Lead/Principal Transformation Developer

Lead/Principal Transformation Developer (AI Code Modernization Platform)

Location: Québec, Canada (Hybrid)

Position summary

Bentley Systems is forming a new, dedicated AI Systems Modernization team to lead the company's efforts in applying advanced AI techniques—such as multi‑stage, agentic workflows—to automatically modernize academic and legacy codebases into cloud‑native services and applications. This global team will work at the intersection of AI research and real‑world software engineering, collaborating closely with product teams to support, guide, and enable AI adoption across Bentley.

Because this team is launching this year, the Lead / Principal Engineer will have significant influence over its direction, technical standards, and operating model. As a new and strategically important domain for Bentley, the team will play a leadership role in defining best practices, evangelizing AI‑driven modernization approaches, and operationalizing them across the organization.

This role is well-suited for engineers who enjoy bleeding‑edge technology, deep technical discussions, and exposure to a wide variety of technology stacks. Bentley's portfolio spans hundreds of products—including desktop, mobile, traditional server‑based systems, and cloud microservices—offering exceptional breadth and the opportunity to work with a diverse, global team of experts.

Why This Role Matters

• Foundational impact – This team is starting this year. You will help define its mission, methods, and standards.
• Real‑world AI – Apply AI to large, production systems with strict requirements—not experiments or demos.
• Technical breadth – Work across legacy languages, modern stacks, and cloud architectures.
• Leadership with depth – Influence strategy while remaining hands‑on with architecture and prototyping.

What You'll Work On

AI Platform & Architecture

• Define the technical vision and roadmap for Bentley's AI code modernization platform
• Design multi‑stage, agentic AI workflows for automated code analysis, transformation, and uplift
• Build and evolve LLM pipelines, including orchestration, evaluation, monitoring, and iteration

Quality & Validation

• Create rigorous testing and validation strategies to ensure correctness, performance, and numerical precision
• Establish quality gates and acceptance criteria for production use
• Evaluate behavior across languages and runtimes to ensure fidelity of converted systems

Technical Leadership & Enablement

• Lead architectural decisions and help teams converge quickly on effective solutions
• Balance tradeoffs between speed, cost, quality, and risk
• Help hire, mentor, and guide a small team of technical experts
• Enable adoption across Bentley through best practices, tooling, and education

What Success Looks Like

Within your first 6–12 months, you will:

• Deliver a scalable, repeatable AI‑based modernization platform used by multiple teams
• Successfully modernize representative legacy systems into cloud‑native architectures
• Define company‑wide standards for AI‑assisted code conversion
• Clearly establish where AI automation works—and where human expertise is essential

What We're Looking For

Required Experience

• Principal‑level experience leading complex technical initiatives
• Strong problem‑solving skills and experience working with large or legacy codebases
• Hands‑on experience with AI‑assisted development or LLM pipelines
• Proficiency with cloud platforms and modern service architectures
• Working knowledge of legacy languages (e.g., C, Fortran) and modern languages (e.g., Rust, .NET, TypeScript)
• Understanding of legacy and modern code patterns and how they translate across paradigms
• Familiarity with numerical precision considerations across runtimes
• Strong communication skills and ability to influence across teams

Nice to Have

• Scientific or engineering software experience (e.g., Finite Element Analysis)
• Compiler theory, AST‑level code analysis, or developer tooling
• Experience with Azure and/or GCP
• Containerization and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes, Istio)
• Application and cloud security practices
• Equivalence verification or validation techniques

 Note: Please attach your most recent CV. Due to the nature of the role, the CV must be written in English.

What We Offer:

• A great Team and culture – please see our colleague video. 
• An exciting career as an integral part of a world-leading software company providing solutions for architecture, engineering, and construction - watch this short documentary about how we got our start. 
• An attractive salary and benefits package. 
• A commitment to inclusion, belonging, and colleague well-being through global initiatives and resource groups. 
• A company committed to making a real difference by advancing the world's infrastructure for a better quality of life, where your contributions help build a more sustainable, connected, and resilient world. Discover our latest user success stories for an insight into our global impact. 
• Colleague Recognition Awards.

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About Bentley Systems

Around the world, infrastructure professionals rely on software from Bentley Systems to help them design, build, and operate better and more resilient infrastructure for transportation, water, energy, cities, and more. Founded in 1984 by engineers for engineers, Bentley is the partner of choice for engineering firms and owner-operators worldwide, with software that spans engineering disciplines, industry sectors, and all phases of the infrastructure lifecycle. Through our digital twin solutions, we help infrastructure professionals unlock the value of their data to transform project delivery and asset performance.  

Equal Opportunity Employer:

Bentley is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and considers for employment all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, gender/gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, marital status, religion/belief, national origin, caste, age, or any other characteristic protected by local law or unrelated to job qualifications.

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