Principal Software Engineer

View all jobsPrincipal Software EngineerSan Diego, CAEngineeringHybridFull-timeWho We AreFirestorm is building the next generation of uncrewed aircraft and the advanced manufacturing systems that deliver them at speed. The Software Integration & Operations department owns the software layer that spans factory floor to cloud — the applications, automation, edge systems, and intelligence that make it possible to iterate product designs, automate advanced manufacturing, and scale production with uncompromising quality and rigor. About the Role As a Principal Engineer in the team, you are the senior-most technical leader across engineering execution. You raise the engineering bar, lead the hardest initiatives to completion, and serve as the connective tissue between the department head, the System Architect, and the engineering teams shipping the platform. You write production code when it matters, and you choose your leverage deliberately — mentoring a senior engineer through a design, stepping into an incident, leading a high-risk migration, or pair-programming on a critical path feature. Where the System Architect owns the reference architecture and the coherence of the system's design, the Principal Engineer owns the quality of how engineering is executed against that design. The two roles are peers, and you are expected to partner tightly with the System Architect to design our advanced manufacturing systems and directly with platform component teams to drive execution of new products or releases. This is a technical leadership role — you will be expected to turn a vision into working software, prove it in production, and grow a team to own it. What You'll Do Lead the hardest engineering initiatives across the department — high-risk migrations, new module launches, incident response, and cross-team efforts where execution quality is the dominant risk. Raise the engineering bar across the department: code quality, testing discipline, observability, operational excellence, and the working practices that determine whether a team ships well. Serve as a technical mentor to senior ICs across all functions — full stack, infrastructure, embedded, integration, applied AI — and a calibration anchor for engineering hiring. Partner with the System Architect on landing architectural direction in engineering execution: translating reference designs into implementation plans, flagging where execution reality should inform architectural revision, and holding the line on system coherence during the build. Partner with the department head on roadmap, staffing, and technical strategy — the right hand who translates direction into engineering execution. Write production code when it matters — on critical path features, in incident response, or in proof-of-concepts that unblock a team. Required Qualifications Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field (or equivalent practical experience)  U.S. Citizenship required due to ITAR regulations 10+ years of engineering experience with demonstrated impact across multiple production systems. Deep technical breadth — you hold your own across full-stack web, cloud infrastructure, systems programming, and integration work. Track record of leading engineering execution on non-trivial systems — features shipped, incidents handled, migrations landed, and teams raised to a higher bar. Demonstrated technical leadership without formal authority: mentoring, design review, incident command, and cross-team alignment. Strong written and verbal communication — you take a messy technical problem, write the doc that frames it, and drive the room to a decision. Demonstrated history of holding yourself and your teammates to a high standard, even when it creates discomfort. Preferred Qualifications Prior Staff or Principal engineering role at a company shipping hardware-connected software. Nominally with experience in manufacturing, aerospace, or defense software environments. Experience leading...