The Principal Engineer will lead the technical ecosystem, ensuring hands-on execution in a high-growth environment, focusing on AI integration and full-stack development.
This is a remote position.
Our client is looking for a Principal Engineer / Technical Executive to take full ownership of their technical ecosystem — from architecture decisions to hands-on execution across the entire stack. They operate in a high-growth tech environment, having rapidly evolved their product capabilities and infrastructure over recent years while pushing forward in AI-driven innovation.
This is not a traditional leadership role. They need someone who builds, ships, fixes, and scales — all in real time. The ideal candidate combines the strategic thinking of a CTO with the execution speed of a senior engineer who still loves writing code daily.
- Deliver end-to-end features across frontend, backend, database, workflows, and AI systems without relying on handoffs
- Make and implement key architectural decisions including system design, data structures, caching, and infrastructure setup
- Own production systems, diagnosing and resolving issues across servers, APIs, queues, and databases
- Lead AI integration initiatives, from experimentation to production-ready deployment
- Build and optimize data pipelines, model inference systems, and GPU-based workflows
- Design and maintain payment systems, subscription logic, and financial workflows
- Develop across all layers including UI components, APIs, testing, and deployment scripts
- Set engineering standards through high-quality code, testing, and documentation
- Support and mentor engineers across different areas of the stack
Requirements
- 8+ years of hands-on software engineering experience building production systems
- Strong full-stack expertise including frontend, backend, databases, and infrastructure
- Proven experience integrating AI/ML models into live production environments
- Experience building or managing systems that handle financial transactions
- Deep understanding of system reliability, debugging, and performance optimization
- Experience scaling systems under real user traffic and growth conditions
- Ability to move quickly across multiple layers of a system without dependency on specialists
- Advanced experience with modern JavaScript frameworks and backend technologies
- Strong knowledge of database design and optimization
- Experience with infrastructure management, including Linux environments and networking
- Familiarity with AI/ML frameworks and model deployment strategies
- Ability to evaluate tradeoffs and make pragmatic technical decisions
- Strong ownership mindset and problem-solving approach
Benefits
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