Principal Platform Engineer

Istari; United States; On-site; USD 145,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Istari is seeking a Senior Platform Engineer to own the end-to-end Core Platform architecture, including backend services, SDKs, AI-enabled workflows, and supporting infrastructure.

You will design scalable APIs and event-driven systems, mentor engineers, and partner with product, infra, and customer success to deliver extensible, reliable platform capabilities for traditional integrations and AI-driven use cases.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• Proven experience building scalable, reliable, and secure distributed systems, including AI/ML-enabled components.
• Strong REST API design and event-driven architecture skills.
• Proven technical leadership and cross-functional collaboration.

Responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end architecture of the Core Platform, including backend services, SDKs, AI-enabled components, and infrastructure.
• Design and implement scalable APIs, event-driven systems, distributed services, and AI-integrated capabilities.
• Architect systems that integrate AI models in production with focus on observability, latency, cost, and failure handling.
• Lead API design with usability, performance, and long-term maintainability.
• Mentor engineers and elevate engineering best practices across the team.

Skills

Distributed systems

REST API design

Python

Microservices

Leadership

Job description

We are seeking a Senior Platform Engineer to join our Core Platform team. In this role, you will own and evolve the end-to-end architecture of the Core Platform, including backend services, SDKs, AI-enabled capabilities, and supporting infrastructure.

You will design and operate scalable APIs, event-driven systems, distributed services, and AI-integrated workflows, ensuring high standards for reliability, performance, observability, and security. This role requires strong architectural judgment, hands-on technical leadership, and the ability to collaborate cross-functionally to deliver extensible platform capabilities that support both traditional integrations and AI-driven use cases.

You will help set technical direction, mentor engineers, and drive engineering best practices across the team.

Core Responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end architecture of the Core Platform, including backend services, SDKs, AI-enabled components, and related infrastructure.
• Design and implement scalable APIs, event-driven systems, distributed services, and AI-integrated capabilities (including AI/ML and MCP integrations).
• Architect systems that reliably incorporate AI models into production environments, with strong attention to observability, latency, cost management, and failure handling.
• Lead API design and implementation with a focus on usability, performance, and long-term maintainability.
• Architect and evolve microservices using domain-driven design principles.
• Build platform abstractions and primitives that enable AI-driven workflows and agent-based capabilities.
• Partner closely with Product, Infra, and Customer Success teams to deliver seamless, customer-centric integration capabilities.
• Provide technical leadership, mentorship, and architectural guidance to engineers.
• Establish and elevate engineering best practices across design, development, testing, and operations.

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• Proven experience building scalable, reliable, and secure distributed systems, including systems that integrate AI/ML capabilities.
• Experience integrating AI-powered features into production systems, with an understanding of performance, reliability, and governance considerations.
• Deep expertise in REST API design and implementation.
• Experience designing and operating event-driven architectures.
• Strong coding skills across multiple layers of the stack (backend services, SDKs, developer tooling, and AI-integrated systems).
• Strong understanding of microservices architecture and domain-driven design.
• Strong proficiency in Python (object-oriented and functional programming).
• Experience with Golang and TypeScript desired.
• Track record of technical leadership, mentorship, and cross-functional collaboration.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to influence at both technical and strategic levels.
• Must be a US citizen living within the United States.

About Istari Digital

Istari is a digital engineering software company building open, scalable infrastructure for engineering data. Our platform lets customers simply and securely integrate engineering models across disciplines, organizations, and security levels — whether they're designing prototypes, performing virtual testing, or training AI and autonomy for complex systems.

Focus is rewarded. Finish is remembered.

Facts are friendly. Even when they are not fun.

Fellowship is fundamental. Make others successful.

145000 - 190000 USD a year

The anticipated compensation range for this position may vary based on experience, skills, qualifications, location, and business needs. In addition to base salary, this role may be eligible for bonuses, equity, and a comprehensive benefits package.