Principal Software Engineer

Company Overview

With 80,000 customers across 150 countries, UKG is the largest U.S.-based private software company in the world. And we're only getting started. Ready to bring your bold ideas and collaborative mindset to an organization that still has so much more to build and achieve? Read on.

At UKG, you get more than just a job. You get to work with purpose. Our team of U Krewers are on a mission to inspire every organization to become a great place to work through our award-winning HR technology built for all.

Here, we know that you're more than your work. That's why our benefits help you thrive personally and professionally, from wellness programs and tuition reimbursement to U Choose - a customizable expense reimbursement program that can be used for more than 200+ needs that best suit you and your family, from student loan repayment, to childcare, to pet insurance. Our inclusive culture, active and engaged employee resource groups, and caring leaders value every voice and support you in doing the best work of your career. If you're passionate about our purpose - people -then we can't wait to support whatever gives you purpose. We're united by purpose, inspired by you.

About the Role:

As a Senior Principal Engineer, you are a strategic technical leader working across teams and products. You'll define architecture, scale distributed systems, and solve complex business-technology problems using Java and Python. This role combines hands-on excellence with deep mentorship, architectural foresight, and product influence.

Key Responsibilities:

• Own the architecture and technical vision for critical platform components and services.

• Design and implement scalable systems using Java and Python-based frameworks (Spring Boot, Django).

• Influence technology roadmap, system performance goals, and design decisions across the organization.

• Partner with Product, and DevOps to drive technical excellence and platform scalability.

• Lead engineering-wide initiatives like security hardening, reliability improvements.

• Mentor and lead engineers; build and evangelize reusable patterns, tooling, and architecture artifacts.

Basic Qualifications:

• 8+ years in backend engineering with deep experience in both Java (Spring Boot) and Python (Django).

• Proven track record of designing high-availability, low-latency, large-scale systems in production.

• Expertise in cloud-native architecture, Kubernetes, service meshes, and API gateways.

• Deep experience with architectural trade-offs: monolith vs microservices, sync vs async, caching strategies, event-driven design.

• Strong systems-level thinking: memory, CPU, concurrency, multithreading, logging, tracing, debugging.

• Experience influencing or authoring platform standards, contributing to tech strategy, and long-term engineering planning.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Open-source contributions or thought leadership (conferences, blogs, whitepapers).

• Experience integrating ML/AI or data engineering pipelines into production applications.

• Familiarity with compliance, security, and large-scale observability practices.

Where we're going

UKG is on the cusp of something truly special. Worldwide, we already hold the #1 market share position for workforce management and the #2 position for human capital management. Tens of millions of frontline workers start and end their days with our software, with billions of shifts managed annually through UKG solutions today. Yet it's our AI-powered product portfolio designed to support customers of all sizes, industries, and geographies that will propel us into an even brighter tomorrow

Equal Opportunity Employer

UKG is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, disability, religion, sex, age, national origin, veteran status, genetic information, and other legally protected categories.

View The EEO Know Your Rights poster (https://www.eeoc.gov/sites/default/files/2022-10/EEOC_KnowYourRights_screen_reader_10_20.pdf)

UKG participates in E-Verify. View the E-Verify posters here (https://www.e-verify.gov/sites/default/files/everify/posters/EVerifyParticipationPoster.pdf) .

It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.

Disability Accommodation in the Application and Interview Process

For individuals with disabilities that need additional assistance at any point in the application and interview process, please email UKGCareers@ukg.com .

The pay range for this position is $142,100 to $200,000, however, base pay offered may vary depending on skills, experience, job-related knowledge and location. This position is also eligible for a short-term incentive and a long-term incentive as part of total compensation. Information about UKG's comprehensive benefits can be reviewed on our careers site at https://www.ukg.com/about-us/careers/benefits

It is the policy of Ultimate Software to promote and assure equal employment opportunity for all current and prospective Peeps without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, marital status, familial status, sexual orientation, pregnancy, genetic information, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, veteran status, and any other legally protected status entitled to protection under federal, state, or local anti-discrimination laws. This policy governs all matters related to recruitment, advertising, and initial selection of employment. It shall also apply to all other aspects of employment, including, but not limited to, compensation, promotion, demotion, transfer, lay-offs, terminations, leave of absence, and training opportunities.