Principal Software Engineer

Staff/Principal Software EngineerLocation - Mountain View, CA - Hybrid – 3 Days Per Week On-site) - Remote available only for candidates based in British Columbia, Canada.Compensation - $280,000 – $350,000 Base + Competitive EquityVisa - H1B Transfers Supported (No New Visa Sponsorship)Company Stage - Series A ($125M+ Raised)Industry - Artificial Intelligence, Voice AI, Generative AI, AI Infrastructure, Real-Time Systems, Developer Platform, Enterprise AIAbout the CompanyThe company is building one of the world's leading real-time AI infrastructure platforms powering next-generation voice experiences across consumer and enterprise applications.Its platform enables developers to build intelligent voice applications through state-of-the-art speech recognition, text-to-speech, real-time AI routing, knowledge systems, and large language model infrastructure. Hundreds of millions of end users interact with products powered by the platform across gaming, education, healthcare, companions, enterprise software, and interactive experiences.Backed by more than $125M from Lightspeed, Kleiner Perkins, Founders Fund, Microsoft M12, Meta, Stanford, and other leading investors, the company has become one of the fastest-growing AI infrastructure startups with a highly technical engineering culture focused on shipping production AI systems at scale.As a Staff/Principal Software Engineer, you'll own some of the company's most critical backend infrastructure, including intelligent routing systems, real-time APIs, distributed AI services, and large-scale platform infrastructure powering hundreds of millions of production requests. You'll collaborate closely with ML researchers, product engineers, and platform teams to design highly scalable systems enabling the future of real-time AI.This is an exceptional opportunity to join an AI-native infrastructure company where Staff and Principal Engineers operate with significant technical autonomy while building foundational systems powering the next generation of AI products.What You'll DoDesign and build highly scalable backend infrastructure powering real-time AI applicationsOwn the architecture and development of intelligent routing systems across hundreds of LLM providersBuild API infrastructure supporting speech-to-speech, TTS, STT, RAG, and realtime AI productsDesign distributed systems capable of handling hundreds of millions of production requestsArchitect low-latency backend services optimizing cost, throughput, and reliabilityBuild cloud-native infrastructure supporting real-time AI workloadsDevelop routing, failover, experimentation, caching, and orchestration systems across AI providersDesign scalable data pipelines supporting AI infrastructure and platform analyticsCollaborate closely with ML researchers to productionize cutting-edge AI modelsDrive technical architecture decisions across backend infrastructure and platform engineeringEstablish engineering best practices while maintaining hands-on ownership of production systemsRapidly prototype and launch new AI platform capabilities in a fast-moving startup environmentIdeal Candidate BackgroundExperience Requirements8+ years of backend software engineering experienceExperience building cloud-native distributed systems at production scaleExperience operating backend services handling hundreds of queries per second or higherExperience building zero-to-one platform products in startup or high-growth environmentsExperience working at AI-native companies or modern infrastructure organizationsStrong startup ownership mentality with demonstrated engineering executionExperience designing highly available backend systemsExperience collaborating closely with ML researchers and platform teamsExperience owning large production services end-to-endPrevious startup experience strongly preferred over exclusively large enterprise backgroundsTechnical RequirementsStrong backend software engineering fundamentalsExpert-level systems design and distributed architecture expertiseExperience with Go, Python, C++, Rust, or comparable statically typed backend languagesStrong cloud infrastructure experience across AWS, GCP, or AzureExperience with Redis, Memcached, or distributed caching systemsExperience with messaging systems, Pub/Sub, queues, or streaming infrastructureExperience with Apache Flink, Apache Beam, or large-scale data pipelines preferredStrong PostgreSQL or MySQL experience operating production databasesExperience building API gateways, routing layers, proxy systems, or service orchestrationExperience building highly scalable backend services supporting AI or consumer productsEducationBachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, or another technical discipline preferredStrong engineering background with demonstrated backend systems expertiseTop technical universities or exceptional engineering accomplishments strongly preferredSoft SkillsOutstanding technical problem-solvingStrong engineering ownershipExcellent collaboration skillsHigh execution mentalityComfortable operating with ambiguityStrong communication skillsStartup mindset with high execution velocityStructured systems thinkerPassion for AI infrastructure and backend platform engineeringContinuous learner embracing modern AI development workflowsCompensation & BenefitsBase Salary: $280,000 – $350,000Competitive Equity PackageHybrid work model (3 days/week in Mountain View)Opportunity to build infrastructure powering one of the world's leading real-time AI platformsDirect collaboration with ML researchers and engineering leadershipSignificant ownership across core backend platform architectureHigh-impact engineering culture with exceptional career growthWell-funded Series A company backed by top-tier investorsOpportunity to shape the future of real-time AI infrastructureWhy JoinThis is an opportunity to build the infrastructure powering one of the world's most advanced real-time AI platforms.You'll work at the intersection of distributed systems, backend infrastructure, cloud architecture, AI routing, low-latency networking, and large-scale production engineering while helping define how developers build intelligent AI applications.As a Staff/Principal Software Engineer, you'll own foundational backend systems, influence company-wide technical direction, and help build the infrastructure layer powering the future of real-time AI.