8th Light
PrincipalSoftwareEngineer
Neural analysis suggests this role is
optimal for Senior candidates.
“Principal Software Engineer at 8th Light. Skills: AI solutions, Deep engineering, Product strategy, Experiential design, AI/ML, Data Engineering, DevOps, MLOps. Build trust with clients. Demonstrate technical expertise”
What You'll Achieve.
Drive sustainable growth; Optimize digital products; Deliver solutions we're proud of; Drive measurable outcomes; Drive impactful outcomes; Improve team practices; Improve project outcomes
Industry & Context.
Solve meaningful challenges; Solve complex problems; Assess new tooling; Assess trends; Root cause analysis; Troubleshooting
What They're Looking For.
Must Have
10+ years experience, Demonstrated long-term success on high-stakes consulting engagements, Built high-quality, maintainable software collaboratively, Led development and delivery of production-grade software, Evaluated and strategically applied AI-assistive development tools, Track record of understanding, assessing, and embracing new tooling and trends, Experience building or integrating AI/ML-powered features, Used context-appropriate automated testing, Successfully led modernization efforts, Remedied architecture-level concerns, Facilitated alignment and collaboration across stakeholders, Provided mentorship and team support at scale, Actively sought out and effectively given feedback, Collaboratively led stakeholders to balance technical considerations
Nice to Have
Experience in RAG pipelines, Experience in vector search, Experience in agentic frameworks, Experience with La
What You'll Do.
Build trust with clients
Demonstrate technical expertise
Understand client domain
Guide technical direction
Solve complex problems
Demonstrate best practices
Engage within codebase
Balance technology choices
Deliver high-quality work
Advise clients on architecture
Advise clients on scalability
Advise clients on platform evolution
Connect technical decisions to outcomes
Collaborate on systems
Surface new technical approaches
Surface product solutions
Lead feedback conversations
Contribute to team health
Design technical roadmaps
Maintain client relationships
Coach client engineering teams
Influence client CTOs
Influence executive decisions
Execute technical work
Identify account opportunities
Facilitate retrospectives
Facilitate strategy sessions
Facilitate technical deep-dives
Improve project outcomes
Support hiring processes
Demonstrate leadership
Bring depth in testing strategies
Bring depth in observability
Bring depth in fault tolerance
Bring depth in secure engineering practices
Apply architectural patterns
Drive design rationale
How You'll Work.
Team & Collaboration
Cross-functional teams; Client stakeholders; Technical stakeholders; Non-technical stakeholders; Client engineering teams; Internal teams; Global team
Communication Scope
Client presentations; Technical documentation; Executive decisions
Process & Methodology
Roadmap planning
Full Job Description
Who We Are At 8th Light, we bring life to the best ideas. Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Chicago, we are a technology solutions provider that partners with organizations to solve meaningful challenges and drive sustainable growth. From early-stage startups to global enterprises, we work across industries to optimize our clients’ digital products through product strategy innovation, experiential design, AI solutions, and deep engineering expertise. Our commitment to quality means we deliver solutions we’re truly proud of, while our curiosity sparks innovation and breakthrough thinking. 8th Lights thrive in an environment that champions continuous education, fueling our growth through mentorship and hands-on work. We foster an open, collaborative culture grounded in honesty that builds trust, and believe true success is measured by the outcomes we create for our clients. If this kind of work and our kind of people energizes you, you’ve found the right place. Who You Are You’ve shown long-term repeated success on a variety of projects, typically over the course of 10+ years. You are a trusted expert and leader, often called upon to guide ambiguous initiatives and architect scalable solutions. You bring a blend of deep consulting acumen, technical expertise, and product thinking that drives measurable and impactful outcomes. In your previous experience, you have: Demonstrated long-term success on high-stakes consulting engagements across multiple language paradigms, stacks, ecosystems, technical environments, and client industries Built high-quality, maintainable software collaboratively, incrementally, and through an approach tailored towards the unique needs of the clients you’ve served Led the development and delivery of production-grade software using a variety of languages and frameworks, including but not limited to: Python, Java, JavaScript, TypeScript, React, Ruby, Scala, R, SQL, and Go Evaluated and strategically applied AI-assistive development tools to
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