Principal Systems Engineer

Kforce has a client that is seeking a Principal Systems Engineer in Orlando, FL. This position is well suited for a senior engineer who excels in high volume, real time, transaction driven environments, enjoys mentoring teams, and remains deeply engaged in system architecture and code. Responsibilities:

• The Principal Systems Engineer will serve in a hands on and technical leadership role supporting the design, development, and maintenance of mission critical electronic toll collection (ETC) and roadway transaction processing systems
• Contribute to systems that process millions of tolling transactions, integrate with roadside and back-office platforms, and operate 24/7 across major transportation agencies
• Vital to sustaining existing tolling platforms while helping shape the next generation of scalable, high-performance solutions
• Responsible for the architecture, development, enhancement, and operational support of software systems that ingest, process, and persist large volumes of tolling and payment transactions into relational databases
• Works closely with DBAs, system administrators, software engineers, QA teams, and product stakeholders, supporting both roadside hardware platforms and modern cloud ready solutions
• As a Principal Systems Engineer, you will design, implement, and enhance high performance tolling and transaction processing software
• Provide technical leadership and mentoring to an engineering team through hands-on development
• Propose innovative technical solutions and clearly communicate technical recommendations
• Collaborate with developers, DBAs, QA engineers, and operations personnel on design, enhancements, and troubleshooting
• Diagnose complex system issues, identify root causes, and implement durable solutions
• Monitor system performance and reliability; Proactively identify risks and bottlenecks
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field from an accredited four-year institution (or equivalent experience)
• Typically requires 14-17 years of related experience
• 10+ years of professional experience with systems architecture and design across hardware and software domains
• 5+ years of C development in real time, embedded, or performance critical systems
• 5+ years of C#/.NET development with enterprise or distributed transaction systems
• Proven experience leading or mentoring engineers in an Agile/Scrum environment
• Hands on experience processing high volume transactional data into relational databases
• Experience with socket-based communication, low latency systems, and binary message formats
• Strong background with Linux and Windows environments
• Requires deep technical expertise, strong architectural judgment, and the ability to lead in performance critical, high availability environments
• Demonstrated success deploying, supporting, and maintaining large scale, high availability systems
• Ability to adapt to rapidly shifting priorities while maintaining high code quality and reliability