Principal Software Engineer

Lumen is a trusted network for the AI-powered world, connecting people, data, and applications. The Principal Software Engineer will serve as a senior technical leader responsible for advancing Lumen's next-generation software architecture strategy, focusing on AI-native engineering and intelligent automation.

Responsibilities:

• Lead the adoption of AI-native engineering practices that improve software quality, engineering productivity, and delivery velocity
• Design architectures that incorporate intelligent agents, automation capabilities, and AI-assisted workflows into enterprise solutions
• Define patterns for agent orchestration, collaboration, task delegation, context sharing, and operational governance
• Guide the development of AI-enabled capabilities that improve customer experiences, operational effectiveness, service intelligence, and business outcomes
• Evaluate emerging AI technologies and establish practical adoption patterns across multiple engineering organizations
• Architect scalable distributed systems supporting mission-critical enterprise services and customer-facing applications
• Define architectural standards for reliability, scalability, resiliency, observability, and operational excellence
• Guide technology decisions involving cloud-native services, event-driven architectures, large-scale information processing, and intelligent automation frameworks
• Design reusable software components, integration patterns, and shared capabilities that accelerate solution delivery across the enterprise
• Design information architectures that enable efficient discovery, integration, governance, and consumption of enterprise information assets
• Establish patterns for real-time information exchange, analytics, automation, and AI-enabled decision support capabilities
• Guide the development of information-intensive services that support operational insights, customer intelligence, and intelligent application experiences
• Promote interoperability, governance, and reusable architectural standards across software, information, and intelligent systems
• Serve as a trusted advisor to engineering and technology leaders on strategic technical initiatives
• Establish architectural standards and influence technology direction across multiple organizations
• Mentor engineers, architects, and technical leads while fostering a culture of engineering excellence and innovation
• Drive adoption of reusable capabilities and architectural patterns that accelerate delivery and reduce operational complexity

Requirements:

• Experience designing and implementing production-grade intelligent systems, agentic applications, or AI-enabled software solutions
• Strong understanding of modern AI orchestration frameworks, workflow automation, tool integration, and AI-assisted software delivery
• Experience applying AI technologies to improve customer-facing products, operational decision-making, service intelligence, or engineering effectiveness
• Deep expertise designing large-scale distributed applications and enterprise software systems
• Experience with cloud-native architectures, event-driven systems, streaming technologies, and highly scalable software services
• Strong understanding of software architecture principles, system reliability, observability, performance optimization, and operational excellence
• Experience designing information architectures and data-intensive systems that support analytics, automation, AI-enabled capabilities, and customer-facing solutions
• Understanding of data governance, interoperability, data product design, and large-scale information management principles
• Experience transforming complex information assets into actionable insights, intelligent services, or measurable business value
• Proficiency in one or more modern programming languages such as Python, Java, Scala, Go, or equivalent technologies
• Experience delivering enterprise solutions across public cloud, hybrid cloud, and distributed computing environments
• Familiarity with modern engineering practices, developer tooling, automation frameworks, and software delivery platforms
• Demonstrated success as a Principal Engineer, Enterprise Architect, Distinguished Engineer, or equivalent senior technical leadership role
• Proven ability to establish technical direction and influence organizational strategy without direct authority
• Strong communication skills with the ability to engage engineers, architects, technology leaders, executives, and business stakeholders
• Experience leading complex technical initiatives that achieved broad adoption and measurable business impact across multiple organizations