Principal Software Engineer
Freeform, Los Angeles, CA (On-site) +1
- Pay
- $225K–$400K / year
- Work type
- Not stated
- Level
- Principal
- Area
- Software engineering, Inference & ML systems, ML / AI engineering
- Posted
- Apr 2, 2026
About the role
PRINCIPAL SOFTWARE ENGINEER
Freeform builds AI-native manufacturing systems that unify software, hardware, and physics to produce industrial-scale parts at the speed of human ideation. By treating manufacturing as a single integrated system, we unlock a new era of innovation where complex hardware is designed, built, and scaled without limits.
As a Principal Software Engineer, you will act in a technical leadership capacity responsible for driving innovative development efforts across our broad software ecosystem including edge computing, hardware control and automation, and high-rate telemetry systems. We are looking for someone who can work effectively with electrical, mechanical, and process engineering disciplines as well as technical executives to invent and implement complex, interdisciplinary performance requirements. As a startup, we expect this person to be hands on from architecture to implementation, writing code and solving the most complex issues. Ultimately, your contributions will result in the deployment of highly sophisticated software platforms capable of processing petabytes of high-rate data on the edge and automating factory systems around the world.
3D printing experience is not required to be successful here - rather we look for smart, motivated, collaborative engineers who love solving hard problems and creating amazing technology!
Responsibilities:
- Provide architectural leadership for the development of a complex, highly integrated software system
- Take on the most challenging development and implementation efforts in our software stack
- Lead system level integration and validation efforts
- Provide technical project management from conception to production when required by the size/scope of the project
- Drive communication and collaboration with the broader engineering team by working side-by-side with the electrical, mechanical, and process engineering teams
- Innovate on system capability and performance, accelerate engineering progress, and push the bounds of Freeform’s technology forward
Basic Qualifications:
- 10+ years of hands-on experience architecting and implementing complex software systems using C/C++/Rust
- Experience in industries such as robotics, IoT, autonomous cars, UAVs, or similar autonomy-centric environments
- Experience working in a high-performance compute environment (FPGAs or GPUs)
Nice to Have:
- BS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related field
- Experience with edge computing, high speed data acquisition, and real time closed-loop-control systems
- Experience with hardware acceleration for machine learning or artificial intelligence
- Experience working in a startup or leading-edge technology environment
- Creative thinker able to apply first-principles reasoning to solve complex problems
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Listed on Freeform's Greenhouse job board; checked 29 h ago. First seen by us 29 h ago. Being listed doesn't mean the team is actively interviewing. We found this board in a public directory and haven't yet confirmed it against the company's own careers page.