Senior Principal Engineer

Job description

About the Role

We are looking for a Senior Principal Engineer who will define the architectural vision and lead technical execution across our engineering organization. This role is ideal for a seasoned technologist who has designed, implemented, and scaled complex systems; collaborated deeply with cross-functional stakeholders; and delivered high-impact projects — including Generative AI initiatives built using open-source LLM models.

As a senior-most individual contributor, you’ll operate as a hands-on technical leader — setting the company’s technical direction, mentoring engineers across teams, and developing high-quality, production-grade code. You’ll act as a multiplier by pairing deep technical expertise with strong cross-functional

Key Responsibilities

  • Architectural Leadership: Define and evolve the company’s long-term architectural vision. Provide technical direction that balances innovation, scalability, and maintainability.
  • System Design and Scalability: Design, implement, and scale distributed systems and core services to handle growth in data, users, and features.
  • Cross-Team Collaboration: Partner with Product, Engineering and business teams to align technical roadmaps with business objectives. Act as a trusted advisor to Engineering Managers and Staff Engineers.
  • Generative AI Initiatives: Lead or contribute to projects leveraging open-source LLMs (e.g., Llama, Mistral, Falcon, or similar): own model integration, fine-tuning, and scalable deployment pipelines.
  • Technical Excellence: Establish best practices for architecture reviews, design documentation, and system observability to ensure optimal performance and reliability. Drive adoption of modern development frameworks and standards.
  • Hands-on Development: Write clean, efficient, and well-tested code. Contribute directly to core systems and frameworks that enable teams to move faster and deliver higher-quality software.
  • Mentorship & Influence: Coach senior engineers and influence decision-making across teams through technical reviews, design sessions, and hands-on prototyping.
  • Execution and Delivery: Work closely with leadership and stakeholders to turn complex ideas into reliable, production-ready systems that deliver measurable business impact.

Qualifications

  • 12+ years of experience in software engineering, with at least 4+ years in principal or staff-plus roles.

  • Proven track record designing, implementing, and scaling distributed systems or platforms.

  • Experience driving architectural initiatives across multiple teams and domains.

  • Deep understanding of backend architectures, data modeling, and system reliability patterns.

  • Demonstrated success in delivering GenAI or ML-driven applications using open-source LLMs and cloud-native infrastructure.

  • Strong communication skills and the ability to influence technical and non-technical stakeholders.

  • Passion for mentorship, technical leadership, and hands-on coding.

  • Bonus Qualifications

  • ● Experience with multi-tenant SaaS architecture and microservices at scale.

  • ● Familiarity with vector databases, prompt engineering, and AI orchestration frameworks

  • (LangChain, LlamaIndex, etc.).

  • ● Prior experience in shaping technical strategy within high-growth startups or enterprise

  • environments.

Bonus Qualifications

  • Experience with multi-tenant SaaS architecture and microservices at scale.
  • Familiarity with vector databases, prompt engineering, and AI orchestration frameworks (LangChain, LlamaIndex, etc.).
  • Prior experience in shaping technical strategy within high-growth startups or enterprise environments.

What Success Looks Like

  • You’ve defined and evangelized a cohesive architectural roadmap adopted across teams.
  • You’ve guided at least one major Generative AI initiative from prototype to production.
  • You’re a sought-after mentor and thought leader within the engineering organization.
  • Systems you design are measurable in their scalability, reliability, and developer productivity gains.
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