Principal Engineer

Position Overview 

As a global leader in 3D design, engineering, and entertainment software, Autodesk helps people imagine, design, and make a better world. Autodesk accelerates better design through an unparalleled depth of experience and a broad portfolio of software to give customers the power to solve their design, business, and environmental challenges. 

We are looking for a Principal Engineer specializing in web development for a Design System. You will be a member of the team that builds and maintains the software implementation of a Design System for all products at Autodesk.  Organizationally, you will work in the Platform organization within Autodesk's Product Design and Manufacturing Solutions (PDMS) division, making the software platform upon which the Fusion family of products are built. Help us fulfill our vision to allow developers across Autodesk to easily achieve a common look and feel for all of Autodesk’s portfolio. 

You will report to the team's Portland, Oregon-based Senior Software Development Manager, but your position is hybrid. 

Responsibilities

• Deliver as a hands-on Principal Engineer (~70% coding / 30% enablement) on a Scrum team, owning complex front-end work end-to-end

• Build, troubleshoot, test, and debug React-based UI components for the Design System in a production codebase

• Lead technical decisions and write high-quality design docs; participate in design reviews within and across team

• Enforce engineering and architectural standards in implementation and review; raise gaps/risks early and work with an architect to propose changes to standards when needed

• Conduct thorough code reviews for your Scrum team and cross-team contributions, with a consistent bar for correctness, security, performance, and maintainability

• Advocate for and teach AI-assisted development best practices using Claude Console (preferred) or Cursor

• Create/maintain team playbooks for brownfield refactors, test generation, debugging, spec-writing, and accessibility checks using AI tools

• Define "done" criteria and quality gates for AI-generated code: required tests, review checklist, verification steps, and safe-usage guidelines

• Partner with QA, design, and product across time zones, participate in Agile ceremonies and drive iterative deliver

• Engage with customers on complex issues, turning learnings into durable product improvements (fixes, guardrails, docs).

​Minimum Qualifications

• 8+ years professional web development experience; proven delivery of commercial applications.

• Expert React + modern JavaScript/TypeScript; strong CSS and MUI component styling experience

• Strong debugging skills (Chrome DevTools + MCP, React DevTools)

• Strong Git workflow and collaborative PR practices

• Testing competence: unit testing (Jest), functional, visual and e2e testing with Playwright

• Proven experience with design systems/component libraries and reuse at scale

• Solid fundamentals in responsive UI, accessibility, and performance optimization for React applications and libraries

• Deep hands-on proficiency with AI assistants, such as Claude Console (preferred) or Cursor

• Demonstrated ability to use AI to accelerate delivery without sacrificing quality, especially for brownfield refactors, test generation, debugging, spec-writing, and accessibility checks

• Experience leading spec-driven workflows where clear, testable specs enable reliable human + AI-assisted implementation

• Experience mentoring/enabling engineers in effective AI usage (training, pairing, playbooks, review coaching)

• Strong communication skills and proficient in written and verbal English

• Bachelor's degree or higher in computer science or a related technical discipline