Principal Software Engineer, Developer Acceleration (Release Engineering)

Socket.dev; Dublin; On-site; EUR 230,000 - 367,000; Full time

Job summary

HubSpot is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to define the technical future of release engineering at scale, combining large-scale distributed systems with agentic AI capabilities.

You will stay hands-on, lead end-to-end initiatives, and influence the roadmap across build, test, and deploy pipelines, while mentoring teams and shaping platform evolution.

This role accelerates thousands of engineers shipping better software through AI-native delivery and scalable infrastructure.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience building and evolving large-scale distributed systems, especially CI/CD and release engineering.
• Strong architectural instincts for simple, scalable platform design.
• Experience operating at hyperscaler or platform-provider scale.
• Proven track record delivering cross-team technical initiatives with company-wide impact.
• Hands-on leader who builds, debugs, reviews, and ships.
• Ability to learn new domains quickly and guide long-term decisions.

Responsibilities

• Own the future of HubSpot's release engineering platform.
• Shape architecture across pipeline design, test infra, deployment orchestration, and developer ergonomics.
• Lead cross-team technical initiatives end-to-end with measurable impact.
• Design and implement AI-powered QA agents that run on every deploy to reduce risk.

Skills

Distributed systems

CI/CD

Build infrastructure

Release engineering

Hyperscaler scale

Platform engineering

Hands-on leadership

First principles thinking

Job description

POS-32873

About the Team

HubSpot's Developer Acceleration group empowers over 2,000 engineers to build, test, and deploy their code at scale. The release engineering team owns the full delivery pipeline — from pull request to production — and is responsible for hundreds of thousands of builds per day, including tens of thousands of QA deployments.

We're in the middle of a fundamental shift. Agentic AI is changing what release engineering can look like — from AI-powered QA agents that evaluate every deploy, to systems that can reason about risk, surface anomalies, and make autonomous decisions in the delivery pipeline. The team is actively building toward this future, and the opportunity for someone who can help shape it is significant.

The team owns and evolves some of the most critical foundational systems inside HubSpot's engineering organization, including build infrastructure, test orchestration, deployment pipelines, and the tooling that underpins incident management and production reliability. This is not a team focused on maintaining existing systems. It is an engineering organization responsible for rethinking how software gets shipped at scale — and what becomes possible when intelligent agents are embedded throughout that process.

About the Role

We're looking for a Principal Software Engineer to help define the technical future of release engineering at HubSpot — at the intersection of large-scale distributed systems and agentic AI.

The role of AI in software delivery is no longer theoretical. We're actively deploying AI agents across our build, test, and deploy pipeline, and we're only at the beginning of understanding what's possible. This is a rare opportunity to work on infrastructure problems that very few engineers have encountered — at a scale that demands novel approaches — while helping to define what AI-native release engineering looks like in practice.

At HubSpot, Principal Engineers are expected to stay close to the code, lead high-impact initiatives end-to-end, and influence technical direction well beyond a single team. This role is for someone who can move between infrastructure architecture, agentic AI systems, and large-scale delivery pipeline design while remaining a hands‑on builder throughout

Key Expectations

• Own the future of HubSpot's release engineering platform

• Shape the technical direction for the build, test, and deploy systems that underpin how HubSpot ships software.
• Drive architectural decisions across pipeline design, test infrastructure, deployment orchestration, and developer ergonomics.
• Help define what the next generation of HubSpot's delivery platform should look like — not just how to operate the current one.

• Be a deeply hands‑on, high‑leverage builder

• Write production code regularly and lead complex initiatives from idea to rollout.
• Design and implement AI-powered QA agents that run on every deploy, reducing risk and increasing confidence in continuous delivery.
• Turn ambiguous infrastructure problems into simple, scalable systems and clear technical direction.

• Rethink testing and delivery infrastructure for a new era

• Challenge 10-year-old assumptions about build systems and deployment pipelines given what's actually possible today.
• Rethink testing infrastructure for a world where software behavior is increasingly non-deterministic.
• Drive the roadmap toward 500+ deploys per minute, identifying and eliminating bottlenecks across the delivery pipeline.

• Influence across the broader engineering org

• Partner with engineering leaders to align release engineering direction with what HubSpot needs to build next.
• Work horizontally across teams to guide technical tradeoffs, rationalize configuration and change management across concurrent teams, and raise the architectural bar for platform work.
• Act as a multiplier through design reviews, technical mentoring, and principled decision‑making on the most critical systems in the space.

What You Bring

• Deep experience building and evolving large-scale distributed systems, particularly in CI/CD, build infrastructure, release engineering, or foundational backend platforms.
• Strong architectural instincts with a bias toward simplicity, clarity, and long‑term platform leverage — and a healthy skepticism toward complexity that isn't earned.
• Experience operating at hyperscaler or platform‑provider scale.
• A track record of owning and delivering complex, cross‑team technical initiatives with org‑wide or company‑level impact.
• A hands‑on mindset. You lead by building, debugging, reviewing, and shipping — not by staying removed from the systems you influence.
• The ability to move into unfamiliar technical territory quickly, form strong opinions grounded in first principles, and help teams make better long‑term decisions.

Why This Role Matters

HubSpot's engineering productivity depends on a delivery platform that is not only reliable, but fast, intelligent, and built for the scale we're operating at today — and the scale we're building toward. The Principal Software Engineer in Developer Acceleration will help determine how that platform evolves, how AI changes what's possible in software delivery, and how thousands of engineers across HubSpot ship better software, faster.

Pay & Benefits

Annual Cash Compensation Range:

$266,200 — $425,900 USD

Massachusetts Applicants: It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.

Germany Applicants: (m/f/d) - link to HubSpot's Career Diversity page here.

India Applicants: link to HubSpot India's equal opportunity policy here.

About HubSpot

HubSpot (NYSE: HUBS) is an AI-powered customer platform with all the software, integrations, and resources customers need to connect marketing, sales, and service. HubSpot's connected platform enables businesses to grow faster by focusing on what matters most: customers.

At HubSpot, bold is our baseline. Our employees around the globe move fast, stay customer‑obsessed, and win together. Our culture is grounded in four commitments: Solve for the Customer, Be Bold, Learn Fast, Align, Adapt & Go!, and Deliver with HEART. These commitments shape how we work, lead, and grow.

We’re building a company where people can do their best work. We focus on brilliant work, not badge swipes. By combining clarity, ownership, and trust, we create space for big thinking and meaningful progress. And we know that when our employees grow, our customers do too.

Recognized globally for our award‑winning culture by Comparably, Glassdoor, Fortune, and more, HubSpot is headquartered in Cambridge, MA, with employees and offices around the world.

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• HubSpot Careers
• Life at HubSpot on Instagram

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