Principal Engineer

NxT Level•San Francisco, CA

5d•Hybrid

About The Position

Our client is hiring a Principal Software Engineer to set technical direction across the engineering organization. This is a senior individual contributor role for someone who can own the hardest, most ambiguous, and highest-stakes technical decisions across product, platform, infrastructure, and AI-native systems. This person will help shape the product for years to come, partner with engineering and product leadership, and serve as a force multiplier across multiple teams. The right candidate has the technical judgment, architecture depth, and influence to align senior engineers and leaders around company-defining technical bets.

Requirements

Proven track record setting technical direction across an engineering organization
Experience shaping product or platform architecture across multiple teams
Deep expertise in distributed systems, architecture, reliability, scale, and cost tradeoffs
Strong judgment in ambiguous, high-stakes technical environments
Ability to align teams and senior technical leaders around complex architectural decisions
Experience multiplying the output of senior engineers through design, review, mentorship, and technical leadership
Genuine, current fluency with AI-assisted development tools and agentic engineering workflows
Clear point of view on how AI will change engineering, product development, and platform architecture
Strong communication skills with the ability to influence engineering, product, and executive stakeholders
Ability to operate at both strategic and technical levels without losing connection to execution

Nice To Haves

Experience with every tool is not required. Our client cares more about architectural judgment, technical depth, and the ability to lead through complex systems decisions.

Responsibilities

Own technical direction for the company’s most critical and ambiguous engineering problems
Make long-term architectural decisions across product, platform, distributed systems, and AI-native infrastructure
Set technical strategy for rebuilding the platform around AI and agents
Translate high-level technical strategy into direction that engineering teams can execute
Raise the engineering bar through standards, patterns, architecture reviews, and technical decision-making
Mentor and multiply the impact of senior engineers across the organization
Partner with engineering and product leadership as a peer on long-term technical direction
Use AI-assisted development and agents to move faster across design, investigation, and implementation
Define practices that help other engineers adopt AI-native engineering workflows
Identify opportunities where AI can reshape not just how fast the team ships, but how the product itself is built