Principal Engineer

Principal Engineer

What we do

At Kenvue, we realize the extraordinary power of everyday care. Built on over a century of heritage and rooted in science, we’re the house of iconic brands - including NEUTROGENA®, AVEENO®, TYLENOL®, LISTERINE®, JOHNSON’S® and BAND-AID® that you already know and love. Science is our passion; care is our talent.

Who We Are

Our global team is ~ 22,000 brilliant people with a workplace culture where every voice matters, and every contribution is appreciated.  We are passionate about insights, innovation and committed to delivering the best products to our customers. With expertise and empathy, being a Kenvuer means having the power to impact millions of people every day. We put people first, care fiercely, earn trust with science and solve with courage – and have brilliant opportunities waiting for you! Join us in shaping our future–and yours. For more information, click here.

Role reports to:

ETP Delivery Leader

Location:

North America, United States, New Jersey, Summit

Work Location:

Hybrid

What you will do

We are seeking a visionary and technically accomplished Principal Engineer to lead the transformation of digital capabilities within Kenvue. This role blends deep technical expertise with strategic engineering leadership across open-source software, solution architecture, DevOps, SRE, AI/GenAI, and enterprise modernization. You will drive innovation, scale engineering, transform culture, and collaborate closely with business stakeholders to deliver measurable value.

Key Responsibilities:

Engineering Leadership

• Design and deploy scalable, secure, and high-performance systems using open source, COTS, and cloud-native technologies
• Lead modernization of legacy systems through microservices, containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), cloud migration, and emerging engineering practices
• Integrate AI/ML, Generative AI, and agentic systems into digital platforms to enhance automation and decision-making

Innovation & Hackathons

• Design and execute enterprise-wide hackathons, innovation sprints, and rapid prototyping events to foster a culture of experimentation
• Partner with business and product teams to identify high-impact challenges and translate them into hackathon themes
• Establish post-hackathon incubation pipelines to scale successful ideas into production-ready solutions
• Evaluate and adopt cutting-edge technologies such as edge computing, event-driven architectures, and serverless computing to future-proof platforms and accelerate time-to-market

Platform Engineering & Enablement

• Lead the Platform Engineering function, building reusable, self-service capabilities (e.g., CI/CD, observability, developer portals)
• Define engineering standards and automation strategies to improve developer experience and operational efficiency
• Ensure platform security, compliance, and scalability in collaboration with InfoSec and infrastructure teams
• Integrate security into the platform (DevSecOps) and ensure compliance with industry regulations

Business Collaboration & Value Delivery

• Act as a strategic partner to business units, translating technical capabilities into business outcomes
• Co-create roadmaps with commercial, marketing, and supply chain teams to align engineering with customer and market needs
• Use data-driven insights to measure and communicate the impact of engineering initiatives on business KPIs

UI/UX & Product Experience

• Collaborate with design and product teams to ensure intuitive, accessible, and user-centric digital experiences
• Advocate for design systems, usability testing, and front-end performance optimization
• Guide engineering teams in implementing responsive, scalable, and maintainable UI architectures

Data Integration & Intelligence

• Strong background with integration of enterprise data sources using modern data pipelines, APIs, and event-driven architectures
• Strong knowledge of data flow across systems (ERP, CRM, supply chain, marketing platforms) to enable real-time insights
• Support AI/ML initiatives with robust data engineering and governance practices

Global Team Management

• Build and lead high-performing engineering teams across Global Capability Centers (GCCs), managing both onshore and offshore resources
• Foster a culture of ownership, agility, and continuous learning across distributed teams
• Mentor senior engineers and technical leads, supporting their growth into future leaders

DevOps & SRE Excellence

• Implement DevOps pipelines and SRE practices to ensure system reliability, scalability, and performance
• Define and monitor SLAs, SLOs, and error budgets to maintain service health and operational excellence

Open Source & Ecosystem Engagement

• Advocate for and contribute to open-source communities and projects
• Evaluate and integrate open-source tools to accelerate development and reduce vendor lock-in

What we are looking for
Required Qualifications:

• 15+ years of experience in software engineering, with at least 5 years in a senior or principal leadership role
• Proven experience in the CPG industry or similar domains with complex supply chains and consumer engagement platforms
• Deep hands-on technical expertise in at least one major technical area Modern Software Delivery, building complex distributed systems
• Deep expertise in open-source stacks, cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP), and container orchestration
• Experience in managing cloud or on-premises migrations
• Hands-on experience with AI/ML, GenAI frameworks (e.g., LangChain, Hugging Face, OpenAI APIs), and agentic architectures
• Strong knowledge of object-oriented design, data structures and algorithms
• Strong programming skills in Python, Go, Advance Java, Java Script, or similar languages
• Experience with modern UI frameworks (e.g., React, Angular, Vue) and design systems
• Experience in designing, implementing, and optimizing relational databases (e.g., PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Server) and NoSQL databases (e.g., MongoDB, Cassandra, DynamoDB)
• Skilled in data modeling, indexing strategies, performance tuning, and ensuring data consistency and scalability across distributed systems
• Solid understanding of data integration technologies (e.g., Kafka, CDC, REST/GraphQL APIs, ETL tools)
• Demonstrated success in building and managing global engineering teams

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience organizing or leading innovation programs, hackathons, or internal incubators
• Contributions to open-source projects or communities
• Certifications in cloud architecture, DevOps, or AI/ML
• Familiarity with enterprise platforms (e.g., ERP, CRM, supply chain systems), Agentic AI implementation, and deployment of Software agents

What’s in it for you

$194,650.00 - $274,800.00

This takes into account a number of factors including work location, the candidate’s skills, experience, education level & other job-related factors.

Kenvue is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment based on merit without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, national origin, or protected veteran status and will not be discriminated against on the basis of disability.