Senior Principal Software Engineer/Architect

At UKG, the work you do matters. The code you ship, the decisions you make, and the care you show a customer all add up to real impact. Today, tens of millions of workers start and end their days with our workforce operating platform. Helping people get paid, grow in their careers, and shape the future of their industries. That’s what we do.

We never stop learning. We never stop challenging the norm. We push for better, and we celebrate the wins along the way. Here, you’ll get flexibility that’s real, benefits you can count on, and a team that succeeds together. Because at UKG, your work matters—and so do you.

UKG builds award-winning HR and workforce management software used worldwide. Ready is a $500M line of business serving ~55,000 SMB customers today and is expected to grow to ~$1.2B in revenue within four years. This growth trajectory makes Ready a strategic product family for UKG — and it creates a unique, high-impact place for an architectural leader to shape scale, M&A integration, and the AI/ML-enabled product roadmap.

About the role

We are hiring a Senior Principal Software Engineer to lead UKG Ready SMB — Architecture & Design, with a heavy emphasis on integrating AI responsibly at product scale and driving M&A technical outcomes. This is a strategic, hands-on individual contributor role: you will define the architecture for Ready’s SMB product family, ensure the product can scale to the organization’s growth targets, lead technical due diligence and integration for acquisitions, and drive cross-functional alignment on AI/ML adoption and platform readiness. While AI/LLM capabilities will be a major component of the roadmap, the role focuses on architecture, operationalization, governance, and product integration rather than primarily building in-house model training frameworks.

Why this role matters

Ready’s growth from a $500M business to a $1.2B business within four years transforms the engineering challenges: scale, cost control, product configurability, integrations and M&A velocity become direct drivers of commercial success. This role sits at the intersection of architecture, AI strategy, and M&A — giving you a rare opportunity to directly shape how Ready scales reliably and responsibly while unlocking new AI-driven product capabilities for tens of thousands of SMB customers.

Key deliverables / success signals

This role will work on east coast hours, to better collaborate with colleagues in our India offices

Working style & expectations

Equal Opportunity Employer

UKG is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, disability, religion, sex, age, national origin, veteran status, genetic information, and other legally protected categories.

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For individuals with disabilities that need additional assistance at any point in the application and interview process, please email UKGCareers@ukg.com.

Read more

The pay range for this position is $207,400 to $298,100. The actual base pay offered may vary depending on skills, experience, job-related knowledge and work location. In addition to base pay, employees may be eligible to participate in a performance-based bonus plan and to receive restricted stock unit awards as part of total compensation. Learn more about UKG’s benefits and rewards at ukg.com/about-us/careers/benefits