Principal Engineer

Principal Engineer (C# / AWS / ECS)

Are you a C# architect who understands how systems actually behave in production on AWS?

Do you love taking a SaaS platform from “it runs” to “it scales, it’s observable, it’s resilient”?
If guiding engineers, modernizing runtime environments, and building containerized services on AWS sounds like your lane — keep reading.

What’s the Job?

Principal Engineer – Backend Architecture & Cloud Runtime

This is an architect-first, hands-on technical authority role. You’ll guide backend engineering decisions, shape containerized runtime strategy, and help evolve a modern K–12 SaaS platform serving millions of students.

This is not a sys ops position.
This is not a pure feature-delivery IC role.

This is for someone with deep C# / ASP.NET Core experience who understands:

• How services communicate in production

• How applications behave inside containers

• How CI/CD impacts runtime stability

• How AWS architecture choices affect engineering velocity

You’ll report to the VP of Engineering and work cross-functionally with engineering (4 FTE + 2 contract engineers) and IT (5 total; mix of sys admins and DevOps).

Who is the Company?

A forward-looking K–12 edtech SaaS organization focused on digital literacy, AI literacy, and responsible tech use since 1999.

They are:

• Actively modernizing

• Moving from local/server-based deployment toward containers

• Building new services on AWS ECS

• Not sitting on stagnant legacy code

• Investing in AI-enabled engineering workflows

This is a Microsoft-centric engineering culture operating in AWS.

What You’ll Be Doing

Architecture Leadership (C# Heavy)

• Guide backend architecture using C# / ASP.NET Core

• Define service boundaries, APIs, async workflows

• Review designs and code with long-term scalability in mind

• Unblock engineers when complexity hits

The search has surfaced too many systems-operations candidates.

This team needs an engineer who can actually guide developers at the code and architecture layer.

Cloud-Native Runtime Ownership (AWS / ECS)

• Lead containerization strategy (Docker → ECS)

• Define runtime packaging, deployment, configuration standards

• Partner with IT (they have AWS knowledge, limited CI/CD depth)

• Help shape Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform / CloudFormation)

• Harden observability and resiliency in production

You’ll bridge engineering and operations — but your lens is application-first.

AI-Enabled Engineering Enablement

• Champion practical, responsible AI development workflows

• Help engineers use AI tools without eroding system thinking

• Assess when tools are production-ready vs hype

Modern Delivery Model

• Kanban workflow (weekly cadence)

• Building new services (not just maintaining old ones)

• Supporting migration from local deployments to containerized cloud runtime

What You Need

• 8+ years professional software engineering

• Deep C# / ASP.NET Core

• Strong architectural ownership in SaaS environments

• Hands-on container experience in AWS (ECS preferred)

• Understanding of how systems behave in production

• Enough frontend (JavaScript/TypeScript) fluency to guide full-stack discussions

• US-based (required)

Bonus:

• Regulated environment experience (SOC2, FERPA, COPPA)

• Container orchestration migrations

• CI/CD pipeline shaping experience

What’s in It for You?

• $175K–$185K base

• 10% bonus

• 3 weeks PTO

• 401(k) with match

• Full medical / dental / vision

• Professional development support

• Remote (US-based)

But the real value?

You get to:

• Architect modern cloud-native systems

• Guide engineers without being buried in feature tickets

• Help shape container and CI/CD evolution

• Work on a platform impacting millions of K–12 students

• Join a team that’s building forward, not defending the past