Principal Software Engineer at NetApp
Bellevue, WA
$227,800–$338,800from the description
Jul 16, 2026
Bellevue, WA
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A principal-level engineering role on an enterprise AI agent platform, responsible for defining the overall architecture and writing production code alongside the team. Day-to-day work spans agent orchestration, retrieval over enterprise data, multi-cloud execution, and the APIs and SDKs that external customers build on. Suited to a deeply hands-on engineer with a strong distributed systems background who can also set technical direction, mentor others, and coordinate across product and leadership.
Principal level · 12+ years · National · Full-time
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $138,970 (middle half $107,524–$175,762). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (9)
Location is not specified in the posting; NetApp is headquartered in San Jose, CA but the role's work location is not pinned to a specific city. The compensation note states salary may vary by candidate location, suggesting the role may be open across multiple US locations.
The role is explicitly 'hands-on' with production coding responsibilities, which keeps it in the individual-contributor (Software Developers) SOC rather than a pure management code, despite significant technical leadership and mentoring duties. The alt SOC (11-3021) is flagged because the role also sets engineering direction, runs design reviews, and works closely with leadership.
NetApp states a hybrid working environment; the role is not fully remote.
The 12+ years overall experience requirement is the binding the overall years minimum; the 7+ years of cloud architecture experience is a secondary role-level gate also captured here in context.
Server-side language requirement (Node.js, Python, Java, Go, or Rust) is listed as 'one or more of' — Node.js is used as the primary name with the others as alternatives.
Front-end experience (TypeScript, React or Angular) is explicitly called 'a plus' in the Required Qualifications section — an unusual placement, but the posting's own language ('is a plus') marks it as preferred.
AI agent / LLM-related skills (LLMs, RAG, agentic design patterns) appear under Preferred Qualifications.
Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, and CloudFormation appear under Preferred Qualifications.
Bachelor's degree is listed with 'or equivalent practical experience' as an alternative, so no hard degree gate is set.
Read the full posting
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