Principal Engineer

Principal Software EngineerLocation: San Francisco, CAWork Style: HybridEmployment Type: Full-timeCompensation: $320,000 –$470,000 total cash compensationFocus: Distributed Systems, AI-Native Engineering, Platform Architecture, Technical StrategyAbout Our ClientOur client is a leading AI-powered go-to-market platform used by millions of users and more than 500,000 companies globally.Their platform helps sales, marketing, and revenue teams find prospects, engage customers, and convert opportunities into revenue. The company combines one of the largest B2B contact and company databases in the market with an AI-native platform built to help revenue teams operate with more intelligence, automation, and efficiency.Our client is profitable, growing quickly, and rebuilding its product around AI and agents. This is an opportunity to join a high-performing engineering organization at a defining moment in the company's technical evolution.About the RoleOur client is hiring a Principal Software Engineer to set technical direction across the engineering 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.What You'll DoOwn technical direction for the company's most critical and ambiguous engineering problemsMake long-term architectural decisions across product, platform, distributed systems, and AI-native infrastructureSet technical strategy for rebuilding the platform around AI and agentsTranslate high-level technical strategy into direction that engineering teams can executeRaise the engineering bar through standards, patterns, architecture reviews, and technical decision-makingMentor and multiply the impact of senior engineers across the organizationPartner with engineering and product leadership as a peer on long-term technical directionUse AI-assisted development and agents to move faster across design, investigation, and implementationDefine practices that help other engineers adopt AI-native engineering workflowsIdentify opportunities where AI can reshape not just how fast the team ships, but how the product itself is builtWhat We're Looking ForProven track record setting technical direction across an engineering organizationExperience shaping product or platform architecture across multiple teamsDeep expertise in distributed systems, architecture, reliability, scale, and cost tradeoffsStrong judgment in ambiguous, high-stakes technical environmentsAbility to align teams and senior technical leaders around complex architectural decisionsExperience multiplying the output of senior engineers through design, review, mentorship, and technical leadershipGenuine, current fluency with AI-assisted development tools and agentic engineering workflowsClear point of view on how AI will change engineering, product development, and platform architectureStrong communication skills with the ability to influence engineering, product, and executive stakeholdersAbility to operate at both strategic and technical levels without losing connection to executionTechnical EnvironmentRelevant technologies include:ReactRuby and Ruby on RailsPythonMongoDBElasticsearchKubernetesDockerTerraformGCPAI-assisted development toolsAgentic engineering workflowsExperience with every tool is not required. Our client cares more about architectural judgment, technical depth, and the ability to lead through complex systems decisions.Why This OpportunityOwn company-defining technical bets at a profitable, fast-growing SaaS companyHelp rebuild a major go-to-market platform around AI and agentsWork as a peer to engineering and product leadershipInfluence architecture, engineering standards, and technical direction across the organizationBuild systems used by millions of users and hundreds of thousands of companiesHelp define what AI-native engineering looks like at organizational scaleStep into a Principal-level role with broad scope, high visibility, and long-term technical impactCompensation & BenefitsSan Francisco total cash compensation range: $315,300–$472,900Equity eligibilityCompany bonus or applicable incentive compensation401(k)Paid holidaysFlexible PTOParental leaveEmployee assistance and wellbeing benefitsGlobal travel coverageLife, AD&D, STD, and LTD insuranceFSA/HSA optionsMedical, dental, and vision benefitsIdeal Candidate ProfileThe ideal candidate is a true Principal-level engineer who has shaped technical direction across an engineering organization, not just within a single team.They have deep distributed systems expertise, strong architectural judgment, and the ability to influence senior engineers and leaders through clarity, credibility, and technical depth.This person is AI-native in how they work, excited by agentic engineering, and ready to help define the long-term technical foundation of a major revenue technology platform.