Principal Software Engineer (Infrastructure Modernization)

TL;DR

Principal Software Engineer (Infrastructure Modernization): Designing and evolving mission-critical infrastructure and COBOL development ecosystems for global enterprises with an accent on replatforming and cloud migration. Focus on building compilers, runtimes, and scalable distributed systems to modernize legacy workloads.

Location: Remote (United Kingdom)

Company

hirify.global specializes in infrastructure modernization and replatforming products for global enterprises.

What you will do

• Architect and implement core components for COBOL tools, runtimes, and mainframe replatforming infrastructure.
• Provide technical direction across engineering teams building compilers, middleware, and large-scale distributed systems.
• Drive modernization strategies, including cloud migration, workload transformation, and hybrid deployment scenarios.
• Own complex technical domains end-to-end, balancing long-term architecture with immediate product needs.
• Mentor engineers in system-level design and performance optimization through deep code reviews and troubleshooting.
• Collaborate with product management to translate customer challenges into scalable technical solutions.

Requirements

• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience with leadership over multi-team technical initiatives.
• Deep expertise in systems-level software development (compilers, runtimes, or operating systems).
• Strong background in mission-critical, high-availability software (e.g., financial services or telecom).
• Demonstrated experience with COBOL, PL/I, C, or C++.
• Proven track record of building or modernizing enterprise-grade tooling and distributed systems.
• Location: Must be based in the United Kingdom

Nice to have

• Experience with mainframe-to-cloud migration or runtime compatibility layers.
• Familiarity with Azure, AWS, or hybrid cloud architectures.
• Understanding of static/dynamic language runtimes and compiler pipelines.
• Prior technical mentorship or architectural leadership spanning multiple scrum teams.

Culture & Benefits

• Opportunity to influence the future of mission-critical modernization technologies used worldwide.
• Collaboration with a highly experienced engineering organization with deep domain expertise.
• Ability to shape architecture and product direction across multiple major portfolios.
• Culture that values technical depth, thoughtful engineering, and long-term product stewardship.
• Commitment to a diverse environment and equal opportunity employment.