Principal Software Engineer - Apps

NBC News is creating the digital future for one of the world’s most trusted news organizations. Our Digital Technology organization is at the center of building and improving a suite of digital products including mobile apps, OTT experiences (Roku, tvOS, FireTV, etc), publishing tools, and the platforms that power them. Our brands include household names like NBC News and Today, reaching hundreds of millions of users worldwide.

The Apps Platform team supports NBC News’ mobile and OTT engineering organization by building shared libraries, tooling, and infrastructure that enable product teams to deliver high-quality applications quickly, reliably, and at scale.

We are seeking a Principal Engineer to play a critical role in the evolution of NBC News’ mobile and OTT application platform.

As a Principal Engineer on the Apps Platform team, your work will have a broad impact across systems, teams, and technical direction. You will contribute both tactically and strategically - writing high-quality code while also shepherding large, complex initiatives that span multiple teams.

You will partner closely with Product, Engineering leadership, and application teams to improve developer productivity, raise quality standards, and define the long-term technical vision for our applications. This role is ideal for an engineer who thrives on cross-cutting problems, platform ownership, and mentoring others.

Responsibilities:

• Drive the architecture and evolution of shared application libraries and platform components used across iOS, Android, and OTT applications
• Author and contribute to RFCs, technical design documents, and proposals that influence engineering direction across teams
• Partner with application teams to identify pain points and deliver platform solutions that improve velocity, reliability, and developer experience
• Design, build, and evolve CI/CD pipelines and release workflows supporting mobile and OTT applications
• Identify and act on opportunities to standardize testing best practices across platforms, working closely with QA and application teams
• Write code and tests that set a high bar for quality, maintainability, performance, and security
• Debug complex platform and release issues to identify root causes and systemic improvements
• Help define long-term platform roadmaps and technical vision aligned with product and business goals
• Actively mentor and coach engineers, supporting individual growth and raising the technical bar across teams
• Promote a culture of collaboration, shared ownership, and continuous improvement

• 8+ years of professional software development experience or equivalent industry experience
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field, or equivalent practical experience
• Deep experience with application architecture and development in at least one mobile platform with the ability to work across platforms as needed
• Recent experience with Kotlin, Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP), and/or Swift, including building and evolving shared libraries or platform components
• Demonstrated ability to influence technical direction across multiple teams without direct authority, influencing technical direction beyond an individual team through RFCs, architectural reviews, and shared best practices
• Experience building or maintaining shared libraries, SDKs, or internal platforms
• Fluency and comfort designing, maintaining, and improving CI/CD pipelines for mobile applications
• Demonstrated success leading and delivering complex projects involving multiple engineers, external dependencies, and long-term technical trade-offs
• Strong problem-solving skills, sound engineering judgment, and systems-level thinking
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including technical documentation and design reviews with the ability to present the same information to both technical and non-technical audiences

Desired Experience:

• Experience shipping high-traffic consumer applications to production, including ownership of release processes, versioning, and post-release support
• Experience integrating and supporting video playback technologies such as ExoPlayer, AVFoundation, and/or JW Player
• Familiarity with dynamic ad integration and tracking (client-side and server-side ad insertion) in video content
• Experience designing, standardizing, or scaling automated testing strategies across multiple platforms (unit, integration, UI, E2E)
• Experience working within a large, matrixed media organization, effectively navigating cross-team dependencies and stakeholder alignment

Additional Requirements:

Hybrid: This position currently has a hybrid schedule, which requires contributing from the office a minimum of four days per week. The Company reserves the right to change in-office requirements at any time.

This position is eligible for company sponsored benefits, including medical, dental and vision insurance, 401(k), paid leave, tuition reimbursement, and a variety of other discounts and perks. Learn more about the benefits offered by NBCUniversal by visiting the Benefits page of the Careers website. 

Salary range: $185,000 - $215,000 (bonus eligible)

As part of our selection process, external candidates may be required to attend an in-person interview with an NBCUniversal employee at one of our locations prior to a hiring decision. NBCUniversal's policy is to provide equal employment opportunities to all applicants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, creed, gender, gender identity or expression, age, national origin or ancestry, citizenship, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, pregnancy, veteran status, membership in the uniformed services, genetic information, or any other basis protected by applicable law.

NBCUniversal will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories, or arrest or conviction records, in a manner consistent with relevant legal requirements, including the City of Los Angeles' Fair Chance Initiative For Hiring Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, where applicable.

If you are a qualified individual with a disability or a disabled veteran and require support throughout the application and/or recruitment process as a result of your disability, you have the right to request a reasonable accommodation. You can submit your request to AccessibilitySupport@nbcuni.com.