AI Builder — Senior Principal Engineer

Job Requisition ID # 26WD97586 Position Overview This is a role for a seasoned software engineer who wants to fundamentally change how systems work.  You will join a small, AI-native disrupt squad within Autodesk’s Platform Services & Emerging Technologies (PSET) organization, accountable for redefining how the platform is experienced, accessed, and built upon. You won’t be handed well-defined problems. You will identify high-leverage opportunities, define what should exist, and prove a dramatically better way through working systems, using any internal or external approaches.  Your role is not just to explore ideas, but to make them real. Building proof points that are viable, scalable, and capable of reshaping the platform.  This team does not operate in traditional roles. As an AI Builder, you bring product thinking, experience design, and engineering together in one motion, shaping workflows end-to-end. You will use AI, real systems, and rapid experimentation to reshape how work gets done for Autodesk teams and to determine which approaches truly deliver the best outcomes for our customers.  Your focus is not on operating production systems. You are accountable for turning friction into opportunity and delivering near-production-grade proofs that make a new approach credible and hard to dismiss. Core Traits To succeed in this role, we are looking for people who are: Proof-obsessed: build to test and demonstrate, not to discuss Institutionally impatient: do not accept friction, process, or complexity as fixed Out-of-the-box thinkers: identify fundamentally better ways, not incremental fixes Systems thinkers: naturally connect workflows across boundaries Integrators: collapse product, experience, and engineering into one motion Responsibilities Find and work through seams, bottlenecks, and hand offs that make the platform harder to use than it should be, focusing on the ones where a different approach creates outsized impact Engineer end-to-end, AI-native workflow proofs that turn fragmented systems into functioning, real-world workflows Build working prototypes and scrappy, production-like implementations that prove something actually works; not just that it could Use whatever tools, agents, and integrations are required, internal or external, to demonstrate a simpler, more effective way forward Test and compare AI approaches in real workflows to determine what performs best in practice and can scale Produce clear “before vs after” proof points that expose friction and make better approaches undeniable Don’t just highlight what’s broken. Define and prototype how it should work instead, including paths to evolve the platform Minimum Qualifications 8 years of experience building and operating production systems, with demonstrated accountability for defining technical direction, leading cross-team initiatives, and delivering system or platform-level outcomes Strong system and architectural judgment across services, data, and workflows Strong applied AI capability (structuring problems for agents, orchestrating tools and workflows, evaluating outputs; not just accelerating coding) Strong product and workflow judgment, with a focus on leverage and outcomes Strong software engineering fundamentals (APIs, distributed systems, data flows, debugging across systems) and ability to build end-to-end systems across the stack Proven track record of solving complex, cross-domain problems and driving work from ambiguity to working systems independently Demonstrated ability to deliver cross-team or organizational impact, not just local features High learning velocity in rapidly evolving technical environments Preferred Qualifications Experience testing and comparing AI approaches within real workflows to determine what actually works Hands-on experience building or orchestrating agent-based systems and tool integrations Familiarity with prompt design, evaluation patterns, and rapid experimentation Backgroun ... (truncated, view full listing at source)