Principal Software Engineer

Social Native

Los Angeles (CA)

On-site

USD 180,000 - 240,000

Full time

14 days+

Get more replies from employers

Send a job-specific resume in minutes.

Benefits offered by this job

Health, dental, and vision insurance

Competitive compensation

401(k) Retirement Plan

Unlimited Vacation Policy

Job summary

A leading content marketplace technology company based in Los Angeles seeks a Principal Engineer to lead the technical strategy and innovation for their creator marketing platform. This role requires expertise in software development, AI/ML solutions, and distributing engineering leadership. The successful candidate will balance coding with strategy while working with cutting-edge technologies, focusing on enhancing digital content strategies for major brands. Competitive compensation and benefits including unlimited vacation are offered.

Qualifications

8+ years of hands-on software development experience with recent production coding.
3+ years in technical leadership roles, preferably in fast-paced startup environments.
Strong written and verbal communication skills for async collaboration.
Experience with distributed systems, microservices, and event-driven design.
Strong AWS and Kubernetes experience with scalability and observability.
Product-minded approach translating technical complexity into business value.
Excellent written and verbal communication for async collaboration.

Responsibilities

Drive technical strategy and architecture for product initiatives.
Maintain hands-on involvement on critical features.
Lead and mentor a distributed engineering team.
Partner with Product Management to translate requirements into scalable solutions.
Architect and implement AI for creator matching, content optimization, and campaign intelligence.
Establish engineering standards, reviews, testing, monitoring, and incident response.
Define engineering metrics to ensure reliability and velocity.
Design microservices and API strategies to enable rapid product innovation.
Optimize cloud infrastructure for performance and cost efficiency.

Skills

Software development

AI/ML solutions

Technical leadership

Web technologies (Node.js, React)

Distributed systems

AWS and Kubernetes

Communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science

Tools

GraphQL

Kafka

RabbitMQ

Kafka

RabbitMQ

Datadog

New Relic

Prometheus

Job description

Described as the “Uber of Content,” Social Native is a marketplace technology company providing brands the ability to scale high‑quality content creation and optimize their cross‑channel digital marketing strategies. By connecting brands & agencies with a diverse network of creators, we provide data‑driven insights, streamline content production, and improve performance across social and e‑commerce channels. Brands like Unilever, Adidas, L’Oréal, Crocs, and Nestlé trust Social Native to enhance their paid and organic social strategies through user‑generated content (UGC), branded content, and content editing solutions, ensuring they have the right creative assets to drive engagement and conversions.

We’re looking for a hands‑on Principal Engineer who can seamlessly blend technical excellence with strategic leadership. If you have deep coding expertise, proven AI implementation experience, and a product‑focused mindset, we want you to help drive Social Native’s next chapter of innovation!

Role Overview

As Principal Engineer at Social Native, you’ll be the senior technical voice driving innovation across our creator marketing platform. Reporting directly to the GM, you’ll provide both technical leadership and hands‑on expertise to deliver cutting‑edge AI‑powered features and new product capabilities. You’ll set the technical direction for a distributed engineering team while remaining deeply involved in architecture decisions and critical implementations. This is a unique opportunity to shape the future of creator marketing technology while working with modern AI and cloud‑native technologies.

Key Responsibilities

Drive technical strategy and architecture for new product initiatives, with emphasis on AI‑powered features and platform capabilities
Maintain hands‑on involvement (40‑50% coding) on critical path features, particularly AI/ML implementations and complex system design
Lead and mentor a distributed engineering team across multiple time zones, establishing technical standards and best practices
Partner closely with Product Management to translate business requirements into scalable technical solutions
Architect and implement AI solutions for creator matching, content optimization, and campaign intelligence
Establish engineering excellence through code reviews, testing standards, monitoring, and incident response processes
Define and track engineering metrics (deployment frequency, lead time, MTTR) to ensure team productivity and system reliability
Design microservices architecture and API strategies that enable rapid product innovation
Optimize cloud infrastructure for performance, reliability, and cost efficiency
Champion a product‑minded engineering culture where technical decisions are driven by customer and business impact

Qualifications

8+ years of hands‑on software development experience with recent production coding
3+ years in technical leadership roles, preferably in fast‑paced startup environments
Deep expertise in modern web technologies (Node.js, React, GraphQL, TypeScript) with ability to review and write production code
Proven track record implementing AI/ML solutions in production (OpenAI, LangChain, vector databases, RAG patterns)
Experience with distributed systems, microservices architecture, and event‑driven design (Kafka, RabbitMQ)
Strong AWS and Kubernetes experience with focus on scalability and observability
Track record of managing distributed engineering teams across 6+ hour time zones
Product‑minded approach with ability to translate technical complexity into business value
Experience with real‑time systems, high‑volume data processing, and API design
Strong written and verbal communication skills for async collaboration
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or equivalent practical experience

Preferred Skills

Experience in creator economy, marketplace platforms, or content management systems
Background in building B2B SaaS products with enterprise customers
Familiarity with Meta, TikTok, or other social platform APIs
Experience with recommendation systems and content ranking algorithms
Knowledge of modern observability tools (Datadog, New Relic, Prometheus)
Track record of introducing new technologies that unlock product capabilities
Experience with rapid prototyping and iterative product development
Previous startup experience through growth phases

What Success Looks Like

Ship AI‑powered features that differentiate our platform in the market
Establish technical standards that improve team velocity by 30%+
Reduce system incidents while increasing deployment frequency
Build a culture of innovation where engineers are empowered to propose and lead technical initiatives
Successfully balance strategic thinking with hands‑on execution
Become the trusted technical advisor to leadership on product feasibility and innovation opportunities

Why This Role Is Unique

This isn’t a pure management role or an ivory tower architect position. You’ll be actively coding, reviewing PRs, and debugging production issues while also setting technical strategy and mentoring the team. You’ll have the autonomy to make significant technical decisions and the opportunity to build innovative features from the ground up using cutting‑edge AI technologies.

Benefits