Principal Software Engineer, AI Email App
Bjak · Remote · United States ·
COMPENSATION
€•• – ••k
Listed on the employer's job board (Ashby)
- Principal level role
- AI Email App product
- Backend + Client focus
- Lead small senior team
- Fully remote option
Join a team building proactive, AI-native applications for email, notes, and tasks that require minimal prompting. As a Principal Engineer, you will own the engineering layer that transforms AI capabilities into reliable products, ensuring high reliability for long-running workflows and persistent context.
You will shape architecture across backend services, APIs, and client applications while leading a small team of senior engineers. This hands-on leadership role involves staying close to the code, making critical architectural decisions, and ensuring the system remains fast and coherent as it scales.
What you'll do
- Own application engineering strategy across backend, mobile, and desktop platforms
- Design reliable systems for AI workflows including state, orchestration, and retries
- Build APIs and abstractions connecting AI systems to real-world product experiences
- Lead a small senior engineering team through design reviews and mentorship
- Make trade-offs across latency, reliability, cost, security, and user experience
- Establish production foundations like observability, monitoring, and testing
- Partner with ML leadership to turn model capabilities into shippable features
What you'll need
- Significant experience leading engineering for complex application or product systems
- Strong hands-on background building and shipping backend systems in production
- Experience building AI-powered products or integrating modern ML/LLM capabilities
- Strong technical judgment with ability to decide amidst incomplete information
- Comfortable working across backend and client platforms with deep expertise in one
- Bias toward ownership, shipping quickly, and learning from real-world usage
- High standards for code quality, reliability, and engineering fundamentals
How you'll work
- Small, high-talent-density team with broad individual ownership
- Interviews conducted via virtual meetings or onsite visits
- Fast decision-making process balancing speed with engineering basics
Hiring process
- Technical team evaluates initial applications
- Schedule three to four interviews maximum if fit is identified
- Prompt decision provided after demonstrating required skills and mindset