Principal Software Engineer, Enterprise AI Platform

GitHub, Inc.•UNAVAILABLE, UNAVAILABLE

13h•Remote

About The Position

We are looking for a Principal Software Engineer to define and build the foundational systems for GitHub’s Enterprise AI Platform. This role sits at the intersection of distributed systems, AI/agent platforms, developer tooling, identity, policy, and platform architecture. You will shape how AI agents operate safely and consistently across IDEs, CLI, MCP, long-running agents, and future Copilot experiences. This is a highly strategic, high-ambiguity role with broad technical influence across Copilot, platform infrastructure, client experiences, identity, billing, and enterprise products. You will define platform primitives that shape enterprise AI adoption across millions of developers and tens of thousands of organizations across GitHub’s ecosystem.

Requirements

11+ years experience in Software Engineering, Computer Science, or related technical discipline with proven experience maintaining and delivering production software coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Go, Ruby, Rust, or Python
OR Associate’s Degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Math, Physics, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field AND 10+ years experience in Software Engineering, Computer Science, or related technical discipline with proven experience maintaining and delivering production software coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Go, Ruby, Rust, or Python
OR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related field AND 9+ years experience in Software Engineering, Computer Science, or related technical discipline with proven experience maintaining and delivering production software coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Go, Ruby, Rust, or Python
OR Master's Degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Math, Physics, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field AND 7+ years experience in Software Engineering, Computer Science, or related technical discipline with proven experience maintaining and delivering production software coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Go, Ruby, Rust, or Python
OR PhD Degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Math, Physics, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field AND 5+ years experience in Software Engineering, Computer Science, or related technical discipline with proven experience maintaining and delivering production software coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Go, Ruby, Rust, or Python
OR equivalent experience.

Nice To Haves

Deep Distributed Systems Expertise: Deep experience building and operating large-scale distributed systems or platform infrastructure.
Platform & Systems Design: Strong expertise designing scalable systems across APIs, identity, policy engines, security, reliability, and infrastructure platforms.
AI / Platform Experience: Proven experience building platform infrastructure, developer platforms, AI systems, or large-scale technical platforms.
Cross-Organizational Technical Leadership: Demonstrated success driving architecture, platform adoption, and alignment across multiple teams.
Influence Without Authority: Strong track record of shaping technical direction and delivering outcomes across organizational boundaries.
Builder Mindset: Comfortable operating in ambiguity and fast-moving environments, creating clarity, and balancing long-term platform investments with pragmatic execution.
Background in AI/LLM systems, agentic platforms, developer tooling, governance systems, enterprise software, or cloud-native systems (Azure, Kubernetes, AKS) is a plus.

Responsibilities

Define Enterprise AI Control Plane Architecture: Drive the technical direction for a unified AI control plane spanning models, agents, tools, MCP, permissions, spend, plugins, and client settings with a vision of policy authored once, enforced consistently everywhere.
Build Foundational Platform Primitives: Architect scalable policy engines, governance SDKs, client-side enforcement frameworks, and extensible schemas for agentic workflows.
Drive Cross-Client Consistency: Partner across Copilot CLI, IDE, agent, and platform teams to standardize policy enforcement through reusable APIs, contracts, and SDK patterns.
Solve Hard Distributed Systems Problems at Scale: Design reliable, scalable, secure, and resilient systems for policy evaluation, spend enforcement, permissions, auditability, and observability supporting millions of developers.
Influence GitHub’s AI Platform Strategy: Partner with engineering and product leaders to shape the long-term enterprise AI roadmap, technical direction and cross-organizational alignment.
Raise the Engineering Bar: Mentor senior engineers and elevate architectural rigor, systems thinking, and technical execution across teams.