Staff/Principal Software Engineer

The Opportunity

We are looking for a Staff or Principal Software Engineer with 8+ years of experience to own technical direction and drive the hardest engineering problems at the company, the AI-powered go-to-market platform trusted by 500K+ companies. You are someone who has built and operated large-scale distributed systems — not just built the tools, but used them to build products that serve hundreds of thousands of users. You float between high-priority projects, work hand-in-hand with VPs and C-suite engineering leaders, and are the go-to IC in the room. Whether your background is in core distributed systems or AI/agent-centric products, you'll shape the architecture of systems that power the company's AI-native rebuild.

What You'll Be Doing

• Own the architecture and technical direction for a significant area of the platform: either large-scale distributed systems or agent-centric AI products
• Lead the hardest technical problems, making key build/buy/cost tradeoffs that impact the entire engineering org
• Set standards and patterns that raise the bar across multiple teams, multiplying the output of engineers around you
• Partner with engineering and product leadership to align technical direction with business goals
• Leverage AI-assisted development as a first-class part of how you work: agents to move faster on design, investigation, and implementation

Why This Role

• Profitable, At Scale, Rebuilding Around AI: 500K+ companies, 210M contacts, 35M company records, $250M+ raised — and the entire product is being rebuilt AI-native. Rare combination of scale and 0→1 architecture work.
• Go-To IC in the Room: Staff/Principal engineers float across the highest-priority problems, partner directly with VPs and the C-suite, and set standards that multiply every team around them.
• Top-of-Market Comp: $217–274K (Staff) / $274–410K (Principal) base, +15% bonus and competitive equity for engineers who sit in the top 10% at their level.
• Two Tracks, One Bar: Core large-scale distributed/OLTP data systems (Track A) or agent-centric LLM products (Track B) — either way you own architecture for a major platform area and make build/buy/cost calls for the whole org.

Key Requirements

• Startups, AI native companies, or early founding engineering experience (need at least one startup if coming from big tech)
• Clear upward trajectory in scope (not plateaued at senior)
• System design for large-scale data and distributed systems
• Based in SF Bay Area; hybrid 3 days/week in office
• 8 - 15 years of experience in backend/full-stack engineering, building large-scale distributed systems
• Owned and operated large-scale distributed systems (100K+ users)
• Currently at a reputable, high-growth company (strong database background or has built LLM-based systems). A former data engineer branching out is a strong archetype.

Nice to Have

• Top CS school (this matters less if 5+ years of strong work experience)
• Experience with Ruby/Rails, Python, MongoDB, or Elasticsearch
• Hands-on with AI-assisted development tools (Copilot, Cursor)

Interview Process

1. Recruiter Screen (30 minutes)
2. Hiring Manager Screen with Aniruddha (30 minutes) — Initial screening call.
3. Virtual Onsite (3 parts) (60 minutes each) — System Design; AI-Assisted Backend Coding; Behavioural & Product Thinking.
4. Debrief (30 minutes) — Wrap-up meet & greet with the CPO (majority in person in SF).

About the Company

• Space: AI, Marketing, Data
• At a glance: Team of about 250, founded 2015, $250M+ raised

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Application Questions

1. Why do you think they'd be a great fit?
2. Are you able to work in San Francisco, and come into the office 3 times per week?
3. Walk me through your last three roles: what was your scope in each, and what changed after each move?
4. How are you currently using AI-assisted development tools in your day-to-day work? Give a specific example of how it's changed how you ship.
5. Can the candidate be on-site? If not, is the candidate willing to relocate?