Principal Engineer

Job description

Adventure is our Culture. Join a team that celebrates a lifestyle as bold as the terrain we love. At Backcountry, we are rooted in adventure, recognition, and wellbeing on and off the mountain. We spotlight employee stories, celebrate milestones, and offer exclusive outdoor perks. Whether you are at HQ, in a retail store, or remote, you will be part of a team that thrives on energy, exploration, and connection. **Reports to:** Sr. Director of IT **Location:** Cottonwood Heights, Utah (Hybrid - 3x/week in-office) or Remote (United States) ### About the Role Backcountry needs a foundational technical leader who can own architecture, quality, and engineering standards across the e-commerce platform powering five outdoor and powersports brands. As **Principal Engineer, Application Development**, you will lead a team of developers building the fulfillment and order management systems our customers rely on, while driving AI-powered innovation that raises engineering throughput and reliability. At six to twelve months, success looks like a meaningfully improved platform architecture, measurable reductions in technical debt, and a development team operating at higher velocity with cleaner, more maintainable code. This is a lean team. You will own a lot, move fast, and make decisions with full end-to-end responsibility. ### What You'll Do - Spearhead AI technical innovation by designing AI and agentic workflows that empower engineering teams; leverage best-in-class AI toolsets to improve engineering delivery throughput, quality, and reliability. - Design, develop, and maintain fulfillment systems (warehouse management, order management, etc.) that power the e-commerce platform, ensuring scalability, performance, and long-term maintainability. - Lead a small team of developers in the design, development, and testing of software solutions, providing clear technical direction and accountability. - Enable other engineering stakeholders and their teams to integrate quickly with fulfillment system interfaces by surfacing clean API documentation, observability monitoring, and alerting that give consumers of your systems a high level of dependability. - Collaborate with cross-functional teams across product, design, and operations to ensure successful and timely delivery of projects. - Design and implement agentic quality gates that enable rapid iteration with a safety net developers can trust. - Act as a technical mentor for engineers at all levels, providing hands-on guidance on software development best practices. - Represent Backcountry's core values through your technical decisions and team interactions. ### Required Qualifications - 10+ years of experience in software development with a strong background in e-commerce fulfillment, including order management and warehouse management. - Experience leveraging best-in-class AI tooling to accelerate development. - Deep expertise in Java, Spring Framework, Spring Boot, and Node.js. - Strong understanding of software architecture and design patterns with demonstrated experience applying them at enterprise scale. - Expertise with relational databases and SQL, including query optimization. - Expertise with NoSQL and document-oriented databases. - Expertise with Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, and CI/CD tooling. - Experience with cloud platforms, specifically GCP or AWS. - Proven track record of leading software development teams and delivering high-quality, production-grade software. - Excellent communication skills in English; ability to operate effectively with technical and non-technical stakeholders. - Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to think creatively under constraint. ### Preferred Qualifications - Experience in outdoor retail, multi-brand e-commerce, or similar high-SKU retail environments. - Familiarity with omni-channel fulfillment and order management systems at scale. - Familiarity with ERP enterprise systems such as NetSuite. ### Why Join The people who do best here are builders. They take ownership, move fast, and want to see the direct impact of their work. - **Team Impact:** Lead platform architecture for five outdoor and powersports brands, building and guiding a development team with direct ownership of their outcomes and visibility to senior leadership. - **Growth and Craft:** Deepen your leadership skills in a lean, high-ownership environment where your technical decisions have immediate and measurable organizational impact, with room to grow your management craft alongside your engineering expertise. - **Ownership:** Own team performance and delivery end-to-end — from architecture and quality standards to mentorship and shipping production-grade software. - **Competitive Benefits:** Paid time off policies, 401(k) match, medical/dental/vision and a variety of supplemental policies, and employee discounts across our portfolio of brands. ### Interview Process 1. **Recruiter Screen** - A 30-minute conversation with our recruiting team to align on the role, your background, and what you are looking for. 2. **Hiring Manager Interview** - Conversation with the Sr. Director of IT focused on leadership philosophy, technical vision, and team fit. 3. **Project Manager Interview** - Panel format with project managers to discuss collaboration, communication, and delivery approach. 4. **Technical Exercise** - A deeper dive into architecture, system design, and problem-solving approach. 5. **In-Person Interview** - We'd like to meet you at our Cottonwood Heights office. Details and logistics will be arranged with your recruiter. 6. **Reference Checks** - Conducted in parallel with the final stages where possible. 7. **Offer** - We move quickly for the right candidate. *Interview process is subject to change. Any updates will be communicated promptly and clearly.* ### Please Note - Part of our interview process is a **mandatory in-person interview** with someone on our team prior to an offer. Candidates that are unwilling or unable to meet for an in-person interview will be removed from consideration immediately. - Due to a high volume of fraudulent applications, **you must share a valid LinkedIn profile URL in** **the application questions below to be considered**. If you do not have a LinkedIn profile, you must provide a credible reason in that field and supply alternative evidence of your professional background to verify your identity.