Principal Software Engineer

We're working with a mission-driven SaaS company building a real-time, AI-powered platform that replaces legacy email workflows used by public safety agencies in the US who are looking for a Principal Python Engineer.

The Role

- Take technical ownership of backend systems and help shape engineering culture across the organization.

- This is a hands-on role with organizational scope, suitable for someone who wants to build and scale real-world systems while investing in the people around them.

- Set architectural direction, mentor engineers at all levels, and collaborate with cross-functional leadership to move fast without breaking things.

Responsibilities

- Architect & Build: Own the end-to-end design and development of scalable, production-grade backend services and APIs.

- Set the Standard: Define and enforce engineering best practices, coding standards, and architectural patterns.

- Lead & Mentor: Conduct code reviews, provide technical guidance, and foster a culture of craft and continuous improvement.

- Own the Platform: Evolve infrastructure for reliability, performance, scalability, observability, fault tolerance, and security.

- Collaborate Cross-Functionally: Partner with product, design, and executive leadership to translate business objectives into technical strategy.

- Deploy & Operate (Bonus): Experience with CI/CD pipelines and cloud infrastructure is a plus, but not a core requirement.

Qualifications

- 10+ years of backend development experience, including senior, staff, or principal-level roles.

- Deep expertise in backend systems design and distributed systems with a track record of owning complex production infrastructure.

- Architect & Build: Lead development of scalable backend services using Python, FastAPI, PostgreSQL, and OpenSearch.

- Proven experience designing and building backend APIs for SaaS products, including multi-tenancy, authentication, versioning, and developer experience.

- Strong proficiency in SQL and experience designing for security, fault tolerance, and observability.

- Experience setting technical direction at an organizational level, not just within a single team.

- Strong communication skills and the ability to make technical trade-offs legible to non-technical stakeholders.

- Prior startup or mission-critical environment experience strongly preferred.

- Bonus: Hands-on experience with CI/CD pipelines and cloud infrastructure (e.g., AWS) at scale.

Why join

- If you’re looking to lead meaningful technical work on a platform used by real-world operators, we’d love to talk. 🚀