Principal Engineer, Cloud Software

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in Nebraska.

📋 Description

• Establish and uphold the target architecture, system boundaries, data models, integration patterns, and technical roadmap for connected products and cloud platforms.

• Facilitate architecture reviews for services, APIs, data pipelines, databases, identity management, applications, deployment patterns, and device-to-cloud communication.

• Streamline the platform by pinpointing unnecessary coupling, redundant processing, fragile patterns, and services that may need consolidation, redesign, or retirement.

• Direct the modernization of the platform and the utilization of managed cloud services according to product requirements, customer continuity, cost considerations, portability, security, reliability, and operational burden.

• Preserve architecture decisions and documentation to ensure LI-COR retains the knowledge, access, data portability, and technical control necessary for informed future decisions.

• Oversee how devices generate data and how cloud services receive, process, store, and present it, including aspects such as schemas, batching, retries, deduplication, derived data, and retention policies.

• Collaborate with Firmware and Hardware Engineering to identify implications related to connectivity, scalability, reliability, support, and cost early in the product development process.

• Evaluate new products and sensor integrations for their downstream impact on cloud services, storage, analytics, applications, and service costs.

• Establish end-to-end observability and nonfunctional requirements regarding availability, performance, security, privacy, scalability, recovery, and supportability.

• Collaborate with Engineering, IT, and DevOps teams on CI/CD, infrastructure as code, release architecture, incident response, disaster recovery, vulnerability remediation, and operational readiness.

• Provide technical leadership during major incidents and recurring performance or connectivity challenges, driving root cause analysis and sustainable improvements.

• Ensure platform designs comply with relevant validation, data separation, retention, privacy, auditability, and customer contractual obligations.

• Act as a technical partner to the Software and Cloud leader, serving as an architecture authority across engineering, product development, science, quality assurance, and operations.

• Maintain a hands-on approach through backend design and implementation, prototypes, technical investigations, code reviews, and resolution of high-risk production issues.

• Convert product intent into technically comprehensive strategies and convey trade-offs, risks, costs, and recommendations to technical teams and business leaders.

• Mentor engineers to enhance architectural capabilities among employees and partners.

• Function as LI-COR's technical liaison with cloud, data, connectivity, and engineering partners.

• Perform other job-related tasks as assigned.

⛳️ Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent demonstrated experience.

• Typically requires 10 or more years of experience in software and cloud engineering, including substantial experience as a system, solution, platform, or principal architect for production systems.

• Proven architecture ownership of a commercial IoT, connected device, industrial, scientific, telemetry, or other high-volume data platforms.

• Extensive experience with AWS or a similar public cloud, encompassing compute, containers, networking, databases, storage, identity and access management, observability, security, resiliency, and infrastructure as code.

• Proficient backend engineering and API design skills, with hands-on expertise in at least one modern backend programming language.

• Experience with event-driven and distributed systems, device ingestion, message delivery, high-volume time series data, data modeling, and data lifecycle management.

• Familiarity with CI/CD, automated testing, observability, incident response, and secure software delivery at production scale.

• Capability to link architecture decisions to delivery efforts, operational costs, product economics, and customer impact.

• Excellent communication skills, strong technical judgment, systems thinking, and the ability to lead by influence across teams and external partners.

• Proficient oral and written communication skills in English.

🏝️ Benefits

• Periodic travel to LI-COR locations, partner sites, or team working sessions may be required.