Principal Software Engineer

Troupe

Pittsburgh (Allegheny County)

Hybrid

USD 120,000 - 160,000

Full time

14 days+

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Benefits offered by this job

Equity in an early-stage startup

100% covered Medical insurance

401(k) retirement savings plan

Unlimited Flexible Time Off

Macbook and related equipment provided

Team hangouts and social events

Job summary

A tech-driven startup based in Pittsburgh, PA is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to lead the development of innovative language-driven systems. In this role, you will guide the design and implementation of robust software solutions and work closely with the CEO and CPO. Ideal candidates have at least 7 years of experience in software development with a focus on AI and natural language processing. Benefits include comprehensive medical coverage, equity options, and unlimited flexible time off.

Qualifications

7+ years of experience building and shipping production systems.
Deep experience with language-driven systems in production.
Strong architectural judgment for designing scalable solutions.

Responsibilities

Lead design and implementation of frontend and backend architecture.
Develop software solutions in coordination with product teams.
Document solutions with clear code and detailed diagrams.

Skills

Python

TypeScript

Natural Language Processing

Machine Learning

Systems Design

Generative AI

Education

B.S. or higher in Computer Science or related discipline

Job description

engineering

Principal Software Engineer

Pittsburgh, PA or Remote full-time

About the role

The Future We’re Building

Imagine if you had to do your job with no data, no tool, no visibility into performance, and no support. This is what marketing teams experience daily when it comes to quantifying the execution of their go-to-market story and messaging. They have to operate in the blind. Nowhere else in the modern organization is this the case, yet it sits at the center of any company’s go-to-market motion. And in most cases, it’s the difference between winning and losing. It’s time to change this, so let’s fix it together.
Troupe's Vision: To empower every organization and its people with the ability to confidently say the right thing. Today, it means we’re building the first‑ever AI go-to-market story tool. Tomorrow, it means we’re building the first‑ever AI go-to‑market intelligence layer.

What you'll do

Principal Software Engineer (possible transition to Chief Architect or Co‑CTO)

What You’ll Work On:

Lead the design, implementation and maintenance of frontend and backend architecture of Troupe’s language‑driven systems, working and coordinating with the rest of the engineering team.
Develop software solutions by working with Product to: understand information and user needs; study systems flow, data usage, and work processes; investigate problem areas; and follow the software development lifecycle.
Lead the building of integrations that leverage data for our users and customers.
Leverage your experience in the following and integrate them into your work flows and into the product: natural language processing, generative AI, traditional machine learning techniques, large language model and data fine tuning, mini language models, custom built syntax, and agentic workflows.
Use AI agents as teammates for scaffolding code, writing code, testing code, debugging, and exploring ideas faster.
Document and demonstrate solutions by developing documentation, flowcharts, layouts, diagrams, charts, code comments, and clear code.
Update job knowledge by studying state‑of‑the‑art dev tools and programming techniques.
Support and develop software engineers by providing advice, coaching, and educational opportunities.

Who You’ll Work With:

CEO, CPO, and a star‑powered eng. team consisting of humans and agents. You’ll report directly to the CEO and Chief Product Officer.
This is a highly impactful role where your daily work materially moves the needle and the company’s direction.

What we’re looking for

The Qualifications You Bring:

B.S., M.S., or higher in computer science, information technology, or related discipline.
7+ years building and shipping production systems from zero to one. You have architected core platforms early in a company’s life, not just contributed features.
Strong foundation in computer science, machine learning, and systems design, earned through real‑world system building and/or formal education.
Deep experience building language‑driven systems in production, including:
- NLP pipelines
- Large language model orchestration
- Retrieval augmented generation
- Embeddings and vector databases
- Fine tuning or training task specific models
- Model evaluation and hallucination mitigation
- Structured reasoning and agent based workflows
You turn messy, real world data into structured, dependable intelligence layers others can build on.
You build infrastructure, not demos.
Strong architectural judgment. You design for speed today without creating fragility tomorrow.
Highly fluent in Python and TypeScript (React / Next.js), comfortable across backend, frontend, data, and infrastructure.
Strong engineering discipline: testing, CI/CD, observability, clean abstractions, and secure system design.
Comfortable being the technical center of gravity in a very small team, setting standards and making high leverage architectural decisions.
Bias toward shipping, iterating, and learning quickly in ambiguity.
Strong adherence to software development fundamentals, process, testing, and design.