• Technical Depth: Expert-level fluency in Go, Java, C#, or equivalent, plus strong command of modern web technologies (TypeScript/JavaScript, React or similar, HTML/CSS).
• Architectural Experience: Deep comfort designing scalable, distributed systems and microservices.
• Leadership Track Record: Experience leading technical teams, guiding engineers through SDLC phases, and leaving codebases and people better than you found them.
• Integration Know-How: Hands-on experience with API design, event-driven architectures, and message brokers in complex, integrated environments.
• Cloud & DevOps Fluency: Practical experience with AWS, Azure, or GCP; containerization with Docker/Kubernetes; and CI/CD pipeline ownership.
• Communication That Lands: Strong written and verbal communication — you can make complex technical ideas accessible without dumbing them down.
• Quality Commitment: A genuine standard for code quality, testing, and documentation.

Nice to Have:

• Familiarity with real-time streaming technologies — Apache Kafka, Pulsar, or Solace PubSub+.
• Experience with high-availability architectures, performance optimization, or distributed systems at scale.
• Grounding in enterprise integration patterns and middleware.
• Exposure to domain-driven design (DDD) and how to apply it pragmatically.
• Track record of influencing technical direction without direct authority — across teams or orgs.

Why You’ll Love Working at Solace:

• Work with brilliance – Our team is packed with some of the sharpest minds in the industry.
• Balance matters – We believe work should fit into your life, not the other way around.
• Hybrid-first – Flexibility is built into how we work, so everyone feels included and empowered.
• Values-driven – We live and breathe our core values: craftsmanship, trust, courage, freedom, momentum, humility, and human experience.
• Growth mindset – Our training programs are designed to help you level up, fast.
• Customer Obsessed – We’re proud of our world-class customer lineup.
• Keep it fun – We’re social, we keep things simple, and we know how to have a good time.
• Creative culture – We’ve got a great sense of humour and we make cool videos on topics like MITT.

At Solace, we are committed to a fair, inclusive, and transparent recruitment process. To help identify candidates whose qualifications best align with the role, we use artificial intelligence (AI) tools during the initial stage of resume screening. Importantly, all decisions beyond this initial screening—including interviews and final hiring—are made by our human recruitment team. AI is never used to make final hiring decisions.

Need accommodations during the hiring process? Just let us know — we’re here to support you. Thanks to everyone who applies! While we wish we could connect with every candidate, only those selected to move forward will be contacted. At Solace, we believe that diversity and inclusion drive innovation and growth, both in business and in life. We strive to create an enriching and safe workplace where you can be who you are. If you want to do the best work of your career and feel supported every step of the way, we encourage you to join us!