Principal Platform Engineer

We’re Blue River, a team of innovators driven to create intelligent machinery that solves monumental problems for our customers. We empower our customers – farmers, construction crews, and foresters - to implement safer and more sustainable solutions, driving increased profitability with less reliance on scarce labor. We believe that focusing on the small stuff – pixel-by-pixel and task-by-task - leads to big gains. 

Blue River Technology aligns with John Deere’s vision to “innovate on behalf of humanity” by quickly identifying and solving high-value, high-uncertainty challenges in AI, machine learning, computer vision, and robotics. BRT acts as a research and development flywheel, building not only new products but also new platforms that reliably create value for both Deere and its customers. From fully autonomous machines to highly precise farming equipment, BRT and Deere are partnering to create technical breakthroughs in industries like agriculture and construction. 

Summary

We are seeking a Principal Engineer to provide senior technical leadership for our CVML and Robotics Data Platform, with a strong focus on data enablement across the robotics development lifecycle. This role is responsible for building and evolving APIs, applications, pipelines, and visualizations that enable Machine Learning Engineers (MLEs), Data Scientists (DS), and other personas involved in robotics development to work efficiently at scale. 

This is a hands-on technical leadership role. The Principal Engineer will act as a technical lead and mentor for Senior and Staff Engineers, set technical direction, and drive execution on complex, cross-cutting initiatives. People management is optional and not a core requirement of the role. 

• Employment Type: Full-Time
• Work Location: Remote in the United States
• Visa sponsorship will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Job Responsibilities

A combination, not necessarily all-inclusive, of the following:

• Own and drive the technical vision, architecture, and standards for data enablement within the CVML and robotics platform.
• Serve as technical lead for major initiatives, guiding design, implementation, and delivery.
• Mentor and coach Senior and Staff Engineers from a technical standpoint through design reviews, code reviews, and architectural guidance.
• Design, build, and maintain scalable APIs and backend services exposing robotics, sensor, simulation, and ML lifecycle data.
• Lead development of developer-facing applications and visualizations supporting model training, evaluation, debugging, and deployment workflows.
• Architect, build, and operate data pipelines and workflows
• Define and implement infrastructure-as-code with Terraform and Terragrunt.
• Establish and evolve observability standards using Prometheus and Grafana.
• Partner closely with MLEs, Data Scientists, Robotics Engineers, and Product to translate workflows into robust platform capabilities.
• Get hands-on to unblock teams, resolve complex technical challenges, and lead response to high-priority incidents.
• Clearly communicate technical decisions, tradeoffs, and architectural rationale to engineering and leadership stakeholders.
• Applies a customer-first approach to platform design, ensuring solutions solve meaningful customer problems at scale.

Required Experience and Skills

• 12+ years of professional software engineering experience, with demonstrated impact at the Staff or Principal Engineer level.
• Proven experience serving as a technical lead for senior engineers on complex, distributed systems.
• Strong background in building data platforms, internal tooling, or developer platforms.
• Expertise in designing and operating APIs and distributed systems at scale.
• Hands-on experience with:
  
  • Python, React
  • Databricks / Spark
  • Databases: Postgres, MongoDB
  • Cloud: AWS
  • Orchestration: Airflow or similar
  • Infrastructure as Code: Terraform / Terragrunt
  • Observability: Prometheus / Grafana.
• Strong system design skills and architectural judgment.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.

Preferred Experience and Skills

• Experience supporting machine learning, computer vision, or robotics workflows.
• Familiarity with ML lifecycle tooling.
• Experience working with robotics or autonomous systems data.
• Experience with C++, particularly in performance-critical systems or robotics-adjacent components.
• Strong instincts for developer experience (DX).
• Experience influencing technical direction across multiple teams.
• Prior people management experience (optional).

Only individual applicants will be considered. We do not work with unsolicited third-party agencies or proxy interview services. 

At Blue River, we’re passionate about creating an inclusive workplace that promotes and values diversity.  While we have more work to do to advance diversity and inclusion, we’re investing in our programs, including recruiting, mentorship, career development, and learning & development to ensure they support our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion goals. We support each employee in living a full life, enabling a thriving career, and accomplishing a meaningful, challenging mission while collaborating with incredible people. We are dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your experience doesn’t align completely with the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway.

We are an equal-opportunity employer and do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, sex, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, perform essential job functions, and receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request an accommodation. 

The US annual base salary range for this position is $174,000 - $305,000, along with eligibility for Blue River’s bonus and benefit programs.

Our salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location. Within the range, individual pay is determined by work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for your location during the hiring process. During the recruitment process, we may identify an alternative role or level to which you are more suited. If your ideal role at Blue River differs from the advertised position, we will provide an updated pay range as soon as possible during the hiring process.

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