Green Card Principal Software Engineer Jobs
Principal Software Engineer roles at U.S. companies regularly qualify for EB-2 and EB-3 green card sponsorship through PERM labor certification. Employers file with DOL to demonstrate no qualified U.S. workers are available, then sponsor your I-140 petition. Finding employers with active PERM filing history is the first step toward permanent residency sponsorship.
Find Green Card Principal Software Engineer JobsOverview
Showing 5 of 3,393+ Principal Software Engineer jobs










See all 3,393+ Principal Software Engineer Jobs
Sign up for free to unlock all listings, filter by visa type, and get alerts for new Principal Software Engineer roles.
Get Access To All Jobs
The application window is expected to close on: 09/29/2026
Meet The Team
Splunk’s Platform Engineering team is evolving the core platform to run reliably on Kubernetes across cloud and customer-managed environments. The team builds the runtime foundations, orchestration patterns, lifecycle capabilities, and platform services that enable Splunk products to move faster on a common cloud-native substrate. We are a senior, systems-oriented group working across core engineering, product, security, operations, and customer-facing teams. Our work is complex, high-impact, and central to Splunk’s FY27 priorities around Kubernetes adoption, cloud growth, customer-managed platform parity, and future innovation. This is an opportunity to help shape how a large-scale enterprise platform modernizes while preserving the reliability and compatibility customers depend on.
Your Impact
Lead technical direction for Kubernetes-based platform architecture that makes Splunk easier to deploy, operate, upgrade, diagnose, and evolve. Translate complex product, customer, and feature-team requirements into practical designs, engineering contracts, and implementation plans. Partner across core runtime, Kubernetes operator, configuration, application platform, search, security, cloud, and product teams to align execution around reusable architecture. Identify cross-component dependencies, failure modes, lifecycle gaps, and migration risks before they become release or customer-impacting issues. Drive incremental modernization of a mature enterprise platform while preserving customer trust, compatibility, and operational quality.
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelors + 15 years of related experience, or Masters + 12 years of related experience, or PhD + 8 years of related experience, or equivalent related work experience
- 10+ years of professional software engineering experience building backend, platform, infrastructure, or distributed systems.
- 5+ years of experience designing, building, or operating production distributed systems.
- 2+ years of hands-on Kubernetes experience, including workload orchestration, operators/controllers, or cloud-native deployment patterns.
Preferred Qualifications
- Prior experience designing production APIs, lifecycle orchestration, configuration systems, upgrade systems, or platform services.
- Applied experience with at least one backend/platform programming language such as Go, C++, Java, Python
- Prior experience with Kubernetes operators, control planes, developer platforms, infrastructure automation, or large-scale platform services.
- Prior experience modernizing legacy or monolithic enterprise systems toward cloud-native operating models.
- Applied experience with enterprise customer commitments, regulated environments, cloud/on-prem deployment variance, and long-lived compatibility expectations.
- Previous background with the ability to synthesize ambiguous cross-team requirements into clear technical direction, tradeoffs, and execution plans.
- Applied experience using AI-assisted engineering tools responsibly for code comprehension, review preparation, test planning, incident triage, documentation, or migration analysis.
Why Cisco?
At Cisco, we’re revolutionizing how data and infrastructure connect and protect organizations in the AI era – and beyond. We’ve been innovating fearlessly for 40 years to create solutions that power how humans and technology work together across the physical and digital worlds. These solutions provide customers with unparalleled security, visibility, and insights across the entire digital footprint.
Fueled by the depth and breadth of our technology, we experiment and create meaningful solutions. Add to that our worldwide network of doers and experts, and you’ll see that the opportunities to grow and build are limitless. We work as a team, collaborating with empathy to make really big things happen on a global scale. Because our solutions are everywhere, our impact is everywhere.
We are Cisco, and our power starts with you.
Message to applicants applying to work in the U.S. and/or Canada:
The starting salary range posted for this position is $250,600.00 to $362,600.00 and reflects the projected salary range for new hires in this position in U.S. and/or Canada locations, not including incentive compensation*, equity, or benefits.
Individual pay is determined by the candidate's hiring location, market conditions, job-related skillset, experience, qualifications, education, certifications, and/or training. The full salary range for certain locations is listed below. For locations not listed below, the recruiter can share more details about compensation for the role in your location during the hiring process.
U.S. employees are offered benefits, subject to Cisco’s plan eligibility rules, which include medical, dental and vision insurance, a 401(k) plan with a Cisco matching contribution, paid parental leave, short and long-term disability coverage, and basic life insurance. Please see the Cisco careers site to discover more benefits and perks. Employees may be eligible to receive grants of Cisco restricted stock units, which vest following continued employment with Cisco for defined periods of time.
U.S. employees are eligible for paid time away as described below, subject to Cisco’s policies:
- 10 paid holidays per full calendar year, plus 1 floating holiday for non-exempt employees
- 1 paid day off for employee’s birthday, paid year-end holiday shutdown, and 4 paid days off for personal wellness determined by Cisco
- Non-exempt employees** receive 16 days of paid vacation time per full calendar year, accrued at rate of 4.92 hours per pay period for full-time employees
- Exempt employees participate in Cisco’s flexible vacation time off program, which has no defined limit on how much vacation time eligible employees may use (subject to availability and some business limitations)
- 80 hours of sick time off provided on hire date and each January 1st thereafter, and up to 80 hours of unused sick time carried forward from one calendar year to the next
- Additional paid time away may be requested to deal with critical or emergency issues for family members
- Optional 10 paid days per full calendar year to volunteer
For non-sales roles, employees are also eligible to earn annual bonuses subject to Cisco’s policies.
Employees on sales plans earn performance-based incentive pay on top of their base salary, which is split between quota and non-quota components, subject to the applicable Cisco plan. For quota-based incentive pay, Cisco typically pays as follows:
- .75% of incentive target for each 1% of revenue attainment up to 50% of quota;
- 1.5% of incentive target for each 1% of attainment between 50% and 75%;
- 1% of incentive target for each 1% of attainment between 75% and 100%; and
- Once performance exceeds 100% attainment, incentive rates are at or above 1% for each 1% of attainment with no cap on incentive compensation.
For non-quota-based sales performance elements such as strategic sales objectives, Cisco may pay 0% up to 125% of target. Cisco sales plans do not have a minimum threshold of performance for sales incentive compensation to be paid.
The applicable full salary ranges for this position, by specific state, are listed below:
New York City Metro Area:
$250,600.00 - $416,900.00
Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:
$241,400.00 - $371,000.00
- For quota-based sales roles on Cisco’s sales plan, the ranges provided in this posting include base pay and sales target incentive compensation combined.
Employees in Illinois, whether exempt or non-exempt, will participate in a unique time off program to meet local requirements.
See all 3,393+ Green Card Principal Software Engineer Jobs
Sign up for free to unlock all listings, filter by visa type, and get alerts for new Green Card Principal Software Engineer Jobs.
Get Access To All JobsTips for Finding Green Card Sponsorship as a Principal Software Engineer
Align your credentials with EB-2 requirements
Principal Software Engineer roles typically satisfy EB-2's advanced-degree requirement if you hold a master's or a bachelor's plus five progressive years in software engineering. Document each promotion and scope expansion now, before your employer files the PERM.
Target employers with PERM filing history
Search the DOL's OFLC Wage Search database to identify companies that have certified PERM applications for software engineering roles. Employers with prior PERM experience move faster and make fewer procedural mistakes that cause delays or denials.
Find sponsoring employers through Migrate Mate
Migrate Mate filters Principal Software Engineer openings by employers with verified green card sponsorship history, so you're applying to companies that have already demonstrated willingness and capacity to file PERM and I-140 petitions.
Negotiate the PERM timeline before accepting an offer
Ask your prospective employer at the offer stage whether they use outside immigration counsel and what their average PERM certification timeline looks like. Delays often start with internal HR backlogs, not USCIS or DOL processing windows.
Verify the job description matches your O*NET profile
DOL auditors compare your PERM job duties against the O*NET occupation profile for Software Engineers. If your role description lists duties outside that profile, your employer's counsel may need to reclassify the position before filing to avoid a denial.
Preserve H-1B status during the green card process
You can file the PERM and I-140 while on H-1B visa without abandoning nonimmigrant status. Once your I-140 is approved and your priority date is current, you can file I-485 to adjust status without leaving the U.S. or switching visa categories.
Green Card Principal Software Engineer: Frequently Asked Questions
Does a Principal Software Engineer role qualify for EB-2 or EB-3 green card sponsorship?
Most Principal Software Engineer positions qualify under EB-2 because they require a master's degree or a bachelor's degree plus extensive progressive experience in software engineering. Roles that require only a bachelor's and a set number of years can be filed under EB-3 instead. Your employer's immigration counsel determines which category fits the specific job requirements and your credentials before filing the PERM application with DOL.
How does green card sponsorship differ from H-1B for this role?
Green card sponsorship through PERM and I-140 leads to permanent residency, not a temporary status. Unlike H-1B, there's no annual lottery for EB-2 or EB-3 petitions, and your employer doesn't re-petition every few years. The tradeoff is timeline: the full PERM, I-140, and adjustment-of-status process typically takes one to four years for most countries, with longer waits for Indian and Chinese nationals due to priority date backlogs.
What does the PERM labor certification process require from my employer?
Your employer must conduct a federally prescribed recruitment process, including job postings, newspaper ads, and internal notices, to document that no qualified U.S. worker is available for the Principal Software Engineer role. DOL reviews the recruitment results and either certifies or denies the PERM application. The job description filed with DOL must match the actual duties you'll perform, and your employer can't tailor the requirements specifically to your background.
How do I find Principal Software Engineer jobs where the employer will sponsor a green card?
Migrate Mate lets you filter Principal Software Engineer openings by employers with verified green card sponsorship history, so you're not guessing which companies are willing to go through the PERM process. Many employers sponsor H-1B but decline PERM due to cost and timeline, so specifically targeting companies with active EB-2 and EB-3 filing records saves significant time in your search.
Can I switch employers after my I-140 is approved without losing my priority date?
Yes. Once your I-140 has been approved for at least 180 days, portability rules under U.S. immigration law allow you to change employers and carry your priority date to a new PERM and I-140 in a same or similar occupational category. Principal Software Engineer roles generally port to other senior engineering positions. Notify USCIS of the job change when you file or update your I-485 to preserve your place in the queue.