Principal Software Engineer

Job Title: Principal Software Engineer

Team: Technology

Location: Remote

Travel Involved: Minimal

Job Type: Full-Time, Exempt

About Pathwise

Pathwise is a private equity-backed software as a service (SaaS) growth business currently serving 4,000+ school districts and universities. Founded in 1994, we have team members across both the US and Canada. Our team, which includes former teachers, principals, administrators, and federal program directors, is dedicated to being the leader in providing technology that transforms resource constrained departments by automating complex tasks, providing real-time visibility, and ensuring seamless communication. We streamline operational processes so schools can focus more time and resources on student outcomes.

As a Principal Software Engineer, you will focus on solving the most complex technical problems we face, with an emphasis on feature delivery. You are a hands-on mentor, a champion for continuous end-to-end delivery, and committed to technical excellence. You drive initiatives from initial architecture to seamless production delivery, in a stack built on Node.js, MySQL/MariaDB, AWS, Redis, Vue.js, Flutter, and advanced geospatial technology.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, deliver, and maintain resilient, highly available, scalable software systems.
• Lead technical design, establish and enforce clean coding standards, conduct code reviews.
• Directly contribute to and innovate on critical mapping, GPS, GIS, and optimization features.
• Mentor engineers, fostering systems thinking and T-shaped/full stack growth.
• Build user-friendly, responsive user interfaces using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript frameworks.
• Collaborate with designers and product managers to translate concepts into practical, ship-ready features that create measurable customer value.
• Troubleshoot and debug complex technical problems across the stack.
• Stay current with the latest web development technologies, practices, and industry trends.
• Detailed understanding of, and adherence to OWASP engineering requirements.

Required Skills

• Bachelor’s degree in a technical field relevant to software engineering or equivalent practical experience.
• 10+ years of software engineering experience, including significant full-stack engineering exposure, and a strong history of technical impact.
• Proficiency in designing, developing, and deploying distributed systems in Node.js and AWS environments.
• Demonstrated commitment to unit testing and code coverage.
• Strong command of SQL and relational databases (especially MySQL or MariaDB).
• Experience building modern, responsive UIs with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (Vue.js preferred).
• Demonstrated leadership in code review, mentoring, and establishing clean coding standards.
• Excellent problem-solving and analytical skills
• Excellent troubleshooting and debugging skills for complex technical problems.
• Effective communicator with cross-functional teams and stakeholders.
• Proven ability to deliver high-quality, scalable, maintainable code in Agile teams.

Preferred Skills

• Direct experience with mapping, GPS, geospatial, or GIS technologies (routing, geocoding, spatial analytics, etc.).
• Mobile app development experience, particularly in Flutter.
• Familiarity with containerization (Docker) and DevOps tools/methodologies.
• Knowledge of Redis or similar caching technologies.
• Experience in education technology, transportation logistics, or similar domains.
• Open source contributions or thought leadership in relevant engineering fields.
• Experience with infrastructure as code (e.g., Terraform, CloudFormation).
• Security best practices (OWASP, secure by design, etc.).
• Passion for mentoring T-shaped engineers and fostering systems thinking.

Our Values

The Pathwise team is united in its passion and enthusiasm for the education industry, and for ensuring our customers gain true value from our software so they can better serve their students, families, and communities. We help move schools forward.

Each day we strive to “live” our values: stewardship; service before self; personal responsibility; and promises made, promises kept.

We believe:

• It’s all about the customer

• We’re one team with one mission

• We’re empowered to make a difference and committed to innovation

• In going above and beyond

We work hard, but we have a lot of fun together in the process. And we’re never done learning—we’re always seeking out new opportunities to expand our skills and grow. If these values resonate with you, we hope you will consider joining us!

Pathwise offers a full benefits package including health, dental, and vision benefits as well as 401k matching.