Principal Software Development Engineer
iSpot · Bellevue, WA
$163,620–$212,710from the description
Jul 26, 2026
Bellevue, WA
Jul 27, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior individual-contributor and leadership role focused on shaping the architecture of a large-scale data measurement platform used in advertising. Day-to-day work spans designing real-time data ingestion and analytics pipelines, guiding cloud-native infrastructure decisions, mentoring engineering teams, and collaborating with data science and product stakeholders. Suits a seasoned engineer with deep experience in distributed data systems and ad tech environments.
Senior level · 12+ years · Remote · Full-time
Advertised as Principal, but the requirements read as Senior.
“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
Roughly 3,100 people nationally plausibly meet what this posting asks for (software developers). range 2,350–4,050
Applicant volume Moderate — A normal amount of company. The rare requirements below are what will separate a shortlisted application from the rest.
Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.
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 (5)
The role is titled 'Principal' but the actual requirements — 12+ years of experience, hands-on technical leadership of a platform, mentorship, and cross-team influence — are consistent with a Senior engineer. The posting does not describe org-wide technical authority or a rare top-of-ladder scope that would distinguish a true Principal band; 'Principal' here reads as a title convention rather than a distinct seniority tier.
The degree requirement lists 'Bachelor's or Master's degree' but frames it as a qualification alongside experience, and the phrasing does not explicitly exclude candidates without a degree; treated as preferred rather than a hard gate.
AWS/GCP/Azure are listed as interchangeable cloud platform options in the requirements block; AWS is used as the primary name with the others as alternatives. Similarly, Python/Java/Scala are interchangeable language options, and Spark/Flink are interchangeable distributed computing frameworks. Snowflake/BigQuery are interchangeable data storage options.
Ad tech ecosystem familiarity (SSPs, DSPs, clean rooms) is mentioned at the end of the qualifications section with softer framing ('Familiarity with') and is not captured as a named technology skill.
The role is hybrid for candidates near Bellevue, WA or New York, NY offices, and fully remote for others; marked remote=true to reflect that fully remote is explicitly available depending on location.
Read the full posting
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