Principal Software Engineer, (Adobe - AEM Lead)

Remote · CMUS · USD 10,860-170,000 · 7+ years experience · Remote · Posted Sep 29, 2026

At a glance

We are looking for a Principal Software Engineer to serve as the Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) Tech Lead on website and platform projects.
You are the technical anchor for the delivery team, taking projects from inception through launch with minimal oversight.
This role is hands-on and client-facing, requiring you to lead technical workshops, design and build important pieces, review code, and shape technical tasks.

Take ownership of the technical workstream from inception through launch, breaking architecture and product goals into an implementation plan, technical stories, sequencing, dependencies, estimates, risks, and clear definitions of done.
Contribute production-quality website components and blocks, HTML5, JavaScript, CSS, Java, and AEM code.
Establish coding standards and patterns for website components and blocks, Universal Editor models, HTML5, JavaScript, CSS, responsive web design, Sling Models, OSGi services, servlets, schedulers, workflows, error handling, logging, testing, and configuration.
Review pull requests, pair with engineers, explain the why behind patterns, and give useful feedback that raises the whole team's capability.
Partner with QA and DevOps on automated testing, build gates, security, accessibility, performance, observability, and deployment readiness.
Help define API contracts, payloads, retries, timeouts, authentication, failure handling, and ownership across AEM and external systems.
Investigate defects, environment issues, build failures, and performance problems.
Partner with the CMS (AEM) Architect to turn architecture decisions into codebase conventions and help resolve technical tradeoffs quickly.
Lead technical workshops, presentations, demos, and day-to-day communication with clients.
Leverage GenAI tools, capture reusable patterns, share lessons through craft sessions and documentation, improve estimates and templates.

7+ years of professional software engineering experience, with proven success leading technical delivery for engineering teams.
Demonstrated experience delivering production websites or digital platforms, including hands-on experience designing, developing, and supporting AEM-based solutions.
Strong consulting, communication, and leadership capabilities, with a track record of articulating technical tradeoffs clearly to engineers, product partners, and client stakeholders.
Full-stack technical depth combining practical Java experience with strong HTML5, JavaScript, and CSS fundamentals.
Hands-on experience leveraging GenAI productivity tools within your development workflow.
A practical understanding of core LLM concepts and the judgment to identify where AI solutions create real value.
Full-stack leadership experience across CMS website projects.
Experience designing, integrating, and maintaining external APIs, microservices, data sources, and distributed systems.
A strong commitment to engineering standards across testing, accessibility, security, performance, observability, and CI/CD pipelines.
Solid understanding of responsive web design, mobile-first delivery, cross-browser compatibility, Core Web Vitals, Accessibility standards and SEO-aware frontend architecture.

Deep technical experience with AEM internals and ecosystem tools like AEM as a Cloud Service, Cloud Manager, Dispatcher, Edge Delivery Services, Universal Editor, AEM Assets, Content/Experience Fragments, MSM, or headless delivery.
Experience with Adobe Skills for AEM, dispatcher etc.
Experience with Adobe Commerce, Adobe App Builder, API Mesh, Workfront, or Analytics integrations.
Experience mentoring engineers, leading distributed or cross-functional teams, or acting as a technical lead across multiple teams.
Adobe certification or equivalent production experience.

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