Principal Engineer, Customer Engineering

Principal Engineer, Customer EngineeringChicago, IL, RemoteAbout FourKitesFourKites is the leading supply chain visibility platform, helping companies transform their logistics operations through real-time tracking, predictive intelligence, and AI-powered automation. As we expand our portfolio with agentic AI capabilities that autonomously optimize supply chain decisions, we're transforming from a visibility platform into an intelligent orchestration system that drives measurable business outcomes for the world's most recognized brands.Whether it's medical supplies from Cardinal Health or groceries for Walmart, the FourKites platform helps customers operate global supply chains that are efficient, agile and sustainable.About the RoleWe're seeking a Principal Engineer to serve as the senior technical authority across our Fortune 500 customer base, operating at the intersection of hands-on engineering, solution architecture, and strategic customer partnership. You'll own the most complex integration designs and AI-powered workflow implementations end-to-end: decomposing enterprise supply chain problems into architecture, building the solution, and ensuring it scales.This is not a coordination role.

You will write code, build data pipelines, design microservices architectures, and ship production integrations alongside the team. When a customer needs a real-time event-driven integration with their SAP landscape, or an agentic workflow that autonomously resolves shipment exceptions, you're the person who designs it, proves it out, and ensures it delivers business value. You'll carry strategic customer relationships across the full account lifecycle (pre-sales through production), feed field intelligence back into Product and R&D, and build external thought leadership that establishes FourKites as the technical standard in supply chain AI.Reporting to the Director of Engineering, this is a senior individual contributor role.

You'll lead without direct reports, operating through technical excellence, mentorship, and cross-functional influence across Customer Engineering, Professional Services, Product, and R&D Engineering.What You'll Be DoingSolution Architecture & Hands-On EngineeringArchitect end-to-end integration solutions for complex enterprise environments spanning ERP (SAP, Oracle, Blue Yonder, Manhattan), OMS, WMS, TMS, and YMS platforms, working directly with customer technical teams to translate business problems into implementable designsDesign and build data pipelines (batch and streaming) using messaging infrastructure and event-driven architectures that enable real-time supply chain data flow at enterprise scaleBuild, extend, and optimize agentic AI workflows using LangGraph, LangChain, and related frameworks, integrating LLM-powered automation into customer-facing supply chain operationsDesign microservices architectures for integration layers: API gateway patterns, service decomposition, inter-service communication, containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), and cloud-native deployment on AWS, Azure, or GCPDevelop and maintain APIs (REST, GraphQL) and integration middleware connecting customer enterprise systems to the FourKites platformOwn technical proof-of-concepts for new integration patterns, AI-powered workflows, and platform capabilities, taking them from prototype to production-readyIntegration Architecture & StandardsDefine reference architectures and reusable integration patterns that scale across customers, covering traditional EDI/file-based integrations (X12, EDIFACT, flat file, SFTP/AS2) through modern event-driven and AI-augmented approachesEstablish engineering standards for data quality, observability, error handling, retry logic, and scalability across all customer integrationsDrive technical decisions on integration approach selection: real-time streaming vs. batch ETL, synchronous vs. asynchronous patterns, push vs.

pull models, grounded in customer system constraints and business requirementsEvaluate emerging technologies and integration patterns, building team capability in AI/ML engineering, cloud-native architectures, and modern data infrastructureStrategic Customer Partnership & Pre-SalesBuild and maintain trusted-advisor relationships with technical and executive stakeholders at strategic accounts, spanning the full lifecycle from initial scoping through production optimizationProvide solutions architecture consultation during pre-sales: scoping complex integration and AI agent deployments, identifying technical risks, sizing effort, and translating platform capabilities into customer business valuePartner with R&D Teams to shape the platform roadmap based on field experience, advocating for integration-layer and AI capability improvements grounded in real customer implementation dataContribute to external thought leadership: reference architectures, technical blog posts, conference presentations, and customer-facing best practice documentationTechnical Leadership & MentorshipServe as the senior escalation point for the hardest integration and AI engineering challenges, both internal and customer-facingMentor customer engineers (onshore and offshore) through design reviews, code reviews, pairing sessions, and architecture walkthroughs, raising the technical bar across the teamLead by building: prove out new approaches hands-on before asking the team to adopt themDefine and track integration quality and engineering productivity metricsAbout the TeamThe Customer Engineering team is the technical backbone of FourKites' customer implementations, enabling Fortune 500 companies to connect our AI-powered platform with their enterprise systems. Working in close partnership with Professional Services, the team architects and delivers complex integrations spanning ERP, OMS, WMS, and TMS platforms, turning data silos into unified supply chain intelligence. As FourKites evolves toward AI-first solutions with agentic capabilities, this team plays a critical role in ensuring seamless data flow, integration reliability, and technical excellence that powers autonomous decision-making and real-time orchestration.Who You AreRequired12+ years in software engineering, data engineering, or solutions architecture, with significant time in customer-facing roles designing and delivering enterprise-grade systemsHands-on builder: you write production code, build data pipelines, debug distributed systems, and architect solutions, not just review themDeep expertise in data pipeline and messaging infrastructure: Kafka, RabbitMQ, SQS/SNS, or comparable; hands-on experience designing streaming and batch data flows at scaleStrong API engineering skills: designing, building, and scaling REST and GraphQL APIs; experience with API gateway patterns, rate limiting, versioning, and authentication protocolsHands-on AI engineering experience: building agentic workflows and LLM-powered applications using LangGraph, LangChain, or equivalent frameworks; practical understanding of prompt engineering, tool orchestration, retrieval-augmented generation, and agent evaluationMicroservices architecture expertise: service decomposition, inter-service communication (gRPC, async messaging), containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), and cloud-native deployment on AWS, Azure, or GCP3+ years of experience in logistics, supply chain, or transportation technology; working understanding of supply chain data flows (orders, shipments, inventory, tracking events, carrier integrations)Working knowledge of enterprise integration patterns: EDI (X12, EDIFACT), middleware platforms (MuleSoft, Dell Boomi, Informatica), file-based protocols (SFTP, AS2), and data transformation/ETLSolutions architect mindset: you start with the customer's business problem, design the right architecture, and can present the approach to both engineers and C-suite stakeholders with equal clarityBachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Math, or equivalent experiencePreferredExperience with enterprise ERP/TMS/WMS platforms (SAP, Oracle, Blue Yonder, Manhattan) and their integration surfacesTrack record of building reusable integration frameworks, accelerators, or internal developer tools adopted across multiple customer engagementsExperience leading technical teams through platform transformations: API modernization, monolith-to-microservices migration, cloud-native adoptionExternal thought leadership experience: conference talks, published technical content, open-source contributions, or community engagementFamiliarity with supply chain visibility, control tower, or real-time tracking platformsTravel RequirementUp to 30% (customer sites, critical implementations, team locations)LocationChicago (preferred) or remote with regular Chicago travelCompensationThe expected annual base salary range for this role is $140,000 - $170,