Principal Engineer

About this opportunity

Seed–Series C startups that need senior IC firepower for hard technical problems — system design, scaling, platform decisions — without the people-management overhead of a CTO. You'll be the most senior person in the room without owning the org chart.

Hands-on contributor: ship code, set patterns, raise the team's bar. Mentor 2–3 engineers and unblock the in-house tech lead.

Core responsibilities

• Lead architecture and design reviews on the highest-risk parts of the platform
• Hands-on contributor — ship code, set patterns, raise the team's bar
• Mentor 2–3 engineers and unblock the in-house tech lead
• Sit in on hiring loops for senior engineering hires
• Drive specific tech-debt or scaling initiatives end-to-end

Required qualifications

• 10+ years engineering experience; 4+ at Staff / Principal level
• Deep in one stack (AI/ML infra, distributed systems, mobile, security)
• Track record of mentoring teams from 5 → 20+ engineers
• Comfortable being the most senior person in the room without owning the org chart

Nice to have

Not required — but will strengthen your match quality.

• Open-source contributions or public technical writing
• Experience as a Staff or Principal Engineer at a top-tier tech company
• Prior fractional or advisory engineering role

Application process

1. 01Submit your application — 10 minutes
2. 02Technical interview + system design discussion with two senior engineers
3. 03Profile activated
4. 04Intro call with matched founder, kick-off within 2 weeks