Principal Architect, AI-Native Developer Experience

BambooHR • Arizona | Remote, SC

1d • Remote

About The Position

The Principal Architect for AI-Native Developer Experience will lead the architecture for how BambooHR engineers and AI agents build software together. This hands-on role spans the tools and context agents use through the pipelines that validate their work. The position defines the technical vision, reference architecture, and roadmap for AI-native development, experiments with emerging models and developer tools, and turns successful approaches into supported engineering practices.

The architect will establish agentic engineering practices, automate parts of the software development lifecycle, build engineering and product knowledge layers, and help teams make their domains agent-ready. The role also redesigns CI/CD and the core developer experience for agent-authored changes, while partnering with Security, Privacy, and Quality Engineering to ensure appropriate permissions, safeguards, auditability, cost, and quality. The architect contributes production code and reference implementations, works with architects and staff engineers across domains, and mentors engineers. This is a remote position available in the states listed on the job posting. Employment is contingent on passing background and credit checks.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• At least 10 years of software engineering experience, including at least 7 years in software architecture or staff-plus technical leadership.
• Daily, hands-on use of AI coding agents and a track record of turning that experience into practices or tools adopted by other engineers.
• Experience building production LLM systems, including tool calling, agent orchestration, context engineering, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and evaluations.
• Deep experience designing CI/CD, build systems, and developer platforms at scale.
• Strong SaaS architecture fundamentals and fluency in PHP, React, and MySQL.
• Working knowledge of the OWASP Top 10, including for LLM applications, and supply chain security.
• Record of influencing architects and senior engineers without direct authority.
• Sound judgment in ambiguous problem spaces and exceptional communication skills, including the ability to give and receive direct feedback.

Nice To Haves

• Experience building agent tooling, MCP servers, or open-source developer tools.
• Experience leading AI adoption or productivity change across a large engineering organization.
• Experience building systems that handle sensitive data in regulated SaaS environments, such as HR, payroll, or SOC 2.

Responsibilities

• Define the technical vision, reference architecture, incremental roadmap, and architecture decision records for AI-native development.
• Track emerging models, agents, and developer tools; run time-boxed experiments and proofs of concept; establish successful approaches as supported patterns and retire ineffective ones.
• Define and promote practices for working with coding agents, including spec-driven development, context engineering, and review of agent-generated code.
• Build a shared library of agent skills, tools, and MCP servers, and promote practices through demos, playbooks, and communities of practice.
• Architect agentic workflows across software development, from triage through implementation, review, testing, and remediation, with risk-based autonomy levels, human-in-the-loop guardrails, and evaluations.
• Build engineering and product knowledge layers for agents and engineers, including code intelligence, service catalogs, architecture records, domain models, and business rules.
• Define standards for agent-ready domains, including clear boundaries, documented APIs, agent-callable tools, fast tests, and ephemeral environments, and help teams address gaps.
• Redesign CI/CD for agent-authored changes, including intelligent test selection, merge queues, automated quality and security gates, and progressive delivery.
• Modernize development environments, onboarding, documentation, and the internal developer portal for engineers and agents, and measure developer experience and productivity to guide investment.
• Partner with Security, Privacy, and Quality Engineering on agent permissions, sandboxing, and audit trails; track AI cost and quality.
• Write production code and reference implementations, partner with architects and staff engineers across domains to set direction and deliver changes, and mentor engineers in agentic skills.

Benefits

• Comprehensive health, life, and disability insurance.
• Generous leave policies, including four weeks of vacation, 12 company holidays, parental leave, and volunteer time off.
• 401(k) plan with up to 6% company match.
• $2,000 Paid-Paid Vacation bonus.
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP) through Headspace.
• Professional development.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal