We're looking for a

Principal Al Engineer - India

This role is Office Based, Pune Office

We are seeking a highly experienced Principal Backend Engineer with strong hands-on expertise in Java and Python to design, build, and scale enterprise-grade talent management platforms.
In this role, you will act as a technical leader—owning backend architecture, driving engineering excellence, and collaborating closely with product, data, and platform teams to deliver reliable, scalable, and high-performance systems.

In this role you will…

• Design, develop, and optimize high-performance backend services using Java and Python
• Lead the design and implementation of microservices-based architectures
• Build and maintain RESTful APIs, data pipelines, and event-driven systems
• Ensure system scalability, reliability, security, and performance
• Collaborate with product, frontend, data, and platform teams to translate business needs into technical solutions
• Drive backend best practices around code quality, testing, observability, and security
• Mentor and review code for senior and mid-level engineers
• Participate in architectural reviews and influence long-term platform strategy
• Support production systems through monitoring, troubleshooting, and performance tuning

You have what it takes if you have…
Python Stack (Must Have)

• Python 3.11+ – async/await, type hints, dataclasses
• FastAPI & Pydantic – API development, request/response validation, OpenAPI specifications
• SQLAlchemy – ORM usage, async queries, Alembic migrations
• Async Programming – asyncio, async DB access, non-blocking I/O
• Testing – pytest, async testing patterns, mocks, fixtures

Java Stack (Must Have)

• Java 17 / 21 – modern Java features, records, pattern matching, virtual threads
• Spring Boot 3.x – REST APIs, validation, Actuator, configuration management
• Spring Data JPA – repositories, custom queries, entity relationships
• Spring Security – JWT, OAuth2, authentication and authorization
• Testing – JUnit 5, Mockito, integration testing, Testcontainers

Backend & Architecture

• REST APIs – API-first design, OpenAPI/Swagger documentation
• Microservices – service decomposition, inter-service communication
• Data Pipelines & Events – asynchronous processing, messaging patterns
• Database Design – relational databases, schema design, performance tuning

DevOps & Cloud

• Docker – containerization, multi-stage builds
• Build Tools
• Maven (Java)
• Pants / pip / poetry (Python ecosystem)
• AWS – EKS, ECR, RDS
• Cloud-Native Patterns – scalable deployments, resilience, fault tolerance

CI/CD, Monitoring & Collaboration

• CI/CD – GitHub Actions, automated testing and deployments
• Monitoring & Observability – logging, metrics, tracing, error tracking
• Version Control – Git, pull requests, code reviews
• Collaboration – working effectively in cross-functional agile teams

Extra dose of awesome if you have…

• Experience with event-driven systems (Kafka, SNS/SQS, etc.)
• Exposure to GraphQL or gRPC
• Experience building SaaS platforms with multi-tenant architectures
• Knowledge of security best practices and compliance requirements
• Familiarity with AI/ML data pipelines or analytics platforms
  
  

Our Culture:

Spark Greatness. Shatter Boundaries. Share Success. Are you ready? Because here, right now – is where the future of work is happening. Where curious disruptors and change innovators like you are helping communities and customers enable everyone – anywhere – to learn, grow and advance. To be better tomorrow than they are today.

Who We Are:

Cornerstone powers the potential of organizations and their people to thrive in a changing world. Cornerstone Galaxy, the complete AI-powered workforce agility platform, meets organizations where they are. With Galaxy, organizations can identify skills gaps and development opportunities, retain and engage top talent, and provide multimodal learning experiences to meet the diverse needs of the modern workforce. More than 7,000 organizations and 100 million+ users in 180+ countries and in nearly 50 languages use Cornerstone Galaxy to build high-performing, future-ready organizations and people today.

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