Principal Architect — Distributed Systems Leader (Remote)

Socket.dev; United States; On-site; USD 206,000 - 285,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Hybrid work model

Fully remote option

Competitive base pay

Job summary

Engine is seeking a Principal Engineer to guide the technical direction as we move from monolithic apps to a distributed architecture. You will define service boundaries, ensure system coherence, and drive scalable, high-performance solutions.

You will mentor teams, shape the technical roadmap, and collaborate across groups to balance simplicity with business needs. We value strong engineering fundamentals and cross-team influence.

Qualifications

• 12+ years designing and evolving high-scale distributed systems.
• Leadership to drive major technical initiatives across multiple teams.
• Experience breaking down monolithic applications into modular services.
• Guiding teams through complex technical challenges in ambiguous environments.
• Strong cloud expertise and scalable system design (AWS preferred).
• Experience designing APIs and defining clear service boundaries.

Responsibilities

• Define and champion architectural best practices for modular, maintainable services.
• Lead the transition from monoliths to distributed systems for scalability and resilience.
• Shape the technical roadmap with engineering leaders on service design and data flow.
• Tackle deep technical challenges with engineers to ensure high-quality implementations.
• Mentor engineers and foster ownership and strong engineering fundamentals.
• Collaborate across teams to align architecture with business needs.

Skills

Distributed systems design

Architectural leadership

API design

Cloud environments

REST, gRPC, messaging

Cross-team collaboration

Tools

AWS

Job description

Engine is seeking a Principal Engineer to guide the technical direction as we move from monolithic apps to a distributed architecture. You will define service boundaries, ensure system coherence, and drive scalable, high-performance solutions.

You will mentor teams, shape the technical roadmap, and collaborate across groups to balance simplicity with business needs. We value strong engineering fundamentals and cross-team influence.