Remote Principal Backend Engineer & Architect

twentysix; Amsterdam; On-site; EUR 105,000 - 143,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Healthcare, Dental, and Vision

401k with matching

PTO

Paid holidays

Parental Leave

Job summary

DEPT® is seeking a Principal Engineer to act as the technical anchor for cross-functional teams. You will own end-to-end backend and distributed systems, including data platforms, event-driven services, and LLM-backed integrations.

You will guide architecture while staying connected with frontend considerations, API shape, latency budgets, and performance. You’ll mentor engineers, present to product and exec teams, and drive client value with pragmatic tradeoffs.

Qualifications

• 7+ years writing software used in production.
• 3+ years developing in Python with multiple stacks.
• Expert in backend architecture, API design and system patterns.
• Familiarity with agent development and LLM concepts for cost/relevancy tradeoffs.
• Proven experience using GenAI productivity tools in real workflows.
• Experience integrating APIs and other systems into end-user apps.
• Strong understanding of database platforms (SQL/NoSQL).
• Working knowledge of modern web frameworks (Angular preferred).
• Experience with major cloud providers (Google Cloud preferred, AWS/Azure also ok).
• Hands-on Docker experience for containerization and dev-env consistency.
• Proficient in version control, Agile, and CI/CD tooling.
• Self-starter who ships with minimal guidance; strong client-facing communication.
• Leadership ability to influence both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Commitment to DEPT®'s values and purpose-driven work.

Responsibilities

• Lead architectural design of complex backend and distributed systems end-to-end.
• Take full ownership of workstreams and unblock obstacles.
• Ensure scope, requirements, estimates, timelines, and risks are documented.
• Act as technical consultant to clients; run presentations, demos and workshops.
• Assess if proposed work maximizes client value and speak up when not.
• Mentor junior engineers through pairing and code reviews.
• Lead smaller project teams and collaborate with managers, designers, and other crafts.

Skills

7+ years experience

3+ years Python

Backend architecture

GenAI tools familiarity

APIs integration

Database expertise

Modern web frameworks

Cloud providers

Docker

Git / CI/CD

Leadership

Client communication

DEPT values

Tools

Docker

Angular

Google Cloud

AWS

Azure

GenAI tools (Gemini CLI, Claude Code, Codex)

APIs integration tools

Git

Job description

DEPT® is seeking a Principal Engineer to act as the technical anchor for cross-functional teams. You will own end-to-end backend and distributed systems, including data platforms, event-driven services, and LLM-backed integrations.

You will guide architecture while staying connected with frontend considerations, API shape, latency budgets, and performance. You’ll mentor engineers, present to product and exec teams, and drive client value with pragmatic tradeoffs.