Principal Engineer (AI & Data Systems)

We are seeking a Principal Engineer to join a well-funded, early-stage technology startup. This is a ground-floor opportunity to become a core member of a lean, high-caliber engineering team helping build foundational software, data, and platform capabilities from the ground up.

The ideal candidate enjoys solving complex technical problems, working across multiple domains, and operating in high-ownership environments where individual contributions have a meaningful impact on product and technical direction.

Responsibilities

• Build and optimize core backend systems that orchestrate complex workflows and automation at scale
• Design and implement high-throughput data pipelines capable of processing real-time and large-scale datasets
• Partner across engineering and product teams to build and deploy infrastructure supporting LLM-based and reasoning-driven systems
• Contribute to core platform architecture, development tooling, and engineering best practices in a rapidly evolving stack

Requirements

• Strong academic background in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or a related quantitative field (Master’s or PhD preferred)
• Strong production-grade Python engineering skills (experience with Java, Scala, or C++ is a plus)
• Experience building scalable backend systems, distributed data pipelines (e.g., Spark, Kafka), or ML infrastructure/MLOps systems
• Strong system design skills with an emphasis on performance, reliability, and long-term scalability
• Comfort operating in early-stage environments with ambiguity, high ownership, and evolving requirements

• Comp + Benefits
• Competitive base salary: $175K – $225K (commensurate with experience)
• Meaningful early-stage equity in a well-capitalized, high-growth startup
• Comprehensive benefits including medical, dental, vision, and 401(k)