Principal Software Engineer

Why Work Here
Headquarters is in Charlotte, NC
Recently expanded to nearshore
isolved ranked for SMB Payroll in 2023 Sapient Report
Voted top places to work in USA 2023
Job Description
The Principal Software Engineer for the WFM team is a technical leader who shapes how the team builds software in an AI-first development environment. This role combines deep architectural judgment with product awareness, helping the team make the right decisions about what to build, how to build it, and when AI-generated output is trustworthy versus when it needs human expertise.
This role is hands-on. This person brings clarity to ambiguous problems, coaches engineers on both stack proficiency and systems/product thinking, and ensures architectural decisions serve both current needs and long-term product direction. They are a key participant in the team's AI Development Lifecycle, an operating model where product, UX, engineering, and QA collaborate in real time to define and deliver solutions together. AI-assisted development is a core part of how the team works, and we expect you to use agentic coding, spec-driven development, and AI-augmented code review in your daily workflow.
Core Job Duties
Technical Leadership and Architecture
Designing and implementing complex functionality, with hands-on ownership from architecture through delivery
Owning architectural decisions for the WFM/Time product domain, including service design, data strategy (SQL Server, Azure CosmosDB or other NoSQL), and system integration patterns
Setting and maintaining technical standards that account for AI-generated code, including review criteria, testing expectations, and quality gates
Serving as primary technical contact for product owners and external teams
Responsible for production support, including investigating and resolving third-level support escalations
AI-First Development
Working within the AI Development Lifecycle model, collaborating live with product, UX, engineering, and QA to define, build, and validate solutions in real time
Leveraging AI coding tools, including GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, and Cursor, as a core part of the development workflow
Critically evaluating AI-generated code for correctness, performance, security, and architectural fit
Helping define and evolve the team's AI development practices, identifying where AI accelerates delivery and where human judgment is essential
Coaching and Team Development
Providing frequent guidance and support to other developers, including hands-on, stack-specific mentoring (C#, Angular, SQL Server, etc.)
Coaching engineers on problem decomposition, product thinking, and architectural judgment in addition to syntax and implementation detail
Raising the team's ability to articulate problems clearly, evaluate AI output critically, and reason about systems holistically
Helping engineers at all levels develop the judgment to know when AI-suggested solutions will create downstream pain
Product and Process
Participating on the agile team to estimate and groom backlog items, plan development activities, and improve the development process
Working with business analysts to clarify requirements and debug problems
Anticipating how architectural decisions affect the product roadmap, and proactively surfacing risks and opportunities
Minimum Qualifications
10+ years of relevant web application/services development
10+ years large enterprise or e-business systems experience
Demonstrated use of AI-assisted development tools (GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, Cursor, or similar) as a core part of professional development workflows
Demonstrated ability to make architectural decisions that balance technical quality with product and business needs
Ability to work independently to research and solve complex problems
Strong communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders
Experience mentoring and coaching engineers across multiple levels
Strong skills with: Azure, Microservice Architecture, C#, SQL, Unit Testing, .NET, JavaScript, HTML
Angular, Azure CosmosDB or other NoSQL database
Pub/Sub and asynchronous messaging
Docker, MVVM
Experience with large (500+ database table) system development a plus
Experience with the following a plus: working within an AI-first or AI Development Lifecycle model, Agile/Scrum experience including distributed teams
Eager to learn and grow
BS or BA degree preferred
About Isolved
isolved is a leading provider of human capital management (HCM) solutions that combines modern technology with expert services and support. Purpose-built for People Heroes™, isolved gives HR, payroll and benefits leaders the tools and insights to streamline operations and deliver employee experiences that matter. isolved People Cloud™ is a connected HCM platform with built-in artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics that brings together HR, payroll, benefits, workforce management and talent management in one experience. Built on a legacy of 40 years in the market, isolved is trusted by more than 200,000 employers and used by 9 million U.S. employees, representing about one in 20 American workers. Visit www.isolvedhcm.com.

Work arrangement
Yes