Software Development Principal Engineer

Software Development Principal Engineer at Quest Software

Quest Software Canada Inc. is actively seeking a Software Development Principal Engineer to become a vital part of our dynamic and agile R&D organization. In this role, you will lead the design and development of innovative cloud-native SaaS products, specifically leveraging the Microsoft Azure platform. You will provide hands-on technical leadership throughout the entire software development lifecycle, from initial architectural design to scalable implementation and robust DevOps automation. Collaborating closely with a team of high-performing engineers, product managers, and designers, you will be instrumental in delivering secure, intelligent, enterprise-grade solutions that deeply integrate with key Microsoft technologies such as Entra ID, Microsoft 365, Azure PaaS, and more.

This position is a regular full-time role, requiring work hours aligned with the Eastern Time Zone (ET).

Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership & Architecture

• Drive the technical vision and containerization strategy across multiple engineering teams for enterprise SaaS platforms.
• Own the end-to-end system design for multi-tenant containerized applications, capable of processing billions of events with 99.9%+ availability.
• Lead technical due diligence for crucial infrastructure decisions, container orchestration strategies, and technology adoption.
• Establish organization-wide engineering standards, best practices, and containerization patterns.
• Mentor cross-functional teams, fostering technical excellence in container technologies and infrastructure optimization.
• Drive the adoption of emerging technologies, including container orchestration, service mesh, observability, and Infrastructure as Code.
• Lead process improvement initiatives for containerized deployment pipelines, focusing on cost optimization and performance tuning.
• Provide expert resource estimation, timeline planning, and comprehensive infrastructure cost optimization analysis.

Hands-on Technical Leadership

• Architect enterprise-scale containerized microservices using Docker and Kubernetes/AKS, focusing on advanced scalability and performance tuning.
• Design scalable, secure multi-tenant backend systems utilizing C#/.NET 8, NodeJS, and Python, with integrated containerized deployment strategies.
• Implement sophisticated container orchestration with proper resource allocation, auto-scaling, and cost optimization techniques.
• Own complex containerized components from initial conception through deployment, ongoing monitoring, and production support.
• Drive best practices, including containerization standards, infrastructure-as-code principles, and advanced CI/CD for container deployments.

SaaS Platform & Infrastructure Excellence

• Design customer-facing RESTful and GraphQL APIs with containerized deployment on AKS.
• Build comprehensive observability stacks using Grafana, Elasticsearch, Prometheus, Azure Monitor, and Application Insights for containerized environments.
• Architect dynamic UI generation from configuration using Angular 15+ and AngularJS.
• Maintain sophisticated infrastructure pipelines using Terraform, YAML, and ARM templates for AKS cluster management.
• Establish disaster recovery and high-availability patterns for containerized enterprise data retention.
• Implement advanced AKS infrastructure, including node pools, networking, security policies, and cost optimization.
• Design and implement container-based auto-scaling strategies to balance performance and cost efficiency.

Qualifications

Applicants should possess a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, along with 5+ years of experience in enterprise software development, cloud-native containerized solutions, and SaaS platforms. Expert-level knowledge of containerization technologies such as Docker, Kubernetes/AKS, coupled with deep infrastructure optimization experience, is essential. Proven software architecture skills for enterprise multi-tenant containerized SaaS with advanced scalability patterns are required. Extensive experience in container orchestration, Infrastructure as Code (Terraform), and complete containerized SDLC management is crucial. Strong communication and leadership skills, particularly when collaborating with cross-functional infrastructure and development teams, are highly valued.

Technical Expertise

• Deep understanding of the AKS ecosystem: Advanced cluster management, node pools, networking, RBAC, performance tuning, cost optimization.
• Container orchestration: Docker, Kubernetes, service mesh, auto-scaling, resource management, security policies.
• Infrastructure as Code: Expert-level Terraform, ARM templates, automated infrastructure provisioning and management.
• Frontend technologies: Angular 15+, AngularJS, dynamic UI from configuration, containerized frontend deployment.
• Backend development: Python, C#/.NET 8, NodeJS, containerized microservices architecture.
• Azure Services: Service Bus, KeyVault, Event Grid, Event Hub, SQL, Cosmos DB, Storage.
• AWS Services: EC2, Lambda functions, Event Bridge, RDS, SQS, DynamoDB, S3, Route53, CloudFormation, CloudFront.
• Observability stack: Expert-level Grafana, Elasticsearch, monitoring containerized applications and infrastructure.
• Enterprise CI/CD pipelines for containerized deployments using Azure DevOps, GitOps practices.

Specialized Skills (Preferred)

• Advanced AKS infrastructure: Multi-region deployments, disaster recovery, advanced networking (NSG rules, VNETs, CNI, ingress controllers).
• Container security: Pod security policies, network policies, vulnerability scanning, compliance in containerized environments.
• Performance optimization: Container resource tuning, AKS cluster optimization, cost management strategies.
• Service mesh technologies: Istio, Linkerd, advanced traffic management and observability.
• GraphQL: Advanced schema design, query optimization, containerized GraphQL service deployment, experience with Apollo Federation.
• AI/ML integration: Azure Semantic Kernel, OpenAI APIs, GitHub Copilot.
• Security: Claims-based authentication (OAuth2/OIDC/JWT/MFA/RBAC), compliance frameworks (ISO 27001, SOC2, OWASP, SANS, FedRAMP is a big plus).
• Microsoft enterprise technologies: Entra ID, Microsoft 365, Exchange, SharePoint, Graph APIs.
• UI configuration systems: Dynamic Angular component generation, configuration-driven user interfaces, hands-on Angular and TypeScript experience.
• Elasticsearch: Advanced search implementations, cluster management, performance optimization in containerized environments.
• Grafana: Custom dashboard development, advanced alerting, infrastructure and application monitoring.

Company Description

Quest Software empowers organizations of all sizes to enhance their security, management, monitoring, protection, and analysis of information and infrastructure. This enables them to fuel innovation and propel their businesses forward. With over 5,000 team members globally, we are committed to continuous revenue growth and adding significant value for our customers.

Joining our team provides the unique opportunity to build and develop products at a scale few others can match. Our extensive product portfolio serves a large customer base and addresses critical strategic imperatives for enterprise businesses. Working alongside some of the industry's most talented professionals, we offer enhanced career opportunities for team members to learn and grow in a rapidly evolving environment.

Why work with us?

Life at Quest means collaborating with dedicated professionals who possess a passion for technology. We foster a culture where innovation is encouraged; when an improvement is identified, we actively work to invent the solution. Our people exemplify our winning culture through positive and meaningful relationships. We are deeply invested in our employees, offering a variety of programs that enable them to pursue careers that fulfill their potential. The health and wellness of our team members are paramount, and we are committed to rewarding them for their hard work.

Quest is an Equal Opportunity Employer and Prohibits Discrimination and Harassment of Any Kind. We are dedicated to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all employees and to providing a work environment free of discrimination and harassment. All employment decisions are based on business needs, job requirements, and individual qualifications, without regard to race, color, religion or belief, national, social or ethnic origin, sex (including pregnancy), age, physical, mental or sensory disability, HIV Status, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, marital, civil union or domestic partnership status, past or present military service, family medical history or genetic information, family or parental status, or any other status protected by applicable laws or regulations. Quest will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics and encourages applicants of all ages.

Key skills/competency

• Cloud-native SaaS
• Containerization (Docker, Kubernetes/AKS)
• Azure Platform Services
• Microservices Architecture
• Infrastructure as Code (Terraform)
• C#/.NET, NodeJS, Python
• DevOps & CI/CD
• Scalability & Performance Tuning
• Observability (Grafana, Elasticsearch)
• Technical Leadership