Principal Software Engineer - 11702

Principal Software Engineer - 11702

The Impact of a Principal Software Engineer at Coupa:

The Principal Software Engineer will serve as a backend architect and visionary leader, responsible for the overall design, strategy, and implementation of our core .NET services. You will tackle our most complex technical and business challenges, leading without authority and serving as a key strategic partner to VPs of Engineering and Architecture.

Your work will directly impact the productivity of hundreds of engineers and the performance of a platform that serves the world's largest enterprises. This role requires a leader who can operate at both 30,000 feet—crafting long-term vision—and 3 feet—diving deep into C# code alongside our top engineers to solve critical problems.

What You’ll Do:

• Architectural Vision & Strategy: Define and drive the long-term vision and multi-year strategy for Coupa's backend .NET architecture. Make strategic decisions on migrating legacy monoliths to highly scalable, cloud-native microservices.
• Enterprise-Wide Technical Leadership: Act as a lead contributor on key or critical projects with broad design issues. Provide technical advice and counsel that impacts the technical and business direction of the entire company, extending across several departments.
• Pave the Engineering Path: Establish and enforce best practices for API-driven services (REST, GraphQL), microservice orchestration, data transport, and platform monitoring across all backend initiatives.
• Drive Innovation: Evaluate and implement cutting-edge technologies in distributed computing, asynchronous messaging (Kafka), and integrate AI/ML platform tooling directly into core business spend capabilities.
• Cross-Department Delivery: Take responsibility for the delivery of complex backend services on set timelines by coordinating seamlessly across multiple engineering departments and product teams.
• Mentorship & Standards: Serve as a subject matter expert on a wide range of specialty areas. Mentor Senior and Lead engineers, elevating the craft of backend engineering at Coupa.

What You Will Bring to Coupa

• Experience: 15+ years of Software Engineering experience within an enterprise-grade B2B SaaS environment, with significant leadership and architectural roles.
• Core Technical Mastery:
• Deep, proven expertise in C# and the modern .NET ecosystem (.NET 8/10).
• Extensive experience designing and scaling API-driven services and event-driven microservice architectures.
• Profound understanding of modern cloud ecosystems (AWS, Azure), container orchestration (Kubernetes), and high-throughput transaction processing.
• Database & Data Architecture: Expert in SQL Server, NoSQL, relational database management, query optimization, and managing large-scale data processing under heavy concurrent loads.
• Strategic Influence: Proven ability to influence and lead cross-functional teams without formal authority, driving alignment on complex technical decisions across senior leadership.
• Execution in Ambiguity: A track record of thriving in ambiguity, transforming complex, high-level business problems into structured, actionable, and resilient technical solutions.
• Education: Advanced degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.

Experience Level