Principal Engineer

Shipt; Birmingham (AL); Hybrid; USD 170,000 - 220,000; Full time

Job summary

Shipt is seeking a Principal Engineer to define and scale the next generation of its marketplace platform, overseeing both customer-facing experiences and backend capabilities. This high-impact role shapes frontend and backend strategies across web, app, APIs, and services.

You will lead architecture, federated GraphQL, and server-driven UI patterns while driving AI-native engineering practices and observability. Hybrid work in multiple locations is supported.

Qualifications

• 15+ years of software engineering experience across frontend and backend domains.

Responsibilities

• Set technical direction across frontend and backend architectures, GraphQL orchestration, UI patterns, pricing, loyalty, experimentation, and AI-native workflows.
• Partner with cross-functional stakeholders to build scalable, observable systems.
• Own the technical vision and architecture for the Member Marketplace platform across web, apps, APIs, and backend services.
• Lead end-to-end system design for customer-facing experiences, ensuring frontend and backend evolve together.
• Drive Config-Driven / Server-Driven UI patterns for dynamic experiences across surfaces.
• Architect and scale GraphQL orchestration, including schema design, federation, data-fetching, caching, and governance.
• Design resilient microservices and APIs supporting pricing, promotions, loyalty, personalization, and checkout.
• Champion AI-native practices across Marketplace Engineering, including automated testing and tooling.

Skills

Leadership

System design

Architectural leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience

Tools

React

Next.js

TypeScript

Go

Python

Java

Node.js

AWS

GCP

Kubernetes

Docker

CI/CD

Job description

Overview

Shipt is transforming how people discover, shop for, and receive everyday essentials. We are looking for a Principal Engineer, Full-Stack Marketplace Platform to help define and scale the next generation of Shipt’s marketplace architecture. This is a high-impact technical leadership role responsible for shaping both the customer-facing experience layer and the backend platform capabilities that power it.

What You’ll Do

• Set technical direction across modern frontend architecture, backend services, GraphQL orchestration, Config-Driven UI, pricing, loyalty, experimentation, and AI-native engineering workflows.
• Partner closely with Engineering, Product, Design, Data Science, and business stakeholders to build systems that are scalable, resilient, observable, and fast to evolve.
• Own the technical vision and architecture for key areas of Shipt’s Member Marketplace platform across web, app, APIs, and backend services.
• Lead end-to-end system design for customer-facing marketplace experiences, ensuring frontend and backend architectures evolve together.
• Drive the evolution of Config-Driven / Server-Driven UI patterns to support flexible, reusable, and dynamic experiences across web and app surfaces.
• Architect and scale GraphQL orchestration patterns, including schema design, federation strategies, data-fetching efficiency, caching, and platform governance.
• Design resilient backend microservices and APIs that support high-scale marketplace domains such as pricing, promotions, loyalty, personalization, and order experiences.
• Champion AI-native engineering practices across Marketplace Engineering, including AI-assisted development, automated testing, documentation, code review workflows, and reusable engineering agents/tools.

Qualifications

• 15+ years of software engineering experience, with a track record of designing and shipping production-scale systems across frontend and backend domains.
• Deep experience leading architecture for large-scale customer-facing platforms, marketplaces, commerce systems, or high-traffic digital products.
• Strong full-stack technical depth, including modern frontend frameworks such as React, Next.js, TypeScript, and backend services in Go, Python, Java, or Node.js.
• Proven experience designing and scaling distributed systems, microservices, APIs, event-driven architectures, and low-latency platform capabilities.
• Strong understanding of GraphQL, including schema design, federation, orchestration, caching strategies, and frontend/backend contract governance.
• Experience with Config-Driven UI, Server-Driven UI, metadata-driven applications, or dynamic content platforms.
• Experience building or evolving platform capabilities in domains such as pricing, promotions, loyalty, personalization, experimentation, search/discovery, or checkout.
• Strong understanding of cloud-native architecture, including AWS or GCP, Kubernetes, Docker, infrastructure as code, and modern CI/CD practices.
• Experience with observability and operational excellence, including tools such as Datadog, OpenTelemetry, Sentry, New Relic, or similar platforms.
• Strong data modeling experience across relational databases, NoSQL systems, caching layers, and event streams.

Pay Range

$170,000 - $220,000

Please note that the salary range above is a guideline, and individual total compensation will vary based on factors such as qualifications, skill level, competencies, and work location.

Skills & Education

Back-End Development, Front End Architecture, Web Development. Bachelor\'s Degree or equivalent experience (Required).

Work Arrangement

Hybrid roles in Birmingham, AL typically work in-office at least 2 days per week, with core in-office days on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Hybrid roles in Minneapolis, MN typically work in-office at least 1 day per week on either Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday.

Hybrid roles in San Francisco, CA typically work in-office at least 1 day per week between Monday and Thursday.

Certain roles may require in-office presence on a full-time basis. Please work with your recruiter to learn more about the classification of this role.

EEO / Equal Opportunity

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, ethnicity, religion or religious belief, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, military or veteran status, disability, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Please inform your recruiting contact upon initial connection if you need a reasonable accommodation. If you need assistance filling out a job application, please complete this form. For technical interviews, Shipt uses an online coding platform. If you need a reasonable accommodation to use the online coding platform, please connect with your recruiter.