Principal Engineer, New Products

Wwshemi; United States; Remote; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

PetDesk is seeking a Principal Engineer, New Products to own the system design vision for a new business line. You will set architecture, translate business needs into technical decisions, and drive a hands-on, AI-enabled development approach with a small contractor team.

You will work across Product, Engineering, Operations, and leadership to deliver scalable, reliable solutions. The role emphasizes architecture-level impact, quality, performance, and long-term maintainability, with a builder

Qualifications

• 10+ years of software engineering experience, including leadership at Staff/Principal level.
• Hands-on C#/.NET and cloud-native development experience.
• Designed distributed systems, APIs, and third-party integrations at scale.
• Strong architecture skills: event-driven design and data modeling.
• Turns business requirements into clear system design and delivery plans.
• Leads cross-functional teams and contractors with influence, not authority.
• Daily hands-on use of AI coding agents to inform design and review processes.

Responsibilities

• Lead the technical vision, architecture, and long-term strategy for the platform.
• Design and evolve a platform supporting many third-party integrations with reliability and observability.
• Architect data pipelines, APIs, and services enabling seamless data exchange among clinics, owners, manufacturers, and partners.
• Translate business needs into scalable technical solutions aligned with product roadmap.
• Scale platforms and teams through processes, automation, and AI-assisted development.
• Oversee end-to-end technical execution, timelines, dependencies, and cross-functional coordination.
• Conduct architecture reviews and provide hands-on guidance across multiple teams.
• Set technical standards for contractors and potential future teams.
• Build hands-on daily with AI coding agents and set best practices for their use.

Skills

C#/.NET

Cloud-native development

Distributed systems design

Architectural leadership

AI-assisted development

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS or related field

Tools

Claude Code

Azure

Job description

About this role:

The Principal Engineer, New Products is a senior technical leadership role that owns the system design vision for a new business line. This person sets the architecture, translates business requirements into sound technical decisions, and pulls the pieces and teams together around one direction. They provide technical leadership to a contractor team of three from day one, with potential for 1-2 additional small teams over time, and work closely with Product, Engineering, Operations, and business leaders. The role is hands-on and scales through process, automation, and AI-assisted development rather than headcount. It is internally facing and does not include external, commercial, or partner-facing work.

This role requires balancing strategic thinking with pragmatic execution - helping teams solve complex challenges while maintaining a strong focus on quality, performance, on-time delivery, and long-term maintainability. The ideal candidate is equally comfortable operating at a systems architecture level and rolling up their sleeves to move a critical initiative forward. They bring a builder's mindset, a bias toward action, and the interpersonal skills to work effectively across internal teams and stakeholders alike. They use AI coding agents such as Claude Code every day and look to scale through the process before adding people.

• Lead the technical vision, architecture, and long-term engineering strategy for the platform, driving architectural decisions that balance speed, flexibility, maintainability, and long-term platform health as the business grows

• Design and evolve a platform capable of supporting integrations across dozens of third-party systems - including pharmaceutical manufacturers and clinic systems - while maintaining reliability, observability, and operational excellence

• Architect data pipelines, APIs, and services that enable seamless data exchange between veterinary clinics, pet owners, drug manufacturers, and industry partners

• Translate business requirements and customer needs into scalable technical solutions that directly support product roadmap planning and prioritization

• Scale the platform and teams through process, automation, and AI-assisted development rather than headcount, while streamlining processes, reducing manual effort, and improving system reliability and throughput

• Oversee the end-to-end technical execution of key initiatives - managing timelines, dependencies, and cross-functional coordination to ensure on-time delivery and high-quality outcomes

• Conduct architecture reviews and hands-on technical guidance sessions, providing project-level oversight for complex initiatives spanning multiple teams and systems

• Set the technical standards and deliverables for a contractor team, with the potential to grow to 1-2 additional small teams

• Build hands-on every day with AI coding agents such as Claude Code, and set the standard for how teams use them

• Identify and mitigate technical risks associated with third-party integrations, data quality, platform scalability, and system performance before they impact customers or partners

• Evaluate emerging technologies and industry trends related to integrations, data platforms, APIs, and distributed systems to inform the technical roadmap

About You:

• 10+ years of software engineering, including 3+ years at a Staff or Principal level or equivalent technical leadership

• Hands-on C#/.NET (our primary stack) and cloud-native development, including building proofs of concept

• Designed distributed systems, APIs and third-party integrations at scale, ideally in healthcare, veterinary tech, fintech or SaaS

• Strong architecture skills: event-driven design, data modeling, and pragmatic tradeoffs between short-term needs and long-term scalability

• Turns business requirements into a clear system design and delivery plan

• Aligns multiple teams without formal authority and leads a small team, including contractors, through standards and process

• Has built a new product or system from scratch

• Daily hands-on use of AI coding agents such as Claude Code, with the ability to explain how they change the way you design, build and review

PetDesk combines the industry's most user-friendly client engagement tools with the highest-rated pet parent app to simplify your veterinary clinic’s operations while strengthening client relationships.

Our recruiting process is rooted in "Who: The A Method of Hiring". This standardized interview process allows candidates to answer the same questions, experience the same process, and ensure a fair performance review from multiple perspectives.