The Principal Software Engineer will lead the Developer Experience team, develop complex applications, mentor engineers, and improve productivity and workflows.
About the Position
As a Principal Software Engineer, you will play a pivotal role in building our Developer Experience team and owning complex infrastructure, applications, and services that power engineering across the organization. You’ll work across diverse codebases and tech stacks, contribute hands on to the codebase, and jump in where your impact is greatest. In addition to shaping internal guidelines and best practices, you’ll provide architectural direction, mentor engineers, lead code reviews, and drive improvements in developer workflows, system reliability, and overall productivity.
About the Team
Our team has a wealth of diverse life and career experiences that allow us to think outside of the box and ahead of the curve. You will get the opportunity to drive the future through new products that delight, while working with a mix of product, design, application engineers, data engineers, and AI experts to devise, nurture, and implement cutting-edge solutions to continuously evolving engineering obstacles.
About You
Versatile. Resourceful. Delivery-driven. You've navigated a wide range of codebases and applications throughout your career, working across a number of different tech stacks, from C# and SQL Server to modern MEAN stacks. While you have your preferred tools and technologies, you’re never hesitant to dive into unfamiliar territory when that’s where you can make the biggest difference. Comfortable across the full stack, from frontend interfaces to backend services to cloud infrastructure, you thrive on shipping early and often, taking pride in seeing work through to completion. You communicate clearly with engineers, product managers, and business stakeholders alike, ensuring alignment and momentum no matter the challenge.
What To Expect In This Position
- Design, build, and take ownership of complex, high-impact applications and services that are critical to the organization’s success and scalability
- Work across a variety of codebases and tech stacks, ranging from legacy systems to modern frameworks, bringing hands-on contributions wherever you can add the most value
- Drive and advise the full lifecycle of application development, from frontend interfaces to backend services and cloud infrastructure
- Define and promote engineering best practices, coding standards, and architectural guidelines to raise the bar for quality and consistency
- Collaborate with cross-functional partners, engineering, product, design, data, and AI, to deliver scalable, impactful solutions
- Improve CI/CD pipelines, test automation, observability, and deployment workflows to support faster, safer releases
- Participate in the operational health of systems by ensuring stability, uptime, and observability of critical engineering services
- Mentor engineers through code reviews, design sessions, pair programming, and ongoing knowledge-sharing
- Communicate clearly and effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders to align priorities and expectations
- Foster a culture of continuous improvement, collaboration, and engineering excellence across teams
What Sets You Apart
- 8+ years of professional experience designing, building, and maintaining production-grade software systems across varied tech stacks
- Strong backend engineering skills, with experience designing APIs, building scalable services, and working in distributed environments
- Proficiency working across the full application stack, including frontend frameworks, backend services, and cloud infrastructure
- Proficiency with AWS services and cloud infrastructure, with a working understanding of VPCs, IAM, EC2, ECS, and S3
- Comfortable navigating a variety of technologies, with experience in stacks ranging from Python to JavaScript-based frameworks like MEAN
- Deep understanding of CI/CD workflows and modern engineering automation practices; experienced with tools like GitHub Actions, CircleCI, or similar
- Practical knowledge of containerization and orchestration using tools such as Docker and Kubernetes
- Strong database experience, including both relational (e.g., PostgreSQL, MySQL) and non-relational (e.g., MongoDB) systems
- A clear, thoughtful communicator who collaborates effectively across engineering, product, and business teams
- Demonstrated ability to deliver projects end to end, from early design through to deployment and monitoring
- Experienced in mentoring engineers and fostering an inclusive, growth-oriented engineering culture
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent practical experience
Excited about this role, but don't meet 100% of the expected qualifications listed above? We'd still love for you to apply! When applying to FiscalNote, rest assured that your application is reviewed by a living, breathing human being and evaluated based on key competencies needed for success in the position. Our Recruiting team maintains awareness of all open roles which means your application may be assessed against multiple positions and we will reach out to gauge your interest in other opportunities as appropriate. Questions or concerns? Contact recruiting.team@fiscalnote.com, we'd be happy to connect!
As part of FiscalNote's commitment to creating an accessible and inclusive hiring process, we strive to provide reasonable accommodations for persons with medical conditions or disabilities that will enable their access to the hiring process. If you need an accommodation, please send an email to recruiting.team@fiscalnote.com to let us know the nature of your request.
About FiscalNote
FiscalNote (NYSE: NOTE) is a leader in policy and global intelligence. By uniquely combining data, technology, and insights, FiscalNote empowers customers with critical insights and the tools to turn them into action.
Home to CQ, FrontierView, VoterVoice, and many other industry-leading brands, FiscalNote helps organizations stay ahead of political and business risk.
At FiscalNote, we Lead with Values
Know your Audience ∙ Find the Truth ∙ Drive Alignment ∙ Level Up ∙ Own the Job ∙ Bias for Action ∙ Support the Family
FiscalNote is continuing to hire new talent, with all interviewing and on-boarding done virtually due to COVID-19. New team members, along with our current staff, will temporarily work remotely (unless communicated otherwise).
Company Benefits
FiscalNote supports our people by enabling team members with flexibility and benefits to promote well-being and balance, ensuring all FiscalNoters can bring their authentic selves to work. We start by offering competitive salaries, retirement accounts, and equity packages to ensure we’re all FN owners. Plus, our comprehensive benefits packages align with regional requirements and expectations no matter where you are located across the globe. Learn more at https://careers.fiscalnote.com/benefits/.
FiscalNote values diversity. We are committed to equal opportunities and creating an inclusive environment for all our employees. We welcome applicants regardless of ethnic origin, national origin, gender, race, religious beliefs, disability, sexual orientation or age. FiscalNote is an EEOC employer.
FiscalNote uses E-Verify to confirm the employment eligibility of all new employees. To learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities, please visit www.DHS.gov/E-Verify.
Top Skills
AWS
C#
CircleCI
Docker
Ec2
Ecs
Github Actions
Iam
JavaScript
Kubernetes
Mean Stack
MongoDB
MySQL
Postgres
Python
S3
SQL Server
Vpcs
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