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Cognite is an industrial digitalization company building AI and data solutions for the world's hardest, highest-impact problems. The company operates at the forefront of industrial transformation, offering a comprehensive suite of AI capabilities including low-code AI agents.
As Principal Software Engineer, you will take ownership of security-critical backend systems that directly impact how the platform is secured and used. You will serve as the first line of defense for protecting privileged customer data, operating at the intersection of security, infrastructure, and product.
Key responsibilities:
- Architect and build core authentication and authorization services, applying modern security principles to protect all customer data
- Design and scale resilient gRPC/HTTP APIs and microservices on Kubernetes, ensuring high availability, low latency, and seamless integration for internal teams
- Drive backend innovation through clean, maintainable code and refined service architecture to support rapid product growth
- Lead development initiatives including threat modeling, performance tuning, and reliability engineering to harden systems against evolving security challenges
- Mentor engineers and collaborate across teams to shape the technical roadmap and foster a culture of secure-by-default engineering
Cognite operates with a flat structure, direct access to decision-makers, and a culture emphasizing ownership, speed of execution, and challenging assumptions. The company has a global presence spanning Phoenix, Houston, Oslo, Tokyo, Bengaluru, and Abu Dhabi, with 60+ nationalities represented.
REQUIREMENTS:
- Significant experience building and operating distributed backend systems in a modern, typed language
- Strong proficiency in Kotlin; deep expertise in either language and pragmatic approach to tool selection
- Deep expertise in modern authentication and authorization concepts (OIDC, OAuth2, RBAC/ABAC) and their practical application in building secure services
- Hands-on experience with cloud-native technologies, particularly Elasticsearch and cloud platforms (GCP, AWS, or Azure)
PREFERRED:
- Proven track record of owning services in production from initial design through deployment, monitoring, and incident response
- Collaborative and pragmatic mindset with strong communication skills and desire to mentor others
