Principal Engineer

Cents; New York (NY); On-site; USD 130,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Unlimited PTO

Health benefits

Equity

Comprehensive training

Commuter stipends

Job summary

Cents is seeking an experienced technical lead in New York, NY to guide software architecture and engineering quality initiatives. The ideal candidate will possess over 10 years of production software development experience, with a focus on testing strategies and robust API design.

This role is hands-on, collaborating with the SVP of Engineering to shape technical direction and mentor senior engineers. The position offers competitive salary, equity, and generous benefits including unlimited PTO, health coverage, and a variety of discounts.

Qualifications

• 10+ years building production software.
• Expertise in software testing and engineering-quality infrastructure.
• Strong architecture and API design skills.

Responsibilities

• Own the architecture and technical work on engineering-quality initiatives.
• Set technical direction and document trade-offs.
• Mentor senior engineers and raise technical standards.

Skills

Production software development

Test automation

API design

SaaS experience

Technical mentorship

Job description

Company Overview

Want to be a part of a team revolutionizing and leading an entire industry with no real competition? The laundry industry is a $40+ billion dollar market, and the Cents platform is making it easier for laundromats, dry cleaners, and all garment care businesses to grow, manage, and understand their business. Backed by top-tier investors like Bessemer, Camber Creek, and Tiger Global, Cents is one of the fastest-growing vertical SaaS companies in the USA, and we’re just getting started. Already profitable and growing incredibly quickly each year, we have entered the absolute best stage of being a startup. Cents is a New York-based technology company passionate about transforming the laundry industry and dedicated to enabling new ways of working, earning, and living. Cents is modernizing garment care businesses by providing an all-in-one, business-in-a-box platform to help operators start, manage, and grow their businesses. Our team is full of passionate technology experts obsessed with supporting and empowering SMBs. We feel the unique responsibility and opportunity we have to elevate an industry. We’re adding great talent to help achieve this mission, and that’s where you come in!

Position Overview

This is a hands‑on technical role. You will guide the work and mentor peers, but you will not have direct reports or personnel management duties. Your leverage comes from technical judgment, architecture, and the standard your work sets – applied to problems that are too hard or too cross‑cutting for any single squad to own. You’ll work directly with the SVP of Engineering as a technical thought partner.

Responsibilities

• Own the architecture and hardest technical work on our engineering‑quality initiatives: workflow testing, mutation testing (Stryker), end‑to‑end testing, our QA agents, and the public API.
• Go where the hard problems are – across any squad’s code. Your scope is technical correctness and leverage, not a team boundary.
• Set the technical direction for cross‑cutting systems, make the architecture‑of‑record decisions, and document the trade‑offs.
• Raise the technical ceiling of the org through design review, architecture guidance, and mentorship of senior engineers.
• Identify systemic technical risk before it becomes an incident, and drive the fix.
• Partner with the SVP of Engineering on technical strategy – you are a primary technical voice as we shape where the platform goes.
• Set the standard for using AI in development responsibly: AI‑augmented, but with validation of output as a non‑negotiable, and you set the example.

Qualifications

• 10+ years building production software, with a track record operating at staff or principal level.
• Demonstrated ownership of hard, cross‑cutting technical problems driven to durable solutions – not just shipped, but sound.
• Deep expertise in testing strategy and engineering‑quality infrastructure: test automation, E2E, mutation testing, CI/CD rigor. This is central to the role.
• Strong architecture and API design experience; able to make and defend consequential technical trade‑offs.
• A force‑multiplier track record – evidence that engineers around you got measurably better because of you.
• Influence without authority: you move technical direction through judgment and trust, not a reporting line.
• SaaS / platform experience; payments, IoT, or vertical‑SaaS exposure a plus.

Not a Delivery/Project Owner

• You own the technical solution – the architecture, the hard build, the standard – not the project plan, staffing, or timeline.

Not a Maintenance Seat

• You set the technical direction and crack the hard parts; ongoing implementation and upkeep are carried by the build pod and the FTE owners. You should be pointed at the ceiling, not absorbed into perpetual upkeep.

Benefits

• Competitive salary
• Equity
• Unlimited PTO and paid holidays
• Health benefits, including medical, dental, vision, mental health support, parental leave, life and AD&D insurance, and disability
• 401(k)
• Work‑from‑home and commuter stipends
• Laundry reimbursements to support our customers’ businesses
• Comprehensive training, learning, and development programming
• Access to hundreds of discounts and rewards from renowned vendors including deals on health & wellness, travel, dining, auto insurance, and so much more!