Principal Software Development Engineer

Next Matter; United States; Remote; USD 191,000 - 306,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading tech company in the United States seeks a Senior Engineer to evolve UX architecture for multimodal AI copilot experiences. The ideal candidate will have expertise in web development with React, TypeScript, and CSS, along with strong operational excellence focus. This role offers competitive compensation and the flexibility to work remotely from anywhere in the U.S.

Benefits

Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage

Parental leave and family benefits

Retirement contributions and paid time off

Qualifications

• 6–10 years experience delivering end-user applications at scale.
• Proficiency in designing and operating microservices and middle-tier systems.
• Strong skills in modern programming languages applied to production services.

Responsibilities

• Evolve the UX architecture for AI copilot experiences on web and mobile.
• Lead and ship high-impact, consumer-facing features.
• Mentor engineers and influence cross-functional partners.

Skills

Web development with React

TypeScript proficiency

CSS expertise

Microservices experience

Operational excellence focus

Education

Master’s in Computer Science/Computer Engineering

Tools

Java

C#

Golang

Job description

About the team

The Copilot Experience team is responsible for creating AI-powered user experiences that enable users to interact with Zillow’s agentic skills, providing them with a true copilot throughout their home-finding journey. We’re building application features that adapt to our users, with dynamic UIs, personalized content, and multimodal interaction through text, voice, and images. Our mission is to set the bar for how consumers collaborate with AI in real estate, from search and discovery through decision-making and action.

About the role

In this role, you will play a pivotal role in evolving our UX framework and architectural components to support multiple AI experiences at scale, on Zillow as well as with 3P integrations. You will balance architecture, project leadership, and hands-on development to help us deliver our most critical projects. Success requires deep modern web development expertise (e.g., React, TypeScript, CSS) and robust microservices experience across the middle tier, including backend-for-frontend (BFF) patterns. You will champion operational excellence, employ modern design patterns, and set high bars for performance, scalability, and resilience. You will also mentor and guide other engineers, establish best practices, and collaborate across teams so multiple product groups can contribute features and we can continuously integrate new agentic AI skills.

You Will Get To

• Evolve the UX architecture for AI copilot experiences on Zillow’s web and mobile platforms, as well as 3P integrations, with a strong focus on performance, reliability, and scale.
• Lead and ship high-impact, consumer-facing features that showcase multimodal AI (text, voice, image/video) and dynamic, AI-personalized interfaces.
• Build platform and BFF layers that enable multiple teams to contribute new capabilities and rapidly onboard additional agentic AI skills.
• Rapidly prototype experiences to validate concepts, inform design, and de-risk complex initiatives while maintaining a path to production quality.
• Mentor engineers, drive technical writing quality, set engineering standards, and influence cross-functional partners without formal authority.
• Own and improve operational excellence—observability, performance, CI/CD quality, and safe rollouts—across critical consumer experiences.

This role has been categorized as a Remote position. “Remote” employees do not have a permanent corporate office workplace and, instead, work from a physical location of their choice, which must be identified to the Company. U.S. employees may live in any of the 50 United States, with limited exceptions. In California, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Washington state, and Washington DC the standard base pay range for this role is $191,300.00 - $305,700.00 annually. This base pay range is specific to these locations and may not be applicable to other locations. In Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Minnesota, Nevada, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Vermont the standard base pay range for this role is $181,800.00 - $290,400.00 annually. The base pay range is specific to these locations and may not be applicable to other locations. In addition to a competitive base salary this position is also eligible for equity awards based on factors such as experience, performance and location. Actual amounts will vary depending on experience, performance and location. Employees in this role will not be paid below the salary threshold for exempt employees in the state where they reside.

Who you are

• A builder with a proven track record of delivering rich, user-facing applications to production at scale.
• A pragmatic technologist who leverages AI tools in development workflows to move faster and improve quality.
• A fast prototype practitioner who can demonstrate feasibility, clarify requirements, and surface risks early.
• An impeccable technical writer who communicates designs, tradeoffs, and decisions with clarity.
• An influencer who can lead without authority, align stakeholders, and drive outcomes across teams.

Qualifications

• Master’s in Computer Science/Computer Engineering, or equivalent industry experience.
• Proficiency in web development with React, TypeScript, and CSS building high-quality, performant user experiences.
• Strong skills in modern programming languages (e.g., Java, C#, Golang) applied to production services.
• Experience designing and operating microservices and middle-tier systems, including backend-for-frontend (BFF) patterns, databases, caching, and related.
• Demonstrated focus on operational excellence: performance, reliability, observability, testing strategy, and CI/CD.
• 6–10 years of experience delivering end-user applications at scale.

Desired skills

• Experience building AI applications using LLMs and other generative tools; familiarity with prompt engineering techniques, tool integration and orchestration, and multimodal input/output is a plus.
• Familiarity with AI-coding assistants (e.g. Cursor) for rapid prototyping and feature development.
• Test automation experience using frameworks like Playwright or Cypress.

Transferable Skills

Here at Zillow - we value the experience and perspective of candidates with non-traditional backgrounds. We encourage you to apply if you have transferable skills or related experiences.

Get to know us

Zillow is reimagining real estate to make home a reality for more and more people.

As the most-visited real estate website in the United States, Zillow and its affiliates help movers find and win their home through digital solutions, first class partners, and easier buying, selling, financing and renting experiences. Millions of people visit Zillow Group sites every month to start their home search, and now they can rely on Zillow to help make it easier to move. The work we do helps people get home and no matter what job you're in, you will play a critical role in making home a reality for more and more people.

Our efforts to streamline the real estate transaction are supported by a deep-rooted culture of innovation, our passion to redefine the employee experience, a fundamental commitment to Equity and Belonging, and world-class benefits. These benefits include comprehensive medical, dental, vision, life, and disability coverages as well as parental leave, family benefits, retirement contributions, and paid time off. We’re also setting the standard for work experiences of the future, where our employees are supported in doing their best work and living a flexible, well-balanced life. Read recent reviews on Glassdoor and recent recognition from multiple organizations, including: the 100 Best Companies to Work For, Glassdoor Employees’ Choice Award, Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index, Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equity Index, and TIME 100 Most Influential Companies list.

Zillow Group is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering an inclusive, innovative environment with the best employees. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please contact your recruiter directly.

Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with applicable state and local law.

Applicants who receive job offers from Zillow Group will be asked to sign a Proprietary Rights Agreement which includes confidentiality, intellectual property assignment, customer and employee non-solicitation, and non-competition provisions. If you are contacted for a role at Zillow Group and wish to review a copy of the Proprietary Rights Agreement prior to receiving an offer, you may request a copy from your Recruiter.