Principal Software Engineer

Taxwell is a leading digital tax filing platform formed in 2022 from the combination of Drake Software® and TaxAct®. These two longstanding organizations offer customers professional and do-it-yourself digital and downloadable products that are easy-to-use, best-in-class technology, and provide unparalleled customer support. Taxwell brands are a trusted solution for all users including those with complex tax returns. We strive to attract and retain candidates who exemplify our values: performance, perseverance, progress and partnership. Taxwell is an organization of forward thinkers looking to add industry experts to our growing team.

We’re looking for a Principal Software Engineer to drive critical initiatives across our pre-auth, authentication, and early customer experience surfaces. These areas are foundational to how customers first encounter and engage with our platform—and demand a blend of reliability, usability, and forward-thinking design.

This is a high-impact, hands-on IC role influencing the direction of three engineering teams focused on authentication and early customer experience. You’ll report directly to the Senior Director of Engineering, working closely with cross-functional partners across engineering, product, design, and leadership. You’ll be trusted to take on complex, cross-cutting business problems, not just scoped projects and lead them from problem definition through implementation. You won’t manage people, but you will lead through influence, technical authority, and delivery.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead architecture, design, and delivery of foundational platform components across authentication, pre-auth surfaces, and early customer experience.
• Drive technical strategy and implementation of scalable backend services, customer-facing systems, and shared infrastructure.
• Influence the direction of three engineering teams by tackling complex, cross-functional challenges with technical authority—not people management.
• Write production code regularly, prototype solutions, and contribute to modernizing legacy systems.
• Champion engineering quality, performance, and long-term maintainability across backend services and front-end UIs.
• Help integrate AI-powered development tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Claude, Cursor, LangGraph) into our workflows to accelerate development.
• Work closely with product, design, QA, DevOps, and security to shape solutions that balance technical rigor with business needs.

QUALIFICATIONS

• 8+ years of software engineering experience, with a proven record of building scalable, production-grade backend systems.
• Strong experience with .NET/C#, Java, Go, or Ruby. Prior .NET experience is not required, but you should be comfortable learning and contributing within a .NET-based environment.
• Also experienced in modern frontend frameworks such as Vue.js, React, or Angular.
• Comfortable designing and maintaining large-scale web applications, APIs, and platform services.
• Proficient with AWS services, infrastructure-as-code, and containerized environments (Docker, Kubernetes).
• Hands-on builder who thrives in ambiguous environments, writes clean and reliable code, and enjoys mentoring others.
• Clear communicator who collaborates well across engineering, product, and design teams.
• Self-motivated, curious, and passionate about using technology to solve meaningful problems.

Bonus Points

• Experience working in authentication, identity, or onboarding domains.
• Familiarity with AI-assisted development tools or agent-based workflows.
• Background in regulated industries such as tax, fintech, or healthcare.

At Taxwell, we believe our work benefits from the diverse perspectives of our employees. As such, Taxwell welcomes and celebrates diversity and inclusion and is committed to equal opportunity employment. At Taxwell, you can expect a supportive, open, and inclusive atmosphere and a team that values your contributions.

Taxwell is committed to providing an environment of mutual respect where equal employment opportunities are available to all applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, and any other status protected under applicable law. Taxwell considers information gathered in the hiring process, including information on this application, confidential, and only shares it on a need-to-know basis or as required by law.

If you need assistance or accommodation due to a disability, you may contact us at HR@Taxwell.com or by calling 828-349-5703 extension 6049 to speak with a member of the HR Talent Acquisition team.