Principal Software Engineer

Job Requisition

26WD101115

Autodesk is looking for a Principal Software Engineer to provide technical leadership for a new Electron and Chromium‑based desktop platform for Autodesk web applications. In this hands‑on individual contributor role, you will define the platform architecture, lead complex technical decisions, and guide engineers building the Electron runtime, Windows integrations, automated delivery systems, and shared platform capabilities. You will combine deep technical expertise with broad influence, helping the team deliver a secure, maintainable, and reusable desktop platform while remaining actively involved in design, implementation, debugging, and code review.

• Platform architecture and technical direction - approximately 30%:
  Define and evolve the architecture of the Electron desktop platform, including process boundaries, native capabilities, application interfaces, security controls, runtime configuration, and product integration patterns
• Hands‑on platform engineering - approximately 25%:
  Design, prototype, implement, and review complex functionality across Electron, Chromium, Node.js, Type Script, Windows APIs, and supporting native components
• Technical leadership and mentoring - approximately 20%:
  Guide engineers through design and implementation decisions, mentor team members, review complex changes, establish engineering standards, and help the team develop expertise in desktop platform engineering
• Cross‑team integration and platform adoption - approximately 15%:
  Work with product teams and Autodesk platform teams responsible for security, identity, software distribution, telemetry, crash reporting, graphics, and other shared capabilities
• Operational readiness and engineering quality - approximately 10%:
  Partner with quality and release engineering to define release gates, runtime upgrade policies, observability, supportability, and production‑readiness requirements
• Own the overall technical architecture of the shared desktop platform and ensure clear boundaries between reusable platform capabilities and product‑specific functionality
• Define secure communication patterns between hosted web applications and privileged desktop functionality, including process isolation, inter‑process communication, native API exposure, navigation controls, and application trust boundaries
• Establish the strategy for using and upgrading Electron and Chromium, including supported versions, configuration and build options, runtime feature enablement, compatibility assessment, and response to security updates
• Keep the platform as close as practical to supported upstream Electron and Chromium capabilities, avoiding unnecessary customization and long‑term maintenance burden
• Lead the design of native Windows capabilities such as application lifecycle management, hardware and system‑information access, GPU preference, protocol handling, operating‑system integration, and enterprise deployment behavior
• Define stable interfaces through which Autodesk web applications can consume desktop capabilities without creating product‑specific implementations or forks
• Work with the P3 Senior Software Engineer to break larger platform objectives into technical designs, implementation plans, dependencies, and incremental deliverables
• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to the P2 Software Engineer, helping them develop deeper expertise in Electron, Chromium, Node.js, Windows, debugging, and secure application design
• Partner with the team's SDET and CI/CD/Release Engineer to ensure the platform is testable, buildable, reproducible, diagnosable, and capable of being released through automated delivery pipelines
• Define technical requirements for build, packaging, signing, release promotion,…