Principal Software Engineer – Lead

Akamai Technologies

. Own the design of the control plane that places, reconciles, and operates VMs across the Compute fleet .

Posted 10/13/2026full-timeRemote • United StatesSenior💰 $169,300 - $304,700 per yearWebsite

Core Competencies

Role fit

Core Competencies

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Demonstrates extensive expertise in building distributed systems and control planes, with a strong focus on database management, asynchronous system design, and containerized application operations. Proficient in Python or Go, with a deep understanding of consistency models and reconciliation patterns.

Highest-signal resume keywords

Distributed Systems DevelopmentControl Plane OwnershipDatabase Partitioning and ShardingAsynchronous System DesignKubernetes Application Management

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills

SQL Database ManagementPython ProgrammingGo ProgrammingContainerizationEvent-Driven WorkflowsIdempotency and FencingReconciliation PatternsDurable Task QueuesOptimistic ConcurrencySaga-Style Workflows

Tools & Technologies

KubernetesColdFusion

Industry Keywords

Control PlaneOrchestrationConsistency GuaranteesDrift DetectionReconciliation-Lag SLOs

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

Distributed SystemsKubernetesPythonSQLGo

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Own the design of the control plane that places, reconciles, and operates VMs across the Compute fleet
Define the database partitioning and sharding strategy to scale control plane state management 5x
Develop capacity models for placement and inventory state
Own the placement reconciliation loop, including desired-state modeling, idempotent reconcilers, drift detection, and reconciliation-lag SLOs
Generalize bulk and asynchronous operations into one model with standard operation resources, batching, concurrency caps, and automatic halt on failure thresholds
Set consistency guarantees per data path
Enforce idempotency and fencing on controller actions
Specify saga-style workflows

Requirements

What you’ll need

12 years of experience in building distributed systems, along with experience owning control planes or large-scale orchestration or equivalent
Deep database experience with SQL, including partitioning, sharding, replication, and online schema change
Experience building asynchronous systems, including durable task queues, event-driven workflows, and retry and backpressure design
Hands-on experience building and operating containerized applications, including Kubernetes
Competence in Python or Go
Experience with the other language or ColdFusion is good, but not required
Deep understanding of consistency, including leases, fencing, idempotency, and optimistic concurrency
Hands-on experience with reconciliation or controller patterns, such as Kubernetes-style controllers or equivalent

Benefits

Comp & perks

Annual bonus or incentives
Equity awards
Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP)
Healthcare
401K savings plan
Company holidays
Vacation (in the form of PTO)
Sick time
Parental leave
Employee assistance program
Mental and financial wellness support
Flexible work arrangements: at home, in an office, or a combination of both