Principal Engineer: Platform & Architecture

Intellus Build • San Francisco, CA

3d • Hybrid

About The Position

Intellus Build is seeking a Principal Engineer: Platform & Architecture to join their founding team. This role involves architecting and building the foundation of their AI-native operating system, designed to transform the global construction industry. The company aims to create an 'Infrastructure of Truth' that connects construction data from the field to financial outcomes, moving beyond traditional methods like spreadsheets and WhatsApp. The ideal candidate will be a hands-on engineer who can set the technical direction, standards, and pace for the company, with a growth path to lead the engineering team as the company scales. The role emphasizes an async-first, remote-friendly, and zero-bureaucracy environment, focusing on shipping impactful code.

Requirements

• 4–7 years of experience building production systems (exceptional cases reviewed).
• Deep expertise in one area (frontend, backend, infra, or mobile) with capability across the full stack.
• A proactive mindset, willing to prototype and ship quickly when inspired by new ideas.
• Pragmatic approach with strong architectural opinions.
• Experience building systems used by 1,000+ users.

Nice To Haves

• Experience building AI/LLM applications that have been adopted by users.
• Experience building systems at scale at a top-tier tech company (e.g., FAANG, Stripe, Uber, Airbnb).
• Reviewable open-source contributions.
• Strong opinions about inefficiencies in the construction industry.

Responsibilities

• Design the entire technical architecture from scratch, ensuring scalability to millions of users.
• Build the core platform that other engineers will develop upon.
• Ship the first AI features to real construction sites and iterate based on field feedback.
• Set up CI/CD, monitoring, and infrastructure to support frequent deployments.
• Recruit and mentor future engineers, defining the engineering culture.
• Architect systems that can scale from single-site contractors to large portfolio operations.

Benefits

• Founding-team equity (2-4%)
• Base salary
• Hybrid or Remote-US work options
• Opportunity to define technical culture and role growth
• Work on AI that has a real-world impact (e.g., preventing accidents, saving lives)
• Work in a fast-growing vertical (AI infrastructure for construction)
• Part of a Stanford StartX company

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal
• Education Level: No Education Listed