Principal, Software Engineer

Socket.dev; New York (NY); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

DEPT is seeking a Principal Engineer to act as the technical anchor for teams, owning end-to-end backend and distributed systems work. You will articulate architectural tradeoffs, work with product and client stakeholders, and guide engineers across frontend and backend domains to deliver robust software powered by GenAI tools.

You will influence architecture, drive delivery, mentor peers, and help shape client value through pragmatic tradeoffs between cost, speed, and craft.

Qualifications

• 7+ years writing software used by lots of people in the real world.
• 3+ years developing in Python, with deep expertise across stacks.
• Expert-level knowledge of backend architecture, API design, and system design patterns.

Responsibilities

• Lead the architectural design of complex backend and distributed systems end to end, including deployment, monitoring, incident response, and post-mortems.
• Take full ownership of workstreams; remove blockers and adapt plans as needed.
• Ensure technical scope, requirements, estimates, timelines, and risks are clearly documented.
• Act as a technical consultant to clients through presentations, demos, and workshops.
• Mentor junior engineers to foster collaboration and knowledge sharing.
• Lead smaller project teams (2 to 5 ICs) and collaborate with product, design, and PMs.

Skills

Python

Backend architecture

API design

System design patterns

GenAI tools

Docker

Version control

Angular

Typescript

Cloud providers

CI/CD tooling

Leadership

Tools

Docker

Angular

Typescript

Git

Job description

WHY DEPT®?

We are a Growth Invention company built to help the world’s most ambitious brands grow faster. Operating at the intersection of technology and marketing, we create what is next by pioneering ideas, acting fast, and moving further because standing still just is not in our DNA.

We are drawn to people who stay curious, move with intent, and never stop inventing. Our culture runs on three values: better together, relentlessly curious, and get sh*t done. It is how we work, how we grow, and how we make things that matter.

At DEPT®, you will find the freedom to explore, the space to collaborate, and the trust to make a real impact for our clients, for each other, and for the world we are helping to build.

What we believe in

We build software for the world's most ambitious brands, and we're opinionated about how it gets made:

• Code quality is a top priority. Style guides, code reviews, and best practices are how we move fast without breaking things. You'll also get your hands on a wide range of cutting-edge technology.
• Great UI/UX is critical. Aesthetics, usability, and speed are all part of the product. A technically correct experience that feels bad isn't finished.
• Collaboration wins projects. Great communication is the single strongest predictor of whether a project goes well.
• We're pragmatic. We know what to build and what to leave alone, and we make real-world tradeoffs between cost, speed, and craft. Shipping something useful beats architecting something perfect.
• We're intellectually curious. We're constantly learning through craft show & tells, lunch & learns, workshares, and active Slack channels full of talented engineers across the globe.

The role

As a Principal Engineer, you are the technical anchor for your team. You invent solutions that help ambitious brands grow faster, and you take whole projects from inception to launch with minimal oversight. You're as comfortable in an architecture review as you are in a client workshop. You can explain, in detail, to non-technical users engineering tradeoffs and how to create good software with GenAI tools and help them.

The work is primarily backend: distributed services, data platforms, agent and LLM-backed systems, and the integrations that hold them together. You'll own those systems end to end. You'll also need enough command of the modern frontend landscape to make architectural calls that account for it (API shape, latency budgets, rendering strategy) and to hold a credible conversation with the engineers building on top of your work.

You're comfortable consulting with and presenting to product managers, engineers, marketing, sales, and finance, and working with all of them to deliver working software. You can read a room, pitch the same system at the right altitude for each audience, and turn a conversation with non-engineers into requirements a team can build against.

What you'll do

• Lead the architectural design of complex backend and distributed systems end to end, including deployment, monitoring, incident response, and what the team learns afterward.
• Take full ownership of your workstreams. Don't get blocked: either find the answer or change the conditions that created the roadblock.
• Ensure that on every project, technical scope, requirements, estimates, timelines, and risks are clearly documented, and flag scope gaps, ambiguities, and documentation debt to project leadership before they become budget problems.
• Act as a technical consultant to clients: answer their questions across every part of the project, run presentations, demos, and workshops, and distill technical information for audiences from engineers to executives.
• Step back and ask whether the work being proposed actually maximizes client value, and say so when it doesn't.
• Mentor P1 and P2 engineers through pairing, code review, and design guidance, building a culture of collaboration and knowledge sharing.
• Lead smaller project teams (2 to 5 ICs) as needed, and partner effectively with Project Managers, designers, and other crafts.

What you bring

• 7+ years writing software used by lots of people in the real world.
• 3+ years developing in Python, with deep expertise across multiple technical stacks.
• Expert-level knowledge of backend architecture, API design, and system design patterns, including microservices and serverless.
• Familiarity with agent development, plus working knowledge of LLM concepts and the ability to make sound tradeoffs between cost, relevancy, and speed.
• Proven experience using GenAI productivity tools (Gemini CLI, Claude Code, Codex) in real development workflows, and willingness to push the boundaries of what they can do.
• Proven experience integrating APIs and other systems in to end-user facing applications.
• Excellent understanding of database platforms, both SQL and NoSQL.
• A working command of modern web frameworks (Preferably Angular and Typescript), enough to make architectural decisions that account for the frontend and to guide the engineers building against your services.
• Experience with one or more major cloud providers. Google Cloud preferred, AWS and Azure also fine.
• Hands-on comfort with Docker: you know how to containerize services cleanly, keep local development environments consistent, and troubleshoot without getting stuck.
• Proficiency in version control (git, mercurial), Agile processes, and CI/CD tooling.
• A natural problem-solver who takes initiative and drives things forward with minimal guidance, with a track record of "getting sh*t done" in a fast-paced environment.
• Enjoyment of client conversations, and skill at distilling technical information for a variety of roles within a business.
• Strong leadership skills and the ability to influence technical and non-technical stakeholders alike.
• Commitment to DEPT®'s B Corp values and purpose-driven work.

Bonus points

• Experience with an agent development framework, especially Google's Agent Development Kit (ADK).
• Angular experience.
• Prior experience in a digital agency or high-growth environment leading cross-functional teams.
• People management experience.
• Hands-on experience architecting microservices and distributed systems

WHAT DO WE OFFER?

We are a collaborative, open-door, best-idea-wins environment that f…