Job Overview

Salesforce is hiring a Principal Software Engineer / Principal Member of Technical Staff for its software engineering organization in Bangalore. This is a senior technical leadership opportunity for an experienced engineer who can take ownership of complex architecture, large-scale distributed systems, full-stack development, and highly available enterprise services.

The role combines deep software engineering expertise with an AI-first approach to development. The successful candidate will help design and evolve critical systems, establish strong engineering practices, build scalable APIs, evaluate human- and AI-generated code, and guide other engineers toward reliable and secure solutions. The position is intended for a technical leader who can operate across multiple layers of the stack and influence engineering direction without relying solely on formal people-management authority.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead architecture and implementation for complex full-stack applications and distributed systems.
• Design scalable APIs and evolve technical platforms to support demanding enterprise workloads.
• Build production-quality software using modern engineering practices and AI-assisted development workflows.
• Apply AI agents and development tools to improve engineering productivity while maintaining security, reliability, and code quality.
• Establish and maintain shared technical context covering system designs, constraints, standards, and engineering decisions so AI-assisted development remains dependable.
• Review human-written and AI-generated code for correctness, maintainability, performance, security, and production readiness.
• Make architectural decisions that improve scalability, availability, performance, extensibility, and operational resilience.
• Drive engineering excellence through coding standards, design patterns, testing, CI/CD, and modern development practices.
• Collaborate with product and cross-functional teams to connect technical strategy with business objectives.
• Mentor engineers, provide technical guidance, and promote continuous learning across the engineering organization.
• Participate in on-call responsibilities and help resolve complex production issues affecting highly available services.
• Contribute to the evolution of enterprise technologies and engineering approaches.

Required Skills

The role requires an AI-first engineering mindset. Candidates should have practical experience using AI development tools such as Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Codex, Cursor, or comparable technologies. Strong prompt engineering ability is expected, along with the judgment needed to create reliable system context and validate AI-generated outputs before they reach production.

Applicants should have at least 10 years of experience in full-stack software development and large-scale system architecture. Strong knowledge of enterprise software design and multiple programming languages is important. Relevant languages listed in the JD include Java, Python, C++, Go, Node.js, Scala, and C#.

A strong understanding of web and API technologies is required, including REST, SOAP, WSDL, HTTP, and JSON. Candidates should also understand relational and non-relational databases and have experience with technologies such as Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, MongoDB, PostgreSQL, Trino, Redshift, and related data platforms. Experience with ORM frameworks such as Entity Framework is also relevant.

Experience with Git, CI/CD pipelines, Agile/Scrum practices, distributed systems, and enterprise software engineering standards is expected.

Preferred Skills

Experience developing SaaS applications on public cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or GCP is preferred. Candidates with hands-on experience using Docker and Kubernetes, including platforms such as Amazon EKS, will have additional relevant experience.

Knowledge of microservices and distributed architectures is valuable, particularly experience designing systems that operate at scale. Familiarity with queues, locks, scheduling, event-driven architectures, and workload distribution is also preferred.

Experience contributing to open-source communities or relevant projects is an advantage. Strong object-oriented programming knowledge, advanced SQL skills, and experience across both relational and non-relational databases can strengthen a candidate's profile.

Education

A degree or equivalent relevant professional experience is required. The JD states that experience may be evaluated against the core competencies of the role and can include relevant work experience, leadership activities, military experience, volunteer experience, or other equivalent backgrounds.

Experience

The primary requirement is 10+ years of experience in full-stack software development and large-scale system architecture. The role is aimed at highly experienced engineers with a demonstrated ability to design, build, and scale enterprise systems.

Candidates should be comfortable owning architecture, making technical decisions, solving complex engineering problems, participating in production support, and influencing technical direction. The preferred qualifications also reference extensive professional experience appropriate to the job grade and strong experience with distributed systems and SaaS products.

Required Technologies

• Java
• Python
• C++
• Go
• Node.js
• Scala
• C#
• REST
• SOAP
• WSDL
• HTTP
• JSON
• Microsoft SQL Server
• MySQL
• MongoDB
• Entity Framework
• Git
• CI/CD
• AWS
• Azure
• GCP
• Kubernetes
• EKS
• Docker
• Microservices
• Distributed Systems
• PostgreSQL
• Trino
• Redshift
• SQL
• Agile
• Scrum
• AI Development Tools
• Claude Code
• GitHub Copilot
• Codex
• Cursor
• AI Agents
• Prompt Engineering

Soft Skills

Strong problem-solving ability and attention to detail are essential for this Principal Software Engineer position. The role requires clear communication and effective collaboration with engineers and cross-functional stakeholders.

Technical leadership is another major component. Candidates should be capable of mentoring engineers, explaining complex architectural decisions, influencing engineering standards, and encouraging a culture of continuous improvement. The ability to work through ambiguity, evaluate technical tradeoffs, and remain accountable for production systems is important.

Benefits of Working in this Role

This role provides an opportunity to work on large-scale enterprise software and distributed systems while helping shape how AI-assisted engineering is used in production development. The position offers broad technical exposure across cloud infrastructure, SaaS applications, APIs, databases, microservices, and modern AI development workflows.

The role also provides significant technical influence. A Principal Engineer can help establish architecture and engineering standards, mentor other engineers, collaborate across teams, and contribute to long-term platform direction. The opportunity to work with multiple programming languages and cloud platforms can further broaden an experienced engineer's technical scope.

Work Mode

Salesforce states that it embraces a hybrid model. The job listing is for Bangalore, Karnataka, India.

Location

Bangalore, Karnataka, India.

Who Should Apply

This opportunity is best suited to Principal Engineers, Staff Engineers, Principal Members of Technical Staff, Software Architects, and senior full-stack engineers with extensive experience in large-scale software development.

Candidates should consider applying if they have 10 or more years of engineering experience, strong architecture skills, and hands-on expertise with distributed systems, APIs, databases, cloud platforms, or SaaS applications. Engineers who actively use AI coding assistants and understand prompt engineering, AI agents, and AI-assisted development workflows may be especially aligned with the role.

Career Growth

The position offers a path to expand technical influence across architecture, engineering standards, distributed systems, AI-assisted development, and enterprise platforms. Engineers can deepen their leadership through mentoring, cross-team collaboration, architectural ownership, and responsibility for critical production services.

Working across cloud platforms, microservices, databases, APIs, and AI-enabled development can also help experienced professionals broaden their technical perspective while remaining deeply involved in software engineering.

Application Advice

Applicants should tailor their resume around architectural ownership and measurable engineering impact. Highlight large-scale systems you have designed, distributed architectures you have implemented, and examples where you improved scalability, availability, security, performance, or operational efficiency.

Clearly list your strongest programming languages and cloud technologies. If you have built SaaS applications, microservices, APIs, event-driven systems, or highly available services, explain the scale and complexity involved.

AI experience should also be visible. Mention practical use of AI coding assistants, prompt engineering, AI agents, or automation in software development, particularly where these tools improved productivity without compromising quality or security.

Finally, emphasize technical leadership, mentoring, Agile/Scrum experience, production ownership, on-call participation, and your ability to influence engineering decisions across teams.