Principal Software Engineer

Alarm.com, Tysons, Virginia +1

The role

Principal Software Engineer – emPower

Do you love working with connected devices, automation, and real-world systems? Have you automated your own home, built integrations across smart devices, or thought deeply about how cloud software should control physical systems reliably?

Alarm.com is looking for a versatile Principal Software Engineer to help lead architecture and engineering for our emPower team, which builds software for IoT, smart home automation, energy management, HVAC, water, and connected-device control experiences. This role is an IC role that sits at the intersection of cloud services, physical devices, mobile and web applications, automation logic, data processing, and customer-facing product experiences.

All jobs

Principal Software Engineer

Alarm.com, Tysons, Virginia +1

Posted pay

$200K–$250K

a year

Compared with similar jobs

This base pay is near the median for principal software engineering jobs in other US places.

Median: $229K a year
Other jobs in the group: 245

We compare the middle of each posted range. This is base pay as posted. The group does not include this job.

Location: Tysons, Virginia +1
Work type: Not given
Level: Principal
Experience: 15+ years
Skills in the job text: .NET
C#
Posted: Oct 5, 2026
Last check: 9 h ago
Job type: Software engineering

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Alarm.com

Open tech jobs: 49
With posted pay: 65%
Median posted base: $121K–$154K

About Alarm.com: funding, hiring and pay

Alarm.com

About Alarm.com: funding, hiring and pay

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The role

Principal Software Engineer – emPower

What you will do

What You’ll Do

As a Principal Software Engineer on the emPower team, you will help design and evolve systems that coordinate physical devices, cloud services, mobile and web applications, automation engines, partner integrations, and data pipelines. You will work across product, firmware, platform, operations, and application engineering teams to turn ambiguous business and technical needs into reliable, scalable, and maintainable software systems.

You will be expected to lead through technical depth, sound judgment, and influence. You will own important architecture decisions, guide implementation strategy, and help engineers across multiple teams build better systems.

Day-to-Day Responsibilities

Provide hands-on technical leadership for systems spanning IoT device control, smart home automation, energy, HVAC, water, and connected-device experiences.
Lead architecture and design for major software components, services, APIs, data flows, and integration patterns.
Help evolve existing monolithic systems into more modular, scalable, reliable, and maintainable systems.
Partner with product, firmware, platform, operations, and application teams to turn ambiguous needs into clear technical direction.
Mentor engineers at multiple levels and help raise the technical bar through design reviews, code reviews, technical guidance, and reusable patterns.
Drive cross-team collaboration and execution across multiple technical domains.
Evaluate new technologies, frameworks, and methodologies where they can materially improve product capabilities or engineering outcomes.
Reason across the full product stack, including backend services, databases, APIs, web and mobile experiences, device integrations, automation logic, and operational tooling.
Be an expert on system architecture, functionality, data flows, operational processes, and the tools needed to operate production systems effectively.
Provide technical thought leadership for major software components, systems, and features, earning alignment and driving adoption across teams.
Exercise strong engineering judgment: know when to move quickly, when to invest in a robust platform capability, and when to avoid unnecessary complexity.
Bring your ideas. We want our engineers to collaborate on product development, not blindly build to a spec.
Other duties as assigned.

What you need

What You Need

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
15+ years of professional software development experience.
Proven experience designing, building, and delivering complex software systems.
Strong object-oriented programming skills; experience with C#/.NET or a similar object-oriented language is required; direct C# and .NET experience would be a major plus.
Significant database design, performance, and development experience.
Experience leading technical direction across teams and influencing architecture beyond a single project or codebase.
Experience mentoring engineers and helping develop people, practices, and reusable technical solutions.
Ability to select appropriate frameworks, architecture patterns, and technical approaches, then educate teams and drive adoption.
Strong analytical skills and a practical problem-solving mindset.
Ability to lead and influence across teams without relying solely on reporting authority.
Ability to reason across the full product stack, including backend services, data stores, APIs, device integrations, and web/mobile user experiences.
Strong understanding of object-oriented design, software development lifecycles, and long-term maintainability concerns.
Excellent communication skills, including the ability to explain technical tradeoffs to engineers, product owners, and business stakeholders.

Experience That Would Be a Major Plus

Experience with IoT, smart home, energy management, HVAC, water, automation, or connected-device systems.
Experience working with physical systems, hardware devices, firmware teams, or embedded-device integrations.
Experience with event-driven systems, device telemetry, automation/rules engines, or distributed systems.
Experience in modernizing monolithic systems or decomposing systems into modular services.
Experience designing systems where cloud software interacts with deployed physical devices and must account for latency, reliability, compatibility, and operational visibility.

Principal Software Engineer

The role

Principal Software Engineer

The role

What you will do

What You’ll Do

Day-to-Day Responsibilities

What you need

What You Need

Experience That Would Be a Major Plus

Why This Role Matters

Company info

Company benefits

Alarm.com is an Equal Opportunity Employer

Notice To Third Party Agencies

Pay and benefits

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