description Job Description
<p> </p>
<p><strong><span data-contrast="none">Here’s a summary of the role:</span></strong><span data-contrast="none"> </span><span data-contrast="auto"> </span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":6,"335551620":6,"335559738":300,"335559739":300,"335559740":276}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto"><span data-ccp-parastyle="wnfdnte" data-ccp-parastyle-defn="{"ObjectId":"380b315d-6e35-56df-b209-c064bec51039|1","ClassId":1073872969,"Properties":[469777841,"Times New Roman",469777842,"Times New Roman",469777843,"Times New Roman",469777844,"Times New Roman",469769226,"Times New Roman",469775450,"wnfdnte",201340122,"2",134233614,"true",469778129,"wnfdnte",335572020,"1",268442635,"24",335559705,"1033",335551547,"1033",134233118,"true",134233117,"true",469778324,"Normal"]}">This is a </span></span><strong><span data-contrast="auto"><span data-ccp-parastyle="wnfdnte">principal-level role</span></span></strong><span data-contrast="auto"><span data-ccp-parastyle="wnfdnte"> for someone who has already </span><span data-ccp-parastyle="wnfdnte">operated</span><span data-ccp-parastyle="wnfdnte"> at Staff or Principal Engineer level in a sizeable engineering organization and can point to specific platform decisions — in production today — that they own. </span><span data-ccp-parastyle="wnfdnte">You'll</span><span data-ccp-parastyle="wnfdnte"> </span></span><strong><span data-contrast="auto"><span data-ccp-parastyle="wnfdnte">set the technical direction for our AI-enabled platform</span></span></strong><span data-contrast="auto"><span data-ccp-parastyle="wnfdnte">: architecting secure, scalable, serverless systems on AWS, defining the patterns and governance practices that multiple teams adopt, and guiding where AI genuinely adds value across the stack.</span></span><span data-ccp-props="{"134233117":true,"134233118":true,"335551550":6,"335551620":6}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto"><span data-ccp-parastyle="wnfdnte">Your leverage comes from the systems, architectures, and standards you put in place — not from individual output. </span><span data-ccp-parastyle="wnfdnte">You'll</span><span data-ccp-parastyle="wnfdnte"> </span></span><strong><span data-contrast="auto"><span data-ccp-parastyle="wnfdnte">mentor senior engineers</span></span></strong><span data-contrast="auto"><span data-ccp-parastyle="wnfdnte">, lead org-wide design decisions, and be the person other technical leaders turn to when the hard calls need to be made. </span><span data-ccp-parastyle="wnfdnte">You'll</span><span data-ccp-parastyle="wnfdnte"> still write code, but </span><span data-ccp-parastyle="wnfdnte">that's</span><span data-ccp-parastyle="wnfdnte"> not where your impact is measured.</span></span><span data-ccp-props="{"134233117":true,"134233118":true,"335551550":6,"335551620":6}"> </span></p>
<p><span data-contrast="auto"><span data-ccp-parastyle="wnfdnte">If </span><span data-ccp-parastyle="wnfdnte">you've</span><span data-ccp-parastyle="wnfdnte"> </span></span><strong><span data-contrast="auto"><span data-ccp-parastyle="wnfdnte">led complex platform or AI initiatives</span></span></strong><span data-contrast="auto"><span data-ccp-parastyle="wnfdnte"> at scale, have strong opinions about AI governance in production systems, and want the scope to shape an entire platform's </span><span data-ccp-parastyle="wnfdnte">future,</span><span data-ccp-parastyle="wnfdnte"> this is that role.</span></span><span data-ccp-props="{"134233117":true,"134233118":true,"335551550":6,"335551620":6}"> </span></p>
<p><strong><span data-contrast="auto"><span data-ccp-parastyle="Subtitle">Here’s</span><span data-ccp-parastyle="Subtitle"> a breakdown of what </span><span data-ccp-parastyle="Subtitle">you’ll</span><span data-ccp-parastyle="Subtitle"> do (not all of it, just the important stuff):</span></span></strong><span data-ccp-props="{"134245418":true,"134245529":true,"201341983":0,"335551550":6,"335551620":6,"335559738":360,"335559739":320,"335559740":276}"> </span></p>
<ul>
<li data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="10" data-list-defn-props="{"335552541":1,"335559685":720,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Symbol","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"","469777815":"multilevel"}" data-aria-posinset="1" data-aria-level="1"><span data-contrast="auto"><span data-ccp-parastyle="wnfdnte">Shape engineering strategy with broad organizational impact — </span><span data-ccp-parastyle="wnfdnte">you'll</span><span data-ccp-parastyle="wnfdnte"> influence long-term architectural direction across multiple teams and products, not just within your own squad.</span></span><span data-ccp-props="{"134233117":true,"134233118":true,"335551550":6,"335551620":6}"> </span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="10" data-list-defn-props="{"335552541":1,"335559685":720,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Symbol","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"","469777815":"multilevel"}" data-aria-posinset="2" data-aria-level="1"><span data-contrast="auto">Drive platform evolution by identifying cross-cutting pain points and leading the design of secure, scalable, reusable solutions built on AWS and modern serverless and microservice patterns.</span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="10" data-list-defn-props="{"335552541":1,"335559685":720,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Symbol","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"","469777815":"multilevel"}" data-aria-posinset="3" data-aria-level="1"><span data-contrast="auto">Lead architectural discussions and design reviews where the stakes are real — making clear trade-offs around performance, security, reliability, and maintainability, and getting alignment across teams with competing priorities.</span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="10" data-list-defn-props="{"335552541":1,"335559685":720,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Symbol","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"","469777815":"multilevel"}" data-aria-posinset="4" data-aria-level="1"><span data-contrast="auto">Own AI architectural decisions end-to-end: design AI-enabled systems with built-in governance, monitoring, and regulatory readiness baked in from the start, not retrofitted. Define where AI adds genuine value and where it doesn't.</span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="10" data-list-defn-props="{"335552541":1,"335559685":720,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Symbol","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"","469777815":"multilevel"}" data-aria-posinset="5" data-aria-level="1"><span data-contrast="auto">Act as the organization's AI thought leader — educate engineering teams on model behavior, agentic systems, and responsible AI practices, and raise the overall maturity of how we design and deploy AI.</span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="10" data-list-defn-props="{"335552541":1,"335559685":720,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Symbol","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"","469777815":"multilevel"}" data-aria-posinset="6" data-aria-level="1"><span data-contrast="auto">Mentor and stretch senior and staff engineers, building technical leadership depth across the organisation and holding a high bar for engineering standards.</span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></li>
</ul>
<p><strong><span data-contrast="auto"><span data-ccp-parastyle="Subtitle">These</span><span data-ccp-parastyle="Subtitle"> are the essentials </span><span data-ccp-parastyle="Subtitle">you’ll</span><span data-ccp-parastyle="Subtitle"> need to get an interview:</span></span></strong><span data-ccp-props="{"134245418":true,"134245529":true,"201341983":0,"335551550":6,"335551620":6,"335559738":360,"335559739":320,"335559740":276}"> </span></p>
<ul>
<li data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="11" data-list-defn-props="{"335552541":1,"335559685":720,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Symbol","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"","469777815":"multilevel"}" data-aria-posinset="1" data-aria-level="1"><span data-contrast="auto"><span data-ccp-parastyle="wnfdnte">Principal-level </span><span data-ccp-parastyle="wnfdnte">track record</span><span data-ccp-parastyle="wnfdnte"> at scale. </span></span><strong><span data-contrast="auto"><span data-ccp-parastyle="wnfdnte">10+ years of software engineering experience</span></span></strong><span data-contrast="auto"><span data-ccp-parastyle="wnfdnte">, including at least 3 </span><span data-ccp-parastyle="wnfdnte">years'</span><span data-ccp-parastyle="wnfdnte"> </span><span data-ccp-parastyle="wnfdnte">operating</span><span data-ccp-parastyle="wnfdnte"> at Staff or Principal Engineer level in an </span><span data-ccp-parastyle="wnfdnte">organization</span><span data-ccp-parastyle="wnfdnte"> of 100+ engineers. </span><span data-ccp-parastyle="wnfdnte">You've</span><span data-ccp-parastyle="wnfdnte"> led large, complex platform or AI initiatives where you were the decision-maker, not a contributor.</span></span><span data-ccp-props="{"134233117":true,"134233118":true,"335551550":6,"335551620":6}"> </span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="11" data-list-defn-props="{"335552541":1,"335559685":720,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Symbol","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"","469777815":"multilevel"}" data-aria-posinset="2" data-aria-level="1"><span data-contrast="auto">Deep, opinionated </span><strong><span data-contrast="auto">AWS platform expertise</span></strong><span data-contrast="auto">. You've designed multi-account AWS architectures and made the call on when serverless is the wrong choice. You work fluently with Infrastructure as Code — Terraform or CDK preferred — and have strong views on observability, resilience, and security that you've translated into org-wide patterns.</span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="11" data-list-defn-props="{"335552541":1,"335559685":720,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Symbol","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"","469777815":"multilevel"}" data-aria-posinset="3" data-aria-level="1"><span data-contrast="auto">Production AI systems experience. You've shipped AI-enabled systems — RAG pipelines, agentic frameworks, </span><strong><span data-contrast="auto">LLM</span></strong><span data-contrast="auto"> orchestration, or similar — into production and can discuss the architectural decisions, failure modes, and trade-offs involved. "Understanding AI concepts" is not enough; we need someone who has built and run these systems.</span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="11" data-list-defn-props="{"335552541":1,"335559685":720,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Symbol","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"","469777815":"multilevel"}" data-aria-posinset="4" data-aria-level="1"><strong><span data-contrast="auto">AI governance in practice</span></strong><span data-contrast="auto">. You've defined and implemented AI governance in real production environments — bias and privacy checks in pipelines, audit-ready monitoring, AI usage policies — not just read about it. This is essential, not a bonus.</span><span data-ccp-props="{}"> </span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li data-leveltext="" data-font="Symbol" data-listid="11" data-list-defn-props="{"335552541":1,"335559685":720,"335559991":360,"469769226":"Symbol","469769242":[8226],"469777803":"left","469777804":"","469777815":"multilevel"}" data-aria-posinset="5" data-aria-level="1"><strong><span data-contrast="auto">API</span></strong><span data-contrast="auto"> design and </span><strong><span data-contrast="auto">backend platform delivery</span></strong><span data-contrast="auto">. Proven track record designing and shipping RESTful APIs and backend platform components using Node.js/TypeScript. You understand frontend concerns well enough to set API contracts that serve product teams effectively, even if you're not writing React day-to-day.</span><span data-ccp-props="{}&