Principal Software Engineer

This is a Full Time Job

#WeAreParamount on a mission to unleash the power of content… you in?
We’ve got the brands, we’ve got the stars, and we’ve got the power to achieve our mission to entertain the planet – now all we’re missing is… YOU!
Becoming a part of Paramount means joining a team that enjoys a touch of fun and uniqueness. Together, we co-create moments that matter – both for our audiences and our employees. You fuel our culture of purpose, passion, and collaboration. We’re in this together.

Job Posting Title: Principal Software Engineer, CBS Sports Digital
Department: CBS Sports.com Technology
Location: Nashville, Tennessee; Louisville, Kentucky; Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Remote

Principal Software Engineer, Solutions Team - CBSSports

Join CBSSports and shape the future of sports media through cutting-edge AI-powered content and deeply personalized fan experiences across mobile, web, and digital platforms. We are seeking a Principal Software Engineer to be a core member of our Solutions Architecture team. In this role, you will be crucial in partnering with product, design, and engineering leadership to design, prototype, and deliver groundbreaking AI solutions at scale.

What You Will Do
• Lead AI Architecture: Architect and implement advanced Generative AI and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems to power intelligent recommendations and dynamic user personalization.
• Drive Development: Lead the rapid prototyping and full-cycle development of production-grade features for mobile and web applications.
• Define Standards: Establish, promote, and drive adoption of scalable platform standards, engineering patterns, and reusable components across the organization.
• Collaborate and Prototype: Work closely within a small engineering group, partnering with design and product teams to rapidly design, develop, and prototype solutions to key business challenges.
• Ensure Quality: Define guardrails to ensure fast, secure, and compliant adoption and deployment of "vibe coded" applications. Write robust requirements and production-quality code.
• Advocate for AI: Utilize AI development tools to optimize your workflow and champion the use of AI-driven development practices across the team.
• Operational Excellence: Design for scalability and reliability, incorporating appropriate testing, monitoring, and alerting.
• Mentor and Document: Build clear documentation and diagrams to facilitate easy onboarding for other engineers and support teams. Review code to ensure adherence to best practices (style, testability, efficiency).

Required Qualifications
• Expertise in AI: Proven, production-level expertise in Generative AI and RAG architectures.
• Platform Experience: Strong track record of building scalable platform products and establishing cross-team engineering standards.
• Stakeholder Management: Ability to collaborate with and influence senior stakeholders in a dynamic, fast-paced environment.
• Education & Experience: BS in Computer Science or equivalent experience.
• 10 years of experience designing and building scalable, distributed systems, including microservices and API-driven architectures (REST, GraphQL).
• Strong experience modeling complex data flows for transactional and integration-heavy systems.
• Experience building and operating applications in cloud environments (AWS, GCP, OCI), including CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure automation.
• Deep understanding of distributed systems concepts, including caching (Redis, Memcached), messaging/Pub-Sub systems (Kafka, RabbitMQ), and container orchestration (Kubernetes).
• Experience working with both SQL and NoSQL databases in high-scale production environments.
• Experience with enterprise search platforms (Elasticsearch, Solr) and edge caching/CDN platforms (Fastly, Akamai or similar), including edge compute and KV stores.
• Proficiency in at least one high-level systems language (Go, Rust, or Java).
• Technology Evaluation & Communication: Experience evaluating multiple technologies or approaches, making recommendations with pros and cons, and presenting tradeoffs and options to broader engineering or cross-functional teams.
• Soft Skills: Able to analyze, debug, and troubleshoot complex code problems. Passion for sports and a dedication to creating exceptional fan experiences.

Preferred Qualifications
• AI/ML Experience:
• 1 year experience working with LLMs and/or MCP servers/technologies.
• 1 year experience with AI technologies and processes like vector embeddings.
• 1 year experience with one or more vector databases (e.g., TurboPuffer, Mongo Atlas).
• Cloud Focus: 5 years experience working with Cloud technologies (AWS is strongly preferred).
• Frontend Skills: React/Next.js experience with fundamental HTML/CSS (layout, specificity, cross-browser compatibility).
• Collaboration: Proven experience in cross-team collaboration for requirements, implementation, and testing.
• Certifications: Cloud certifications (GCP, AWS, OCI).

What We Offer:
• Generous paid time off.
• An exciting and fulfilling opportunity to be part of one of Paramount’s most dynamic teams.