Principal Software Engineer

At Instructure, we believe in the power of people to grow and succeed throughout their lives. Our goal is to amplify that power by creating intuitive products that simplify learning and personal development, facilitate meaningful relationships, and inspire people to go further in their education and careers.
We do this by giving smart, creative, passionate people opportunities to create awesome. And that's where you come in:

We're hiring a Principal Software Engineer to set architectural direction across the Assessments group. Assessment spans Canvas by Instructure and Mastery, several services, and a set of third-party integrations. You won't own a single product area. You'll own how the pieces fit together, and you'll be accountable for the decisions rather than just the recommendations.

This role suits someone who finishes things. You'll write the architecture down, get it reviewed, land it on a date you committed to, and then drive it to a result. Expect to spend as much time raising the technical maturity of our senior engineers as you spend designing systems.

What you'll do.

• Set architectural direction across Assessments domains, and keep it aligned with the wider engineering strategy.

• Own decisions end to end. Bring a recommendation, get alignment, and drive it to a resolution with a date attached.

• Write and maintain the tech specs, design records, and decision docs that other teams build against.

• Define the boundaries between our services and adjacent domains, including core platform, data, quality engineering, and security.

• Along with your director lead build-versus-buy evaluations with third-party vendors, and document what both sides commit to.

• Coach and sponsor senior and staff engineers so they can take on architectural work themselves.

• Set the standard for using AI in engineering work, and share what works so others can copy it.

• Shape reliability and testing strategy across the group, and cut the sources of repeated on-call load.

What you'll bring.

• 10 or more years building and operating production software, several of them at staff level or above.

• A track record of architecture decisions you drove to completion across more than one team.

• Clear technical writing that makes a complex trade-off legible to engineers, product, and executives.

• Evidence you've grown other senior engineers, through mentoring, sponsorship, or both.

• Proficiency with building and maintaining software on cloud native platforms (preferably AWS)

• Comfort with ambiguity, including defining the problem before solving it.

• Judgment about scope, so you delegate work that belongs at another level instead of absorbing it.

Nice to have.

• Experience with assessment, learning, or education technology systems.

• Experience consolidating or replacing a legacy system while it stays in production.

• Multi-tenant, sharded, or high-volume platform experience.

• Experience with Ruby on Rails

Get in on all the awesome at Instructure!

We offer competitive, meaningful benefits in every country where we operate. While they vary by location, here's a general idea of what you can expect:

• Competitive compensation, plus all full-time employees participate in our ownership program - because everyone should have a stake in our success.

• Flexible work culture. Our remote, hybrid and in-office collaboration spaces vary by role, team and location.

• Generous time off, including local holidays and our annual “Dim the Lights” period in late December, when teams are encouraged to step back and recharge based on departmental needs.

• Comprehensive wellness programs and mental health support

• Learning and development resources, including professional development tools and tuition reimbursement, to support your growth

• The technology and tools you need to do your best work

• Motivosity employee recognition program

• A culture rooted in inclusivity, support, and meaningful connection

We believe in hiring great people and treating them right. The more diverse we are, the better our ideas and outcomes.

Instructure is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We comply with applicable employment and anti-discrimination laws in every country where we operate.

All employees must pass a background check as part of the hiring process. To help protect our teams and systems, we’ve implemented identity verification measures. Candidates may be asked to verify their legal name, current physical location, and provide a valid contact number and residential address, in accordance with local data privacy laws.

Any attempt to misrepresent personal or professional information will result in disqualification.