Principal Engineer / Technical Platform Lead

The Role This is a hands‑on technical leadership role, not a people management position (at least initially). You will operate as a force multiplier for engineering, working across both legacy and greenfield systems to shape the foundation of Cav’s future platform. You will: Drive architectural clarity across a stable but complex federal product and a fast‑moving AI‑native product Identify and extract reusable platform components (e.g., evidence ingestion, control mapping, AI primitives) Prevent architectural drift and reduce long‑term technical debt while enabling rapid iteration Partner closely with Engineering, Product, and Security teams to align on scalable system design Write production‑grade code and lead by example in system design and implementation Mentor senior engineers and elevate technical decision‑making across the organization Establish best practices for leveraging AI tools and automation to improve engineering velocity This role is expected to evolve into a broader leadership position (e.g., Head of Engineering), but the immediate priority is execution and architectural ownership Key Responsibilities Define and drive the long‑term technical architecture across multiple products Build and extract shared services and platform capabilities across systems Ensure scalability, performance, and security in a highly regulated (federal) environment Partner with cybersecurity and compliance teams to align with frameworks such as FedRAMP and NIST Reduce system complexity and improve maintainability of the legacy platform Guide the AI product toward transparent, scalable, and production‑ready architecture Make high‑impact technical decisions in ambiguous, fast‑changing environments Improve developer productivity through tooling, automation, and AI‑assisted workflows Maintainability Enhancements Act as a trusted advisor to executive leadership on technical strategy and trade‑offs Qualifications 8+ years of experience in software engineering, with significant time in startup or high‑growth environments Proven track record of designing and scaling complex distributed systems Strong backend engineering expertise (APIs, data pipelines, microservices, or platform architecture) Experience working across both legacy systems and greenfield development Solid understanding of cloud‑native architectures (AWS, Azure, or GCP) Experience working in or alongside cybersecurity, compliance, or regulated environments Demonstrated ability to make and own high‑stakes architectural decisions Strong communication skills, with the ability to influence senior technical and business stakeholders Willingness to be hands‑on and deeply involved in implementation Desired Experience Background in cybersecurity platforms or compliance‑driven products (e.g., FedRAMP, NIST, SOC 2) Experience integrating or building AI/ML‑driven features or platforms Familiarity with data modeling for complex regulatory or security frameworks Experience building internal platforms or shared services across multiple products Prior experience navigating product convergence or platform unification Exposure to Zero Trust architectures and modern security design principles Experience mentoring senior engineers or acting as a technical lead across teams #J-18808-Ljbffr