Principal Software Engineer - Digital Media

About Avery Dennison

Avery Dennison Corporation (NYSE: AVY) is a global materials science and digital identification solutions company. We are Making Possible™ products and solutions that help advance the industries we serve, providing branding and information solutions that optimize labor and supply chain efficiency, reduce waste and mitigate loss, advance sustainability, circularity and transparency and better connect brands and consumers. We design and develop labeling and functional materials, radio-frequency identification (RFID) inlays and tags, software applications that connect the physical and digital and offerings that enhance branded packaging and carry or display information that improves the customer experience. Serving industries worldwide — including home and personal care, apparel, general retail, e-commerce, logistics, food and grocery, pharmaceuticals and automotive — we employ approximately 35,000 employees in more than 50 countries. Our reported sales in 2025 were $8.9 billion. Learn more at www.averydennison.com.

About the Role

We are looking for a high-impact Manager, New Initiatives/Digital Media for a new vertical within our retail technology platform. Our platform empowers grocers to modernize their physical stores through Electronic Shelf Labels (ESLs), in-store printing, and digital video screen campaigns.

This is a unique hybrid role where technical strategy meets business execution. You will determine the right technology at the right time to solve critical retailer pain points. You will start as a high-level Individual Contributor, building the solutions that turn market opportunities into a scalable business, before transitioning into a Technical Lead to scale the team.

The Challenge

We need a strategic thinker who knows that great engineering is about making the right choices, not just writing code. You will constantly evaluate the trade-offs between integrating third-party partners to speed up time-to-market versus building bespoke solutions to create a competitive advantage. You will help us  ensure our technical investments directly support our path to profitability.

This role will partner with the Commercial and Sales teams to build technical demonstrations and proofs-of-concept that bolster sales efforts as well as provide technical consultation to GTM teams to help translate complex hardware capabilities into business value.

You will be working with our core stack (Angular, .NET Core, MSSQL, Azure), but you will also be dealing with the messy reality of physical retail environments—integrating with proprietary hardware, debugging network issues in pilot stores, and solving problems on the fly.

Who You Are

• The Pragmatic Perfectionist: You know what "Clean Architecture" looks like, and you will set the standards for your future team. However, you are willing to be flexible and create quick solutions to unblock a pilot store launch. However, you understand that clean code is useless if it solves the wrong problem.

• A Culture Builder: You aren't just writing code; you are setting the tone for a future engineering team. You lead by example, blending technical excellence with humility.

• A "Full-Stack" Solver: Your skills aren't limited to the browser or the server. You are comfortable debugging an API, tweaking a UI, or reading hardware documentation to figure out why a device isn't handshaking.

• Champion of Stability: You design not just for functionality, but for high scalability, security, and reliability. You will define the operational monitoring strategies that ensure our digital media ecosystem stays healthy across thousands of endpoints.

• The Product-Minded Technologist: You obsess over the "Why" before the "How." You think about what drives real customer value and business impact, not just what is technically interesting.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the "0-to-1" Phase: Architect and develop software solutions for digital screens and ESL integrations, operating initially as a single contributor.

• Hardware Integration: Collaborate with third-party hardware vendors to integrate their devices into our centralized platform.

• Pilot Support: actively support in-store pilots. This includes troubleshooting live production issues and deploying hotfixes to ensure customer success during critical rollouts.

• Strategic Evaluation: help leadership determine the technical viability of third-party partners versus building in-house solutions, and provide the technical reality check that ensures our business goals are ambitious yet technically achievable.

• Team Scaling: As the product matures, help hire, onboard, and lead a team of engineers, establishing code quality standards, CI/CD pipelines, and development culture.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree preferably in Computer Science, Engineering or related discipline.

• 7+ years of professional software engineering experience.

•  Proven experience acting as a Lead, Principal, or Founding Engineer in a startup or high-growth environment.

• Strong proficiency in backend development (C#/.NET, Java, or Go) and frontend frameworks (Angular, React, or Vue).

• Experience with Cloud Architecture (Azure preferred, AWS/GCP acceptable).

• Experience with SQL database design and optimization.

• Willingness to travel occasionally to pilot stores to troubleshoot hardware/software implementations.

Preferred Qualifications

• Stack Match: Deep expertise in Angular and .NET Core Microservices.

• Infrastructure: Experience with Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) and Docker.

• Domain: Experience in Retail Tech, IoT (Internet of Things), or Digital Signage software.

• Hardware: Experience integrating with serial devices, sockets, or proprietary hardware SDKs.

Why Join Us?

• Autonomy: You will have significant influence over the architectural direction of a new product line.

• Impact: Your work will be visible in retail stores immediately.

• Growth: This is a leadership track role; you build the product, then you build the team.

The salary range for this position is $121,800 - $162,400/ year.

The hiring base salary range above represents what Avery Dennison reasonably expects to pay for this position as of the date of this posting. Actual salaries will vary within the range, and in some circumstances may be above or below the range, based on various factors including but not limited to a candidate’s relevant skills, experience, education and training, and location, as well as the job scope and complexity, responsibilities, and regular and/or necessary travel required for the position, which may change depending on the candidate pool. Experienced Avery Dennison employees who are interested in this position and have questions regarding how the hiring range listed above may apply to them should contact their HR representative.  Avery Dennison reserves the right to modify this information at any time, subject to applicable law. 

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, protected veteran status or other protected status. EEOE/M/F/Vet/Disabled. All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

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