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Principal Software Engineering

Principal Software Engineering

CompanyDemandbase
LocationSan Francisco, CA, USA
Salary$204000 – $306000
TypeFull-Time
DegreesBachelor’s, Master’s
Experience LevelExpert or higher

Requirements

  • 10+ years of professional software engineering experience, with at least 2–3 years in a Staff Engineer or Principal Engineer role.
  • Demonstrated success leading delivery of distributed systems or cloud-native platforms.
  • Proficient in one or more modern backend languages (Java, Scala, Python preferred).
  • Experience with modern CI/CD pipelines, container orchestration (Kubernetes), and cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure).
  • Deep understanding of system design, architectural trade-offs, and performance tuning at scale.
  • Hands-on experience with AI-driven development tools and their integration into engineering workflows.
  • Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent real-world experience.

Responsibilities

  • Drive technical direction and architecture across projects involving scalable microservices, distributed systems, and modern data platforms.
  • Collaborate with product and engineering leadership to translate product vision into actionable technical roadmaps.
  • Stay hands-on by participating in technical design reviews, code reviews, architectural planning, and incident retrospectives.
  • Support engineering teams in delivering high-impact work while maintaining quality, security, and system resiliency.
  • Partner with Staff and other Principal Engineers to integrate generative and agentic AI capabilities into our platform to drive customer outcomes.
  • Champion modern engineering practices such as continuous delivery, test automation, observability, and cloud-native deployment.

Preferred Qualifications

  • A seasoned Staff+ engineer with a strong track record of delivering impactful software in complex technical environments.
  • Interest in leveraging AI and automation to improve developer experience and product capabilities.
  • Proven ability to drive large-scale technical initiatives with cross-functional alignment.
  • Strong communicator who can bridge technical and business priorities, and foster collaboration across teams.
  • A hands-on technical leader who is comfortable engaging in architecture discussions and digging into complex systems when needed.
  • Passion for helping engineers grow through mentorship, feedback, and clear goals.
  • Strong background in agile development methodologies (Scrum, Kanban, SAFe, etc.).