Principal Software Engineer, HashiCorp Terraform Enterprise

Introduction

A career in IBM Software means you'll be part of a team that transforms our customer's challenges into industry-leading solutions. We are an infinitely curious team, always seeking new possibilities, and dedicated to creating the world's leading AI-powered, cloud-native software solutions. Our renowned legacy creates endless global opportunities for our network of IBMers. We are a team of deep product experts, ensuring exceptional client experiences, with a focus on delivery, excellence, and obsession over customer outcomes.

This position involves contributing to Hashi Corp's offerings, now part of IBM, which empower organizations to automate and secure multi-cloud and hybrid environments. You will join a team managing the lifecycle of infrastructure and security, enhancing IBM's cloud solutions to ensure enterprises achieve efficiency, security, and scalability in their cloud journey.

Role Summary

The Principal Engineer for TFE (Terraform Enterprise) is a senior technical leadership position focused on the architecture and scaling of Hashi Corp's commercial, multi-cloud platform for managing Terraform at scale (Terraform Cloud/Enterprise). You will be tasked with solving the most ambitious and pressing technical and organizational challenges related to security, compliance, multi-tenancy, and high availability of the TFE platform. You are expected to operate with autonomy, setting the technical direction for large-scale initiatives that span core platform and product feature development.

As a Principal Engineer, your engagement will be dynamic, utilizing the six roles defined in the Principal Engineer Engagement Framework (IPG). Your core responsibilities, mapped to the engagement model, include:

• Setting Strategic Direction (Sponsor & Catalyst)

  Platform Scalability and Feature Set

  Lead and own the delivery and architectural definition of the platform's most critical systems, such as the remote state backend, large-scale plan/apply execution, and policy enforcement engines. Drive new, ambiguous ideas for enterprise-level features like advanced security controls or multi-region architecture.

• Providing Architectural Guidance (Guide & Advisor)

  Security and Multi-Tenancy

  Serve as a deep domain expert, providing sustained, ongoing architectural guidance to the TFE/TFC product teams on distributed systems, data security, and multi-tenant isolation. Conduct high-impact, focused consultations on integration with enterprise identity and access management (IAM) systems.

• Ensuring Execution Quality (Catcher & Participant)

  Operational Resilience

  Quickly analyze and rescue troubled projects or production incidents related to platform availability, performance under load, or complex system integrations. Actively contribute hands-on when necessary, engaging in detailed design reviews and coding tasks that unstick critical delivery blockers for the enterprise platform.

• Experience:
  
  Extensive experience in software development, architecture, and distributed systems, with a proven track record of shipping complex, large-scale SaaS or on-premise cloud infrastructure management platforms.
• Technical Depth:
  Deep expertise in building and operating highly available, multi-tenant systems, including cloud infrastructure, security best practices, networking, and database scaling.
• Leadership:
  Demonstrated ability to lead technical strategy, mentor senior engineers, and influence product and engineering leadership across multiple teams.
• Problem-Solving:
  High-judgment and pragmatic approach to solving ambiguous, high-risk operational and security-related problems under tight deadlines.

• Familiarity with Hashi Corp/IBM Products and Services

IBM is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an equal-opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, caste, genetics, pregnancy, disability, neurodivergence, age, veteran status, or other characteristics. IBM is also committed to compliance with all fair employment practices regarding citizenship and immigration status.