Principal Software Engineer

Principal Software Engineer

Red Hat Data & AI is looking for a Principal Software Engineer to join our Domain Engineering team in Pune, India. In this role, you will elevate Red Hat's data-driven culture and execution by developing data products and AI solutions that support Red Hat's operational and analytical needs. You will deliver data & AI products (code + data) that service the entire organization, not just your own departmental requirements, through an InnerSource collaboration model. Your expertise in software and data engineering practices, combined with a passion for internal customer adoption, will ensure that your data products and AI solutions lead to impactful business outcomes.

What You Will Do

1. Architect and implement AI-enabled capabilities, including LLM integrations, intelligent automation, and AI-assisted workflows.
2. Collaborate with data engineers, platform engineers, and product teams to integrate AI-powered functionality into enterprise systems.
3. Ensure reliability, scalability, performance, and observability through strong engineering and operational practices.
4. Provide technical leadership and mentorship to engineers and guide complex design decisions.
5. Develop source data pipelines using an ELT (versus ETL) model of data ingestion
6. Document data product metadata and AI readiness guidance to support Machine Learning and AI/agentic use cases.
7. Tag and classify your data assets to ensure they are used responsibly throughout the organization, applying masking or restricting access where appropriate
8. Apply software engineering best practices to your code release process to support CI/CD and a high velocity collaboration model based on InnerSource
9. Register and maintain the catalog entries for your data products to support discoverability and reuse
10. Develop automated and resilient processes that support the end-end delivery of business value
11. Responsibly share your data products with other internal consumers while balancing the core needs of security and compliance
12. Contribute feedback and recommendations to the Data Platform team in order to remove friction and increase scale for all users
13. Lead the transition from script-based prototypes (e.g., Streamlit/Gradio) to high-performance, custom web applications

What You Will Bring

1. Exceptional software and data engineering skills that lead to elegant and maintainable data products
2. Expert level proficiency in using SQL for data transformation
3. Proficiency in at least one general purpose programming language, eg. Python, Go, Java, Rust, etc.
4. Practical experience developing, deploying, or integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) models into production
5. Strong opinions and perspectives that you kindly debate, defend, or change to ensure that the entire team moves as one
6. Sets and resets the bar on all things quality, from code through to data, and everything in between
7. Deep empathy for your users of your data products, leading to a constant focus on removing friction, increasing adoption, and delivering business results
8. Prunes and prioritizes work in order to maximize your contributions and impact
9. Bias for action and leading by example
10. Past experience in building enterprise data products that have a high level of governance and compliance requirements

The Following Experience Is Considered a Plus

1. Familiarity with open source or inner source development and processes
2. Familiarity of data mesh architectural principles
3. Experience with Snowflake, Fivetran, dbt, Airflow / Astronomer
4. Experience with React (frontend) and Node.js/Fastify (backend)
5. Familiarity with Generative AI (GenAI) principles and experience working with large language models (LLMs) or related natural language processing technologies.

About Red Hat

Red Hat is the world's leading provider of enterprise open source software solutions, using a community-powered approach to deliver high-performing Linux, cloud, container, and Kubernetes technologies. Spread across 40+ countries, our associates work flexibly across work environments, from in-office, to office-flex, to fully remote, depending on the requirements of their role. Red Hatters are encouraged to bring their best ideas, no matter their title or tenure. We're a leader in open source because of our open and inclusive environment. We hire creative, passionate people ready to contribute their ideas, help solve complex problems, and make an impact.

Inclusion at Red Hat

Red Hat's culture is built on the open source principles of transparency, collaboration, and inclusion, where the best ideas can come from anywhere and anyone. When this is realized, it empowers people from different backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences to come together to share ideas, challenge the status quo, and drive innovation. Our aspiration is that everyone experiences this culture with equal opportunity and access, and that all voices are not only heard but also celebrated. We hope you will join our celebration, and we welcome and encourage applicants from all the beautiful dimensions that compose our global village.

Equal Opportunity Policy (EEO)

Red Hat is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and an affirmative action employer. We review applications for employment without regard to their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, veteran status, genetic information, physical or mental disability, medical condition, marital status, or any other basis prohibited by law.

Red Hat does not seek or accept unsolicited resumes or CVs from recruitment agencies. We are not responsible for, and will not pay, any fees, commissions, or any other payment related to unsolicited resumes or CVs except as required in a written contract between Red Hat and the recruitment agency or party requesting payment of a fee.

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