Senior Principal Software Engineer

The Opportunity

We are seeking a Principal Software Engineer to provide technical leadership across our platform and drive architectural excellence throughout the software development lifecycle. This role serves as a senior technical authority responsible for the design, scalability, reliability, and maintainability of our end-to-end systems. The ideal candidate brings deep expertise in both frontend and backend development, exceptional problem-solving abilities, and a passion for mentoring engineers while influencing technical direction across the organization. As a Principal Engineer, you will partner closely with Engineering, Product, Architecture, and Leadership teams to make critical technical decisions, establish engineering best practices, and ensure the long-term health and evolution of our codebase.

 

Responsibilities

Technical Leadership & Architecture

• Own and influence the architectural direction of the platform across frontend, backend, integrations, and supporting services.
• Design scalable, maintainable, and resilient solutions that align with business objectives and technical strategy.
• Evaluate architectural tradeoffs and make informed, decisive recommendations.
• Establish and promote engineering standards, design patterns, and development best practices.
• Drive technical consistency and quality across multiple teams and services.
• Lead technical design reviews and provide guidance on complex engineering initiatives.

Software Development

• Contribute hands-on to the development of high-quality software across the full technology stack.
• Design and implement solutions that prioritize performance, reliability, security, and maintainability.
• Collaborate with engineers to solve complex technical challenges and unblock critical initiatives.
• Review code and system designs to ensure adherence to engineering standards and architectural principles.
• Champion continuous improvement of development processes, tooling, and operational excellence.

Debugging & Problem Resolution

• Lead investigation and resolution of complex production issues and system failures.
• Demonstrate exceptional debugging and root cause analysis capabilities across distributed systems and application layers.
• Identify systemic issues and implement long-term solutions that prevent recurrence.
• Drive post-incident reviews and foster a culture of learning and operational excellence.

Mentorship & Influence

• Serve as a mentor and technical coach for Senior Engineers and other technical leaders.
• Help develop engineering talent through knowledge sharing, technical guidance, and constructive feedback.
• Raise the technical capabilities of the organization by promoting best practices and engineering excellence.
• Influence technical decision-making through strong communication, collaboration, and credibility.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner with Product Management, Engineering Leadership, and other stakeholders to align technical solutions with business needs.
• Communicate complex technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Build consensus among teams while maintaining the ability to make and advocate for difficult technical decisions when necessary.
• Drive alignment across multiple engineering teams on architecture, priorities, and execution strategies.

 

Minimum Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• Extensive experience developing and maintaining both frontend and backend applications in production environments.
• Proven experience designing and architecting large-scale, distributed, cloud-based systems.
• Demonstrated expertise in software design, system architecture, and engineering best practices.
• Exceptional debugging, troubleshooting, and root cause analysis skills.
• Experience leading complex technical initiatives that span multiple teams and systems.
• Extensive mentoring and coaching experience, particularly with Senior Engineers and technical leaders.
• Ability to influence technical direction through collaboration, expertise, and sound judgment.

Key Competencies:

• Technical Excellence: Implementing expertise across frontend, backend, architecture, and system design.
• Architectural Thinking: Seeing the broader technical landscape and making sound long-term decisions.
• Problem Solving:  Focusing on identifying root causes and implementing durable solutions.
• Mentorship: Developing and elevating other engineers.
• Communication: Clearly articulating technical concepts, risks, and recommendations.
• Inquisitiveness: Continuously seeks to understand systems, challenge assumptions, and improve outcomes.
• Decisiveness: Makes thoughtful decisions with confidence, even in ambiguous situations.
• Influence: Builds alignment and drives change without relying on organizational authority.

 

Desired Qualifications

• Experience in high-growth SaaS or enterprise software environments.
• Expertise with cloud-native architectures and modern development practices.
• Experience driving platform modernization, scalability, and reliability initiatives.
• Mastery-level understanding of observability, performance optimization, and operational excellence.
• Experience establishing engineering standards, frameworks, and technical governance processes.
• Demonstrated ability to balance short-term business needs with long-term technical strategy.

 

What Success Looks Like in This Role

A successful Principal Software Engineer is recognized as a trusted technical leader who consistently improves the quality, scalability, and reliability of the platform while elevating the engineers around them. They are the person others seek out for the most complex technical challenges, architectural decisions, and root cause investigations, and they leave the organization stronger through both their technical contributions and mentorship.

 

Annual US Hiring Range: $180,000 - $210,000

 

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