Principal Software Engineer (Meshing)

At Cadence, we hire and develop leaders and innovators who want to make an impact on the world of technology. Position Summary We are seeking a Principal Software Engineer to provide deep technical leadership in the Meshing domain for MSC Apex. This role is responsible for designing, developing, and guiding advanced meshing capabilities used in CAE preprocessing, model preparation, surface meshing, volume meshing, mesh quality improvement, sizing controls, and downstream simulation workflows. The successful candidate will act as a senior individual contributor and technical authority, partnering across engineering, architecture, QA, and product teams to deliver robust, scalable, and maintainable meshing solutions aligned with customer and product needs. Key Responsibilities • Architect, design, and develop advanced meshing capabilities for CAE products, ensuring robustness, scalability, performance, and maintainability. • Provide technical leadership for surface meshing, volume meshing, mesh quality improvement, sizing controls, boundary layer concepts, mesh cleanup, and CAE preprocessing workflows. • Serve as a senior technical authority for design reviews, feasibility analysis, risk assessment, debugging, performance optimization, and long-term architecture decisions. • Collaborate with product management, architecture, QA, program management, and engineering teams to translate customer workflow needs into actionable technical solutions. • Guide and mentor engineers on meshing algorithms, design patterns, code quality, testing strategy, and engineering best practices. • Investigate complex meshing defects, mesh quality problems, performance bottlenecks, and customer-reported workflow issues, driving them to resolution. • Contribute to technical roadmaps and communicate design tradeoffs, technical risks, and implementation plans clearly to stakeholders and leadership. Required Qualifications Education • Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, Computational Engineering, Computer-Aided Engineering, Applied Mathematics, or a related engineering discipline. Experience • 12+ years of software engineering experience delivering commercial or enterprise engineering software, preferably in CAE, meshing, simulation, or scientific computing domains. • Deep expertise in meshing algorithms, surface mesh generation, volume mesh generation, mesh quality metrics, sizing controls, mesh cleanup, and mesh improvement workflows. • Strong background in C++ software development for large-scale engineering, scientific, CAE, or meshing-intensive applications. • Experience designing and implementing robust meshing algorithms and production-quality software components used in model preparation and CAE preprocessing workflows. • Working knowledge of CAE workflows including model preparation, geometry handoff, solver readiness, simulation preprocessing, and customer-driven usability requirements. • Experience with CAD/CAE products or meshing platforms such as MSC Apex, Patran, ANSA, HyperMesh, SimLab, ICEM CFD, Pointwise, Gmsh, or equivalent technologies. • Ability to guide architecture and implementation decisions while balancing innovation, quality, performance, robustness, maintainability, and delivery commitments. • Familiarity with scripting, automation, build systems, debugging tools, profiling tools, and engineering productivity practices; Python experience is preferred. • Experience mentoring engineers, reviewing complex designs, and influencing technical direction across teams without direct people-management responsibility. • Practical experience using AI-assisted software development tools such as GitHub Copilot, Cursor, or similar tools to improve coding productivity, code review efficiency, documentation, and engineering workflows. Technical Skills • Strong proficiency in C++ for high-performance meshing, CAE, simulation, or scientific computing applications. • Deep understanding of meshing algorithms, including triangulation, quadrilateral meshing, tetrahedral meshing, hexahedral meshing concepts, surface discretization, volume discretization, and mesh optimization. • Hands-on experience with mesh quality metrics, element validity, aspect ratio, skewness, warpage, Jacobian checks, smoothing, refinement, coarsening, and repair workflows. • Experience working with geometry-to-mesh workflows, boundary representation inputs, geometry cleanup dependencies, feature preservation, defeaturing impacts, and mesh associativity. • Ability to design robust meshing APIs, reusable software components, scalable mesh data structures, and algorithms for large assemblies and complex CAE models. • Strong debugging and diagnostic skills for resolving mesh generation failures, poor-quality elements, numerical robustness issues, and customer workflow failures. • Experience optimizing meshing operations for performance, memory usage, scalability, and responsiveness in large models and automated preprocessing workflows. • Familiarity with automated testing strategies for meshing algorithms, including regression tests, mesh quality validation, stress cases, benchmark models, and customer model validation. • Working knowledge of Python or scripting tools for automation, diagnostics, workflow prototyping, mesh validation, and engineering productivity. Soft Skills • Strong communication and collaboration skills. • Problem-solving and analytical thinking. • Ability to work independently and in a team environment. • Strong organizational and time-management skills.N/A We’re doing work that matters. Help us solve what others can’t.