Principal Software Engineer

About UsAt RADAR, we're transforming the way the world thinks about physical retail. RADAR has raised over $104M from top investors, retailers, and strategics and works with some of the world's retail brands including American Eagle and Gap. We’re building the future of in-store experience where every product and every person can be precisely located in real time.Our platform combines RFID and AI to unlock hyper-accurate product visibility and automation at scale. From real-time inventory tracking to seamless checkout experiences, our technology empowers some of the world’s largest retailers to streamline operations, reduce loss, and elevate both employee and customer experiences.We’re a fast-growing, mission-driven startup where bold ideas, collaboration, and impact are at the core of everything we do. Join us as we reshape the physical world with digital precision, starting with retail and expanding far beyond!OUR VALUESMission-Driven: We're transforming retail with cutting-edge technology and building something that truly matters.Collaborative Team: We thrive on curiosity, shared goals, and solving complex problems together.High Impact: You’ll make meaningful contributions from day one and help shape the future of our product and company.Clear Communication: We value honesty, humility, and respectful dialogue—everyone’s voice matters.Balanced Lives: We work hard, but not at the expense of well-being. We respect time, boundaries, and life outside of work.Diverse Perspectives: We believe better ideas come from diverse backgrounds, experiences, and viewpoints.Empathy-Driven Design: We build with deep respect for our end users, listening closely to their feedback and needs.About The JobWe are seeking an experienced Test and Quality Engineering Lead to drive our quality culture and testing infrastructure across the organization. This is a high-impact individual contributor role focused on shaping how engineering teams think about quality, building scalable test infrastructure, and establishing practices that ensure reliability at massive scale. You'll work across a complex distributed system processing over 100 billion events per day spanning cloud, edge compute, and mobile devices.This is an engineering leadership position without management responsibilities. You'll influence through expertise, coaching, and technical excellence by helping teams across the organization build quality into their development processes rather than testing it afterward. Your success will be measured by the growth and maturity of quality practices across engineering teams, not by how much you personally test.ResponsibilitiesDrive and shape a culture of quality and testing across engineering teams through coaching and technical leadershipDesign and build scalable test infrastructure for systems processing 100+ billion events per dayCoach teams to design for testability and observability from the beginningDevelop testing frameworks, tooling, and automated pipelines that engineers can easily adoptParticipate in design reviews with focus on testability and observabilityBuild comprehensive test reporting and analytics to provide visibility into quality metricsDefine quality KPIs and metrics that drive meaningful improvements across the organizationRequiredABOUT YOUYou have 7+ years of experience in software engineering with significant focus on testing and qualityYou have proven experience building test infrastructure and frameworks for large-scale distributed systemsYou have a strong background in testing systems that process massive data volumes (billions+ of events)You have demonstrated ability to influence engineering culture and drive organizational change without formal authorityYou have deep understanding of testing methodologies including unit, integration, end-to-end, performance, and chaos testingYou have experience coaching and mentoring engineers on testing and quality practicesYou have strong understanding of software design principles and how they impact testabilityYou have excellent communication skills with ability to advocate for quality at all levels of the organizationPreferredYou have experience with Java-based systems and testing frameworks (JUnit, Mockito)You have hands-on experience with GCP services and architectureYou have experience testing edge computing systems and mobile applicationsYou are familiar with CI/CD tools (GitHub Actions or similar)You have experience with performance testing tools and methodologies at scaleYou have background in chaos engineering and resilience testingYou have experience with observability and monitoring tools (Prometheus, Grafana, New Relic, or similar)You have strong understanding of dependency injection, mocking, and test isolation patternsYou have experience in high-growth or scaling engineering organizationsWhat You'll DoIn your first 30 days, you will:Learn the company's mission, technology stack, and core valuesComplete onboarding and security compliance trainingUnderstand current testing practices, tools, and infrastructure across engineering teamsMeet with engineering teams to learn about their quality challenges and pain pointsAudit existing test coverage, quality metrics, and testing infrastructureAssess current design patterns and their impact on testability and observabilityIdentify quick wins where improved testing would have immediate impactIn Your First 60 Days, You WillDeliver initial improvements to test infrastructure or tooling that teams can immediately useDevelop and propose comprehensive testing strategy aligned with organizational needsBegin coaching sessions with teams on testing best practices and design for testabilityImplement quality metrics and reporting dashboards for visibilityLaunch pilot initiatives with 1-2 teams to demonstrate new testing approachesParticipate in design reviews with focus on testability and observabilityIn Your First 90 Days, You WillDemonstrate measurable improvements in quality metrics or testing maturity for pilot teamsPresent comprehensive roadmap for quality infrastructure and organizational capability buildingEstablish testing standards and frameworks that teams begin adoptingOwn end-to-end delivery of at least one major test infrastructure improvementShow evidence that teams are changing how they think about and approach testingEstablish yourself as the go-to technical leader for quality and testingAt RADAR, your base pay is one part of your total compensation package. The expected base salary range for this position is $175,000 - $220,000. Individual pay is determined by work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience and relevant education or training.You will also be eligible to receive other benefits including: equity, comprehensive medical and dental coverage, life and disability benefits, 401k plan, flexible time off, and paid parental leave. The pay range listed for this position is a good faith and reasonable estimate of the range of possible base compensation at the time of posting. Research has shown that women & underrepresented minorities are more likely to read lists of requirements and consider themselves unqualified if they don't meet every single one. This list represents what we're ideally looking for, but everyone has unique strengths & weaknesses, and we hire for strength & potential, not lack of weakness.Use of artificial intelligence or a LLM such as ChatGPT during the interview process will be grounds for rejection of your application process.