Principal Engineer

Overview

At NFI, we offer innovative, integrated, and customized solutions that span the entire supply chain. Whatever our customers' challenges are, we have the knowledge, technology, scale, and commitment to help them solve it. It's simply what we do.

The Principal Developer reports to the Manager, Development Services and provides technical leadership for custom applications and responsible AI solutions at NFI. This individual contributor leads the design and implementation of complex solutions that improve operational efficiency and customer value, providing expert guidance on architecture, integrations, data design, and technology decisions across applications and business functions.

The role combines active coding and production ownership with technical direction for assigned initiatives. The Principal Developer turns ambiguous needs into achievable milestones, anticipates risks, and mentors developers through complex challenges.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, test, deploy, and support complex enterprise applications, integrations, and AI solutions; take technical ownership of assigned initiatives throughout their lifecycle.
• Translate business needs into solution designs, implementation plans, estimates, acceptance criteria, and measurable milestones; clarify dependencies and communicate changes to delivery expectations early.
• Lead technical decisions for assigned projects, evaluating options against business value, security, reliability, scalability, maintainability, and total cost of ownership.
• Provide expert advice on problems that span applications or organizational boundaries; collaborate with architecture, security, infrastructure, data, and business teams to deliver integrated solutions.
• Write and review production code, establish reusable patterns, and guide implementation across backend services, user interfaces, APIs, and data access layers.
• Apply and help improve team standards for Git workflows, peer review, automated testing, CI/CD, documentation, and shared code ownership in partnership with the manager.
• Design database structures and integration contracts that protect data integrity; diagnose and resolve application and query performance issues.
• Identify technical debt, dependencies, and emerging risks before they disrupt delivery; recommend practical remediation and modernization plans aligned with agreed priorities.
• Build and evaluate AI-enabled applications and agents using approved platforms; advise on architecture, grounding, integrations, platform selection, and operational cost.
• Implement responsible AI controls, including appropriate data access, output evaluation, human oversight, logging, and monitoring, in alignment with enterprise policies and governance.
• Prepare solutions for production with automated tests, monitoring, deployment and rollback procedures, and support documentation; resolve complex incidents and prevent recurrence through root cause analysis.
• Mentor developers through design discussions, code reviews, pairing, and knowledge sharing; provide constructive feedback that improves technical judgment and independent problem solving.
• Coordinate technical work and dependencies within assigned initiatives; recommend task allocation and resource adjustments with the manager and relevant project stakeholders.
• Use delivery, quality, reliability, and usage measures to evaluate results, detect trends, and recommend improvements that produce measurable business outcomes.
• Research tools and emerging technologies, develop business cases, and lead focused pilots; share findings and recommend adoption based on evidence.
• Lead agreed process and technology improvements across affected teams, build support for proposed changes, and use feedback to assess progress and refine implementation.
• Communicate designs, risks, recommendations, and results clearly to technical and business audiences; seek specialist advice when needed and contribute to reviews beyond immediate assignments.
• Other duties as assigned.

Expected Competencies for Principal Developers:

• Functional Expertise: Applies deep technical knowledge to complex decisions and solutions that cross organizational boundaries. Connects technology choices to business value and develops sound cases for process and technology investment.
• Communication and Collaboration: Builds effective partnerships, shares information openly, and gains support for technical recommendations. Explains complex issues clearly, seeks relevant expertise, and provides useful feedback beyond immediate project responsibilities.
• Development: Improves the capability of others through mentorship and technical guidance. Pursues continuous learning, researches new tools, anticipates future needs, and guides progress through unfamiliar technical challenges.
• Analysis and Decision Making: Defines evaluation criteria, connects information from multiple sources, identifies root causes and trends, and anticipates consequences. Develops options and recommendations that address underlying problems and business opportunities.
• Results Focus: Defines clear milestones and expectations, delivers reliable outcomes, and manages commitments transparently. Uses performance trends and feedback to improve standards and coordinates adjustments within assigned initiatives.
• Managing Change and Continuous Improvement: Leads agreed improvements affecting important processes and business functions. Partners across teams to plan change, run pilots, monitor results, and improve efficiency and effectiveness.

Qualifications

• 8-10 years of progressively responsible application development experience, including sustained delivery of complex enterprise solutions and demonstrated technical leadership.

• Experience leading the technical delivery of projects spanning multiple applications or business functions, including planning, architecture, implementation, and production support.

• Deep hands-on proficiency in multiple technologies within the team's stack, including C#/.NET, Python, Node.js, React, TypeScript, JavaScript, and PHP, with the ability to work across related technologies.

• Experience designing and supporting APIs, enterprise integrations, relational databases, and applications operating in cloud or hybrid environments.

• Advanced experience with Git, collaborative development, code reviews, automated testing, and CI/CD pipelines.

• Experience mentoring developers, guiding complex design decisions, and improving engineering quality through technical influence.

• Practical experience delivering AI-enabled applications or enterprise automation, including evaluation, integration, deployment, and operational support.

• Experience using performance data and root cause analysis to improve application reliability, delivery practices, and business outcomes.

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, information systems, or a related field preferred; equivalent relevant experience will be considered.

• Experience with Microsoft Power Platform, Copilot Studio, and Azure application or AI services is a plus.

• Prior industry experience in warehousing and distribution, transportation, supply chain, or third-party logistics is a plus.

• Ability to work independently on ambiguous, complex problems and exercise sound judgment about when to decide, consult, or escalate.

• Ability to lead through technical credibility, mentorship, and collaboration while remaining actively engaged in implementation and delivery.

• Strong understanding of application architecture, API design, authentication and authorization, secure coding, automated testing, and operational reliability.

• Advanced understanding of Git branching, merging, pull requests, release workflows, and shared development practices.

• Strong understanding of database structures, relationships, constraints, transactions, indexing, and query performance sufficient to design and troubleshoot enterprise applications.

• Ability to evaluate AI solution design, data grounding, access controls, output quality, reliability, and cost, and implement appropriate safeguards.

• Ability to break complex work into clear milestones, anticipate dependencies and risks, and recommend feasible adjustments to scope or technical approach.

• Strong analytical and communication skills; ability to turn technical findings and performance trends into clear recommendations for business and IT leadership.

• Ability to create useful technical documentation, facilitate design discussions, resolve technical disagreements constructively, and build agreement across teams.

• Commitment to continuous learning, knowledge sharing, and responsible experimentation; ability to evaluate emerging tools and lead improvements based on evidence.

• Sound professional judgment, integrity, and discretion when handling sensitive business, customer, and employee information.

This position is onsite in Camden, NJ, five days per week.

Travel up to 10% and occasional after-hours work may be required.

Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities

The contractor will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the contractor's legal duty to furnish information. 41 CFR 60-1.35(c)

LA County Applicants: The Company will consider qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with applicable state and local laws.

Profit Center

PC-1010