> Markdown version of [/jobs/ext/4641195-staff-principal-software-engineer](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/jobs/ext/4641195-staff-principal-software-engineer). Every page supports `.md` or `Accept: text/markdown`. Links point to the HTML versions so they work for humans too. Agent guide: [/agents.md](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/agents.md). --- # Staff/Principal Software Engineer - **Company:** Recruiting from Scratch - **Location:** San Francisco, CA, United States (Remote available) - **Experience:** Expert - **Salary:** $217,000.0 - **Contract:** Permanent contract - **Skills:** Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), Artificial Intelligence, Computing Platforms, Big Data, Mobile Application Development, Software as a Service, Databases, Software Debugging, Distributed Data Store, Distributed Systems, Elasticsearch, MongoDB, Search Technologies, Software Engineering, Cloud Platform System, Reliability of Systems, Backend, Agentic-AI, Containerization, Kubernetes, Information Technology, Codebase, Terraform, Docker - **Published:** November 8, 2026 - **Apply:** https://www.careerbuilder.com/job-details/staff-principal-software-engineer-san-francisco-ca--94c92905-0a81-4e60-bb12-534e9f7832ea ## About the Role Software Engineering, Software Engineering, Software as a Service (SaaS), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Sales, Marketing, Sales Closing Skills, Sales Prospecting, Business-to-Business (B2B), Artificial Intelligence (AI) Agents, * 8+ years of experience in backend or full-stack software engineering * Experience building and operating large-scale distributed systems * Experience designing systems that serve hundreds of thousands or millions of users * Strong experience owning production systems end-to-end * Experience working on complex, high-scale software platforms * Experience solving difficult architecture, scalability, reliability, or performance problems * Experience operating as a senior technical individual contributor * Experience influencing engineering direction across multiple teams * Experience partnering with senior engineering and product leadership * Experience working in high-bar engineering organizations * Strong track record of technical ownership and execution * Experience making architecture and infrastructure tradeoffs independently * Experience working on technically complex products with significant scale * Strong ability to operate across multiple high-priority engineering initiatives * Experience mentoring and raising the technical capabilities of other engineers * Strong product and business awareness * Ability to operate autonomously with limited direction * Experience working in fast-moving, high-growth technology companies Technical Requirements * Strong backend software engineering fundamentals * Strong experience designing distributed systems * Experience with large-scale production systems * Strong system design and architecture capabilities * Experience with scalability, reliability, and performance engineering * Experience with production infrastructure and cloud environments * Strong understanding of databases and data-intensive systems * Experience with APIs and backend services * Experience with search or large-scale data systems preferred * Experience with AI/ML or agent-centric systems preferred * Experience building AI-powered products preferred * Experience with AI-assisted development workflows * Ability to evaluate technical architecture and infrastructure tradeoffs * Strong understanding of system reliability and operational excellence * Experience with containerization and orchestration technologies * Experience with Kubernetes and Docker preferred * Experience with cloud platforms such as GCP preferred * Experience with infrastructure-as-code such as Terraform preferred * Experience with Elasticsearch or comparable search technologies preferred * Experience with MongoDB or other distributed databases preferred * Strong coding and debugging skills * Ability to work across unfamiliar systems and codebases * Ability to quickly understand complex technical architectures * Ability to make pragmatic build-versus-buy decisions * Ability to balance engineering quality, speed, cost, and scalability * Strong understanding of software development lifecycle and production operations * Ability to use modern AI coding tools and agents effectively, * Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related technical field preferred * Strong technical education preferred * Equivalent practical software engineering experience accepted Soft Skills * Exceptional technical ownership * Strong architectural and engineering judgment * High intellectual curiosity * Ability to solve highly ambiguous technical problems * Strong written and verbal communication * Ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly * Strong cross-functional collaboration skills * Comfortable working with VPs and C-suite engineering leaders * Strong ability to influence without formal authority * High technical standards * Product-minded engineering approach * Strong business judgment * Ability to make difficult technical tradeoffs * Comfortable operating with significant autonomy * Strong mentoring and technical leadership ability * Low-ego collaboration style * Strong bias toward action and execution * Comfortable moving between different technical problems and projects * Strong accountability for production outcomes * Passion for building systems at significant scale * Comfortable in high-bar engineering environments * Excited about AI-native development and agentic engineering workflows * Strong continuous-learning mindset * Comfortable experimenting with new technologies * Strong ability to operate in fast-moving environments * Comfortable working onsite in San Francisco 3 days/week ## Description As a Staff or Principal Software Engineer, you'll operate as a high-leverage individual contributor responsible for technical direction, architecture, and some of the hardest engineering problems across the organization. This is an opportunity for a senior technical leader who has built and operated large-scale distributed systems and can move between high-priority projects while influencing engineering teams, product leadership, and executive stakeholders. What You'll Do * Own the architecture and technical direction for significant areas of the platform * Lead the design and development of large-scale distributed systems * Work on agent-centric AI products and AI-native product architecture * Solve the most technically complex engineering problems across the organization * Make critical build-versus-buy, architecture, infrastructure, and cost tradeoffs * Design systems capable of serving hundreds of thousands of users at scale * Drive technical strategy across multiple engineering teams * Establish engineering standards, patterns, and best practices * Raise the technical bar across the engineering organization * Multiply the output and effectiveness of engineers around you * Partner closely with engineering leadership on technical direction * Collaborate with product leadership to align technical architecture with business goals * Work closely with VPs and C-suite engineering leaders on high-priority initiatives * Own systems end-to-end from design through production deployment and operation * Diagnose and solve complex scalability, reliability, and performance challenges * Contribute directly to architecture and implementation of critical systems * Move between high-priority technical projects based on organizational needs * Evaluate emerging technologies and determine where they can provide meaningful leverage * Use AI-assisted development as a first-class part of the engineering workflow * Leverage AI agents to accelerate design, investigation, debugging, and implementation * Help drive the company's broader transition toward AI-native engineering workflows * Build highly reliable and scalable backend systems * Contribute to distributed systems, search, data, infrastructure, or AI/agent-centric initiatives * Work across teams to solve cross-cutting engineering challenges * Operate with extreme ownership over correctness, performance, reliability, and technical outcomes * Make independent technical decisions in a fast-moving engineering organization * Mentor and influence engineers through technical leadership rather than formal management * Help shape the long-term architecture and engineering direction of the company