Principal Software Engineer

With 1,000+ intelligence professionals serving over 1,900 clients worldwide, Recorded Future is the world’s most advanced, and largest, intelligence company!

Recorded Future is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to join our Engineering team, responsible for building and scaling the pipelines that power the Security Intelligence Graph. As a Principal Software Engineer, you will work across application code and infrastructure to collect, transform, and deliver structured threat data: tracking malware infrastructure, phishing campaigns, spam networks, command-and-control systems, and more. You will play a key role in driving architectural improvements and ensuring the platform scales effectively as it continues to grow.

What You'll Do:

• Data Pipeline Ownership: Design, build, and maintain scalable data pipelines that collect, transform, and deliver structured threat intelligence data powering the Security Intelligence Graph.
• Architecture & Scalability: Drive meaningful architectural improvements across data and platform systems to ensure long-term scalability, reliability, and performance.
• Full-Stack Engineering: Work across both application code and infrastructure, contributing to backend services, data systems, and platform capabilities.
• Data Processing & Analysis: Apply statistical techniques to large-scale datasets to generate accurate and impactful insights.
• Reliability & Observability: Ensure production-grade pipeline reliability through strong observability, error handling, and failure recovery practices.
• Infrastructure & Deployment: Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines and contribute to infrastructure-as-code practices to support efficient and repeatable deployments.
• Cross-Team Collaboration: Communicate technical concepts clearly and collaborate effectively across teams, geographies, and varying levels of technical expertise.
• Technical Leadership: Engage with technical leaders across teams and contribute to raising the engineering bar through knowledge sharing and best practices.

What You'll Bring:

• At least 5 years of experience in data engineering, backend engineering, or platform engineering.
• Strong proficiency in Python, with experience in Go or Rust considered a plus.
• Experience working with cloud infrastructure, including compute, storage, networking, and IAM fundamentals.
• Hands-on experience with message queues and pub/sub systems such as Kafka or RabbitMQ.
• Experience with SQL databases such as Postgres or AWS RDS, and NoSQL databases such as MongoDB or Elasticsearch.
• Familiarity with data lake storage frameworks such as Delta Lake and graph databases such as AWS Neptune or Neo4j.
• Experience developing REST APIs using frameworks such as Flask, Django, or FastAPI.
• Proven experience architecting and delivering production-grade applications and ETL/ELT pipelines.
• Strong understanding of building reliable data pipelines, including observability, error handling, and failure recovery.
• Experience building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines; GitHub Actions experience is a plus.
• Familiarity with infrastructure-as-code tools; Terraform experience is a plus.
• Comfort working with high-volume, complex, and unstructured data.
• Strong problem-solving skills, including the ability to debug both software and data issues.
• Excellent attention to detail and ability to work independently while delivering high-quality results.
• Interest in or familiarity with security data domains such as threat infrastructure, malware, or network telemetry.
• Bachelor’s and/or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Engineering, or equivalent experience.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience or interest in cybersecurity data domains such as malware analysis, phishing detection, or network telemetry.
• Experience working with graph-based data systems or security intelligence platforms.

The base salary range for this full-time position is $152,000-$228,500. Our salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location. The salary displayed reflects the range for new hire salaries for the position across all US locations. Within the range, individual pay is determined by state, work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training. This position may be eligible for incentive compensation, equity, and medical, dental, vision, life insurance and 401K. Your recruiter can share more about the specific details of the compensation and benefit package during the hiring process.

Why should you join Recorded Future?
Recorded Future employees (or “Futurists”), represent over 40 nationalities and embody our core values of having high standards, practicing inclusion, and acting ethically. Our dedication to empowering clients with intelligence to disrupt adversaries has earned us a 4.6-star user rating on G2 and more than 50% of Fortune 100 companies as customers.

Want more info? 
Blog & Podcast: Learn everything you want to know (and maybe some things you’d rather not know) about the world of cyber threat intelligence
Linkedin, Instagram & Twitter: What’s happening at Recorded Future
The Record: The Record is a cybersecurity news publication that explores the untold stories in this rapidly changing field
Timeline: History of Recorded Future
Recognition: Check out our awards and announcements

We are committed to maintaining an environment that attracts and retains talent from a diverse range of experiences, backgrounds and lifestyles.  By ensuring all feel included and respected for being unique and bringing their whole selves to work, Recorded Future is made a better place every day.

If you need any accommodation or special assistance to navigate our website or to complete your application, please send an e-mail with your request to our recruiting team at [email protected] 

Recorded Future is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer and we encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply. Recorded Future does not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender including pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, marital status, veteran status, disability or any other characteristic protected by law.

Recorded Future will not discharge, discipline or in any other manner discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because such employee or applicant has inquired about, discussed, or disclosed the compensation of the employee or applicant or another employee or applicant.

Recorded Future does not administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. This is in compliance with the law of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and in alignment with our hiring practices across all jurisdictions.

Recorded Future maintains a drug-free workplace.

Note: Our interview process for all final-round candidates requires a mandatory in-person interview or a live, scheduled video conference with the hiring manager. We do not conduct interviews via instant messaging or text. All communications during the application process will come from individuals within our HR department via their Recorded Future email address.

Notice to Agency and Search Firm Representatives: Recorded Future will not accept unsolicited resumes from any source other than directly from a candidate. Any unsolicited resumes sent to Recorded Future, including those sent to our employees or through our website, will become the property of Recorded Future. Recorded Future will not be liable for any fees related to unsolicited resumes.

Agencies must have a valid written agreement in place with Recorded Future's recruitment team and must receive written authorization before submitting resumes. Submissions made without such agreements and authorization will not be accepted and no fees will be paid.