Principal Software Engineer
•Skimmer· 1d
💻 Engineering⏰ Full-time🎯 Lead / Principal🇺🇸 USA
1d ago
Actian·11 days ago
We are looking for a highly technical, hands-on Tech Lead to guide a small feature team of 3 to 4 engineers. We are not looking for an administrative manager who just sits in meetings and assigns tasks; we want a builder.
In this role, you will lead by doing. You will write exceptional code, architect robust backend systems, and guide your team by example. We love engineers who truly "feel" the product—people who understand the business goals, care deeply about the user experience, and proactively do whatever it takes to ship a great product. You will own the technical execution of your team using a modern stack focused on SaaS backend architectures, Scala, Python, and TypeScript. Crucially, you are a modern developer who knows how to leverage AI coding agents to multiply your team's output without compromising on quality.
Hands-on Coding & Execution: Spend a significant amount of your time writing high-quality backend code, taking on the most complex technical challenges yourself.
Technical Stack Mastery: Guide the technical direction of your team using Scala and Python for robust backend data systems, and TypeScript for full-stack feature delivery.
AI-Driven Velocity: Actively use and advocate for AI coding agents (like GitHub Copilot, Cursor, or similar tools) within your daily workflow and teach your team how to use them efficiently to ship code faster.
Product-Driven Ownership: Connect deeply with the product vision. You don't just build specs blindly; you understand the goals and optimize your technical choices to deliver the best product value.
SaaS Delivery Mastery: Own the entire lifecycle of your team's features, ensuring they are designed for multi-tenant cloud scalability and successfully deployed to production.
Mentorship by Example: Coach and unblock your 3-4 engineers through pair programming, deep code reviews, and technical guidance, raising the bar for the entire team.
Goal Achievement & Velocity: Focus relentlessly on hitting team milestones, proactively removing blockers, and keeping team performance sharp.
Product Collaboration: Partner closely with Product Managers to refine features, challenge assumptions when necessary, and turn ambitious ideas into realistic technical tasks.
Production Health: Take pride in what you ship. Ensure your team’s features run smoothly, securely, and efficiently in the cloud, helping to quickly fix issues if they arise.
Technical Background: Deep backend engineering experience building and scaling cloud-native SaaS platforms.
Polyglot Developer: Strong, production-proven experience writing code in Scala, but Python or TypeScript are a big plus.
Coding Agent Mastery (Must-Have): Deep experience using AI coding agents in your day-to-day work. You know how to prompt them effectively, critically review AI-generated code for security or architectural flaws, and use them to maximize your engineering efficiency.
Builder Mindset: You love writing code and building systems. You prefer solving technical puzzles and shipping features over traditional management paperwork.
Product Empathy: You care about the "why" behind what you build. You are motivated by achieving product goals and making the platform better for the end user.
High-Agency Leadership: You take absolute responsibility for your team's output. If something is broken or a deadline is at risk, you jump in and fix it.
Communication: Exceptional English skills (written and spoken) to align your small team and collaborate easily with product owners.