Senior Principal Software Development Engineer

Zillow

159d • $220,200 - $351,800

About The Position

As a Senior Principal Engineer in Zillow’s Industry Software organization, you will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of software for real estate professionals. Reporting directly to the VP of Engineering, you will drive architectural coherence across teams, set the long-term technical vision, and ensure engineering strategy aligns with business priorities. Your impact will extend beyond technology, influencing how we serve agents, brokers, and MLSs with innovative, scalable tools, and shaping the culture and operating rhythm of our teams. This is a hands-on leadership role where you will earn trust through technical depth, clear communication, and collaborative decision-making.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience building and shipping production-grade software or services.
• Skilled in distributed systems, SaaS platforms, and B2B systems.
• Experienced in setting architecture strategy for organizations and shifting technical momentum as needed.
• Comfortable navigating ambiguity and breaking down complex problems into clear, actionable steps.
• A trusted cross-functional partner who builds strong relationships across Product, Design, BizOps, and Marketing.
• An exceptional communicator, fluent in code reviews, design docs, executive briefings, and cross-org alignment.
• Passionate about mentoring and growing technical leaders, amplifying the impact of others.
• Experience with enterprise monetization platforms is a plus (billing, payments, subscriptions, entitlements, usage metering).
• Deep expertise in microservice design, event-driven and stream processing platforms (e.g., Kafka, Flink, Spark), and data-centric architectures.

Responsibilities

• Set technical vision and strategy across Industry Software, ensuring architectures align with business goals and organizational scalability.
• Balance architecture with execution by engaging in code reviews, prototypes, and system-wide strategy.
• Rapidly build domain expertise in real estate professional workflows to connect technical decisions to customer needs.
• Leverage experience scaling B2B/SaaS platforms to introduce fresh patterns and systems thinking.
• Drive innovation by anticipating technology and business trends, translating foresight into product and platform improvements.
• Influence through code and communication, guiding teams on when to simplify, invest, or create leverage.
• Partner closely with Product, Design, Data, and Marketing to ensure technical decisions strengthen business outcomes.
• Mentor senior engineers and technical leaders, fostering growth and amplifying team impact.

Benefits

• Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, life, and disability coverages.
• Parental leave and family benefits.
• Retirement contributions.
• Paid time off.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Number of Employees: 251-500 employees