📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Principal Software Engineer, Cloud Platform
Company: DISCO
Location: Remote
Job Type: Full-time
Category: DevOps Engineer, Cloud Engineer
Date Posted: 2025-06-24
Experience Level: 10+ years of relevant experience
Remote Status: Remote

🚀 Role Summary

📝 Enhancement Note: This role is a senior-level position focusing on cloud infrastructure automation, with a strong emphasis on scalability, performance, and zero-downtime data management. It requires a deep understanding of cloud platforms, containerization, and large-scale datastores.
As a Principal Software Engineer, Cloud Platform, you will define the infrastructure automation strategy for highly scalable and performant search systems. You will identify required capabilities and abstractions, build and maintain a roadmap, and lead software development to realize these goals. Additionally, you will contribute to the greater DISCO platform, recruit, hire, and mentor other architects and engineers.

💻 Primary Responsibilities

📝 Enhancement Note: This role involves a mix of technical leadership, architecture design, and team management, with a strong focus on automation, scalability, and performance.
🔑 Infrastructure Automation Strategy: Define the strategy for automating infrastructure to meet required performance and scalability targets.
🌐 Capability Identification: Identify the capabilities and abstractions needed to satisfy performance and scalability targets through automated, zero-downtime data and infrastructure management.
🗺️ Roadmap Development: Build and maintain a roadmap and architecture for realizing those abstractions and capabilities.
🛠️ Software Development: Lead software and systems development for the roadmap.
🌟 Platform Contribution: Contribute leadership, understanding, and lessons learned to the greater DISCO platform in these areas.
👥 Team Management: Recruit, hire, and mentor other architects and engineers to accomplish the above.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education: A bachelor's degree in computer science, software engineering, or a related field is typically required. An advanced degree would be a plus.

Experience: Candidates should have 10+ years of relevant experience in infrastructure automation, cloud platforms, and large-scale datastores.

Required Skills:

🌐 Cloud Providers: Proficiency in one or more cloud providers, with a preference for AWS.
🐳 Containerization: Proficiency with container-based deployment, such as Kubernetes and Docker.
🔧 Infrastructure Automation: Mastery of infrastructure automation tools like Terraform, CloudFormation, Chef, or Puppet.
🔒 Site Reliability: Experience operating systems at scale, including observability and site reliability.
📊 Datastores: Experience operating datastores at scale, such as ElasticSearch, NoSQL stores, Kafka, columnar databases, dataflow or pipeline systems, and graph datastores.
🔄 CI/CD: Experience with continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) and a well-maintained testing pyramid.
💭 Opinions: Experience with multiple software stacks, having opinions and preferences, and not being married to a specific stack.

Preferred Skills:

🏆 Advanced Degree: An advanced degree in computer science, software engineering, or a similar field.
👥 Team Management: Experience managing a team of direct reports.
🏢 Multi-Tenant Systems: Experience designing, modifying, and operating multi-tenant systems.
🔐 Security Perspective: An understanding of how to design and develop from a security perspective.
🛠️ 3rd Party Components: An understanding of how to identify, select, and extend 3rd party components that provide operational leverage but do not constrain product and engineering creativity.

📊 Web Portfolio & Project Requirements

📝 Enhancement Note: While not explicitly mentioned, a strong portfolio demonstrating experience in infrastructure automation, cloud platforms, and large-scale datastores would be essential for this role.

Portfolio Essentials:

🌐 Cloud Platform Projects: Showcase projects that demonstrate your proficiency in cloud providers, containerization, and infrastructure automation.
🔒 Site Reliability Projects: Highlight projects that showcase your experience with site reliability, observability, and zero-downtime data management.
📊 Datastore Projects: Include projects that demonstrate your experience operating large-scale datastores and managing data pipelines.
🛠️ CI/CD Projects: Showcase projects that exhibit your experience with CI/CD pipelines and a well-maintained testing pyramid.

Technical Documentation:

📝 Code Documentation: Include comments and documentation in your code that explain your thought process, assumptions, and decisions.
📊 Performance Metrics: Document performance metrics, testing methodologies, and optimization techniques used in your projects.
🌐 Infrastructure As Code (IaC): Demonstrate your use of IaC tools like Terraform or CloudFormation to automate infrastructure deployment and management.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range: The salary range for this role is estimated to be between $180,000 and $250,000 per year, based on market research for senior-level cloud and DevOps roles in the United States.

Benefits:

🩺 Medical Insurance: DISCO offers medical, dental, and vision insurance benefits to its employees.
💰 401(k): DISCO provides a 401(k) plan to help employees save for retirement.
💸 Competitive Salary: DISCO offers competitive salaries to attract and retain top talent.
📊 RSUs: Restricted Stock Units (RSUs) are also part of the compensation package.
🏝️ Flexible PTO: DISCO offers flexible paid time off (PTO) to help employees maintain a healthy work-life balance.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

🏢 Industry: DISCO operates in the legal technology industry, focusing on ediscovery, legal document review, and case management.
🏢 Company Size: DISCO is a mid-sized company with a team of around 200 employees, providing ample opportunities for growth and impact.
🏢 Founded: DISCO was founded in 2013, making it a relatively young company with a strong focus on innovation and growth.

🌐 Company Website: DISCO

📝 Enhancement Note: DISCO's culture values innovation, collaboration, and continuous learning. The company encourages employees to take ownership of their work and contribute to its growth and success.

🎯 Team Structure

🌐 Cloud Platform Team: The cloud platform team is responsible for designing, implementing, and managing the infrastructure that supports DISCO's products and services.
👥 Team Size: The team is relatively small, allowing for close collaboration and significant individual impact.
👥 Reporting Structure: The Principal Software Engineer, Cloud Platform, will report directly to the CTO and work closely with other engineering teams, such as software development, quality assurance, and data science.

🎯 Development Methodology

🔄 Agile Methodologies: DISCO uses Agile methodologies, such as Scrum or Kanban, to manage its development processes.
🔄 Code Review: The company emphasizes code review and collaboration to ensure code quality and knowledge sharing.
🔄 CI/CD Pipelines: DISCO uses CI/CD pipelines to automate the deployment and testing of its applications.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

🌐 Web Technology Career Level: This role is a senior-level position, requiring a deep understanding of cloud platforms, infrastructure automation, and large-scale datastores. The ideal candidate will have 10+ years of relevant experience and a proven track record of delivering results in a similar role.

👥 Reporting Structure: The Principal Software Engineer, Cloud Platform, will report directly to the CTO and work closely with other engineering teams. This role offers the opportunity to influence the company's technical direction and contribute to its growth and success.

🎯 Technical Impact: The Principal Software Engineer, Cloud Platform, will have a significant impact on DISCO's products and services by defining the infrastructure automation strategy, identifying required capabilities and abstractions, and leading software development to realize these goals.

💡 Growth Opportunities:

🌟 Technical Leadership: This role offers the opportunity to grow into a technical leadership position, mentoring other engineers and contributing to the company's technical direction.
🌐 Platform Expansion: As DISCO continues to grow and expand its platform, there will be opportunities to take on more responsibilities and lead new initiatives.
💻 Technology Specialization: The Principal Software Engineer, Cloud Platform, can specialize in specific areas of interest, such as infrastructure automation, cloud security, or large-scale datastore management.

📝 Enhancement Note: DISCO values internal mobility and encourages employees to explore different roles and opportunities within the company. This role offers a unique opportunity to grow both technically and professionally.

🌐 Work Environment

🏢 Office Type: DISCO operates a remote-first work environment, allowing employees to work from anywhere with a stable internet connection.

📍 Office Location(s): While DISCO is headquartered in Austin, Texas, employees are welcome to work from any location that suits their needs.

🌐 Workspace Context:

💻 Remote Workstation: Employees are provided with the necessary hardware and software to work effectively from a remote location.
📞 Collaboration Tools: DISCO uses collaboration tools, such as Slack and Zoom, to facilitate communication and teamwork among its remote workforce.
📅 Flexible Schedule: DISCO offers a flexible work schedule, allowing employees to balance their work and personal lives more effectively.

📝 Enhancement Note: DISCO's remote-first work environment fosters a culture of trust, autonomy, and flexibility, allowing employees to balance their work and personal lives more effectively.

📅 Work Schedule: DISCO operates on a standard 40-hour workweek, with core hours between 9:00 AM and 5:00 PM Central Time. However, the company is flexible with employees' working hours and encourages them to maintain a healthy work-life balance.

📄 Application & Technical Interview Process

📝 Enhancement Note: The application and interview process for this role will be rigorous and competitive, focusing on the candidate's technical skills, leadership potential, and cultural fit.

📝 Application Tips:

📝 Tailored Resume: Tailor your resume to highlight your relevant experience in cloud platforms, infrastructure automation, and large-scale datastores.
📝 Portfolio Preparation: Prepare a portfolio that showcases your experience and accomplishments in these areas, focusing on projects that demonstrate your technical skills and leadership potential.
📝 Company Research: Research DISCO's products, services, and company culture to demonstrate your enthusiasm and understanding of the role.

📝 Interview Process:

📝 Phone Screen: The initial phone screen will focus on your technical skills, experience, and cultural fit. Be prepared to discuss your portfolio and answer technical questions related to cloud platforms, infrastructure automation, and large-scale datastores.
📝 Technical Deep Dive: The technical deep dive will involve a more in-depth discussion of your technical skills and experience. You may be asked to present a technical challenge or project and explain your approach, thought process, and decision-making.
📝 On-site Interview: The on-site interview will involve meetings with various stakeholders, including the CTO, other engineering team members, and potential peers. You will be evaluated on your technical skills, leadership potential, and cultural fit.

📝 Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

📝 Storytelling: Use storytelling techniques to present your portfolio projects, focusing on the problem you solved, the approach you took, and the results you achieved.
📝 Technical Walkthrough: Provide a detailed technical walkthrough of your portfolio projects, explaining your code, architecture, and design decisions.
📝 User Experience: Highlight the user experience aspects of your projects, explaining how you ensured that your solutions met the needs of your users.

📝 Technical Challenge Preparation:

📝 Problem-Solving: Focus on your problem-solving skills and ability to think critically about complex technical challenges.
📝 Communication: Practice communicating your technical ideas clearly and concisely, using analogies and real-world examples to illustrate your points.
📝 Time Management: Manage your time effectively during the technical challenge, prioritizing the most important aspects of the problem and demonstrating your ability to make trade-offs and compromises.

📝 Enhancement Note: The interview process for this role will be challenging and competitive, focusing on the candidate's technical skills, leadership potential, and cultural fit. Be prepared to demonstrate your expertise in cloud platforms, infrastructure automation, and large-scale datastores, as well as your ability to work collaboratively and effectively in a remote work environment.

🛠️ Technology Stack & Web Infrastructure

🌐 Cloud Provider: DISCO uses AWS as its primary cloud provider, leveraging a wide range of services, including:

🏢 EC2: DISCO uses EC2 instances for running its applications and services.
🔄 Lambda: DISCO uses Lambda for serverless computing and event-driven architecture.
📊 Aurora: DISCO uses Aurora for relational database management.
📊 Redshift: DISCO uses Redshift for data warehousing and business intelligence.
📊 DynamoDB: DISCO uses DynamoDB for NoSQL database management.
🔄 ECS: DISCO uses ECS for container orchestration and management.
🔄 EKS: DISCO uses EKS for Kubernetes cluster management.
📢 SQS: DISCO uses SQS for message queuing and decoupling services.
📢 SNS: DISCO uses SNS for event notification and messaging.
📊 Kinesis: DISCO uses Kinesis for real-time data streaming and processing.
📊 S3: DISCO uses S3 for object storage and data lakes.
📊 CloudFront: DISCO uses CloudFront for content delivery and caching.
📊 CloudFormation: DISCO uses CloudFormation for infrastructure as code (IaC) and automated deployment.
🔑 SageMaker: DISCO uses SageMaker for machine learning and AI development.
🔑 KMS: DISCO uses KMS for key management and encryption.
🔄 CodePipeline: DISCO uses CodePipeline for CI/CD and automated deployment.

🌐 DSL-based Search: DISCO uses DSL-based search for indexing and querying large-scale document collections.

📊 Event Bus: DISCO uses Kafka and Schema Registry for event-driven architecture and data processing.

🔒 3rd Party Vendors: DISCO uses Redis for caching and Auth0 for cloud identity federation.

📝 Enhancement Note: DISCO's technology stack is diverse and extensive, reflecting the company's commitment to leveraging cutting-edge tools and services to deliver innovative solutions to its customers.

👥 Team Culture & Values

🌐 Web Development Values:

🌐 Innovation: DISCO values innovation and encourages its employees to think creatively and challenge the status quo.
📈 Performance Optimization: DISCO emphasizes performance optimization and focuses on delivering fast, reliable, and scalable solutions to its customers.
📝 Code Quality: DISCO prioritizes code quality and emphasizes writing clean, maintainable, and well-documented code.
🤝 Collaboration: DISCO fosters a culture of collaboration and encourages its employees to work together to achieve common goals.

🌐 Collaboration Style:

🤝 Cross-Functional Integration: DISCO encourages collaboration between different teams, including software development, quality assurance, data science, and design.
🔄 Code Review: DISCO uses code review to ensure code quality and facilitate knowledge sharing among its engineers.
🤝 Knowledge Sharing: DISCO encourages its employees to share their knowledge and expertise with their colleagues, fostering a culture of continuous learning and growth.

📝 Enhancement Note: DISCO's culture values innovation, collaboration, and continuous learning. The company encourages its employees to take ownership of their work and contribute to its growth and success.

🌐 Challenges & Growth Opportunities

🌐 Technical Challenges:

🌐 Scalability: DISCO's products and services must scale to meet the demands of its growing customer base. The Principal Software Engineer, Cloud Platform, will be responsible for designing and implementing scalable infrastructure solutions that can handle increased traffic and data volume.
🌐 Performance Optimization: DISCO places a strong emphasis on performance optimization. The Principal Software Engineer, Cloud Platform, will be challenged to identify and address performance bottlenecks, optimize infrastructure, and improve the overall performance of DISCO's products and services.
🌐 User Experience: DISCO's products and services must provide a seamless and intuitive user experience. The Principal Software Engineer, Cloud Platform, will be responsible for ensuring that DISCO's infrastructure meets the needs of its users and delivers a high-quality experience.
🌐 Emerging Technologies: DISCO is committed to staying at the forefront of emerging technologies and leveraging them to deliver innovative solutions to its customers. The Principal Software Engineer, Cloud Platform, will be challenged to stay up-to-date with the latest developments in cloud infrastructure, containerization, and large-scale datastores, and integrate them into DISCO's products and services.

🌐 Learning & Development Opportunities:

🌟 Technical Skill Development: The Principal Software Engineer, Cloud Platform, will have the opportunity to develop their technical skills in cloud infrastructure, containerization, and large-scale datastores, working with cutting-edge tools and technologies.
🌟 Conference Attendance: DISCO encourages its employees to attend industry conferences and events to stay up-to-date with the latest developments in their fields and network with other professionals.
🌟 Certification: DISCO supports its employees in obtaining relevant certifications, such as AWS Certified Solutions Architect, AWS Certified DevOps Engineer, or Certified Kubernetes Administrator.
🌟 Technical Mentorship: The Principal Software Engineer, Cloud Platform, will have the opportunity to mentor other engineers and contribute to their professional development.

📝 Enhancement Note: DISCO offers a unique opportunity for growth and development, with a strong focus on technical skill development, conference attendance, certification, and mentorship.

💡 Interview Preparation

📝 Technical Questions:

🌐 Cloud Platform Fundamentals: Brush up on your knowledge of cloud platforms, containerization, and infrastructure automation, with a focus on AWS services.
🌐 Architecture Design: Prepare for architecture design questions related to scalable, performant, and highly available infrastructure solutions.
🌐 Problem-Solving: Practice problem-solving techniques and be prepared to discuss your approach to complex technical challenges.

🌐 Company & Culture Questions:

🌐 Company Culture: Research DISCO's company culture and be prepared to discuss how you would contribute to and thrive in this environment.
🌐 Web Development Methodology: Brush up on your knowledge of Agile methodologies, code review processes, and CI/CD pipelines.
🌐 User Experience Impact: Prepare to discuss how your work would impact the user experience of DISCO's products and services.

📝 Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

📝 Storytelling: Use storytelling techniques to present your portfolio projects, focusing on the problem you solved, the approach you took, and the results you achieved.
📝 Technical Walkthrough: Provide a detailed technical walkthrough of your portfolio projects, explaining your code, architecture, and design decisions.
📝 User Experience: Highlight the user experience aspects of your projects, explaining how you ensured that your solutions met the needs of your users.

📝 Technical Challenge Preparation:

📝 Problem-Solving: Focus on your problem-solving skills and ability to think critically about complex technical challenges.
📝 Communication: Practice communicating your technical ideas clearly and concisely, using analogies and real-world examples to illustrate your points.
📝 Time Management: Manage your time effectively during the technical challenge, prioritizing the most important aspects of the problem and demonstrating your ability to make trade-offs and compromises.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this Principal Software Engineer, Cloud Platform position at DISCO:

📝 Tailored Resume: Tailor your resume to highlight your relevant experience in cloud platforms, infrastructure automation, and large-scale datastores.
📝 Portfolio Preparation: Prepare a portfolio that showcases your experience and accomplishments in these areas, focusing on projects that demonstrate your technical skills and leadership potential.
📝 Company Research: Research DISCO's products, services, and company culture to demonstrate your enthusiasm and understanding of the role.
📝 Technical Interview Preparation: Brush up on your technical skills, prepare for architecture design questions, and practice problem-solving techniques to demonstrate your expertise in cloud platforms, infrastructure automation, and large-scale datastores.

📝 Important Notice: This enhanced job description includes AI-generated insights and web development/server administration industry-standard assumptions. All details should be verified directly with the hiring organization before making application decisions.

Principal Software Engineer, Cloud Platform