The Opportunity
We’re partnering with a leading global management consulting firm that advises C-suite leaders on their most complex problems. Its internal platform and product group builds and runs the 30+ products its consultants use. Some of those products are legacy and need to be modernized, some are adding AI features and tooling, and the rest are new products built from AI use cases that are still being defined.
This role owns products end to end, from the architecture to the code that ships. The firm is hiring Principal Engineers first and building teams around them, so you’d come in early and set the standards everyone else follows. Your users are senior partners, and they notice when things break. Documentation won’t always exist, and when it does, you’ll probably be the one improving it. A separate platform team owns infrastructure, so your focus stays on the products.
Expect 70-80% hands-on engineering, with the rest on architecture and tech leadership. The stack is React, C#, and Python in a Microsoft/Azure shop, and the team uses AI tools daily. The role is internal facing with no travel, and it’s open to remote within the U.S. or hybrid in Midtown NYC. It’s a 12-month contract (W2, 1099, or C2C) with a strong likelihood of extension.
What You’ll Own
• Take a product and run it. Design, build, test, deploy, and maintain features across React front ends and C# and Python back ends, without waiting for a ticket to tell you what’s next.
• Modernize legacy products. Set the target architecture and migration path, and keep the product stable for partners while you get it there.
• Set architecture direction across the portfolio: shared libraries, reusable components, engineering standards, and governance that teams adopt without hand-holding.
• Build AI features into existing products and help turn early AI use cases into new ones, working closely with product managers.
• Lead major technical decisions through written trade-off docs, give stakeholders clear visibility into engineering costs and SLAs, and mentor 5-7 senior engineers. You’ll also champion AI-assisted development and modern engineering practices across the org.
What You Bring
• 12+ years as a software engineer or architect, including standing up an architecture hands-on and driving its adoption across an organization. Experience in consulting or professional services preferred.
• Deep full stack expertise with React and C#/.NET, plus working Python. Azure experience preferred.
• A track record of modernizing legacy applications in production, not just greenfield work.
• Experience shipping AI or LLM features into production applications preferred. You should already be using AI coding tools daily.
• DevSecOps habits and hands-on CI/CD and Infrastructure as Code experience. You’ll work with the infrastructure team, but you won’t own it.
• Proven engineering leadership: leading teams, mentoring senior engineers, and getting cross-functional groups moving in the same direction.
• Strong written and verbal communication, including with executives. You give the answer first and add detail when asked.
• Comfort working in Agile, cross-functional product teams.