Principal Software Engineer / Golang

Motion Recruitment; Arlington (VA); Hybrid; USD 170,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Motion Recruitment is seeking a Principal Software Engineer for a hybrid role in Herndon, VA, joining an early-stage AI startup. You will own backend architecture, cloud infrastructure, and distributed systems, working closely with customers to solve real-world production challenges.

With a lean engineering team, you'll influence long-term technical direction, drive reliability and performance, and take initiative with autonomy in a fast-paced startup environment.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• Strong experience with Go, Kubernetes, Python, and AWS.
• Experience designing, building, and owning distributed systems in production.
• Demonstrated ability to take projects from architecture through deployment and long-term ownership.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related technical field.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to thrive in a collaborative, fast-paced startup environment.
• Comfortable taking initiative, operating with autonomy, and making technical decisions with a high degree of ownership.
• Heavy customer-facing experience.

Responsibilities

• Own backend architecture, cloud infrastructure, and distributed systems.
• Collaborate with customers to solve production challenges and gather requirements.
• Influence long-term technical direction of the platform.
• Drive reliability, observability, and performance improvements in production.

Skills

Go

Kubernetes

Python

Distributed systems

Customer-facing

Architecture ownership

Communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Job description

An early-stage AI startup is hiring a Principal Software Engineer to join its team. This is a hybrid opportunity based in Herndon, VA.

The company is building the platform enterprises use to deploy, monitor, and optimize AI systems in production. As organizations move beyond AI pilots and prototypes, they're solving the operational challenges that emerge at scale - from reliability and observability to security, governance, and performance. With a lean engineering team, this role offers significant ownership over backend architecture, cloud infrastructure, and distributed systems, along with the opportunity to work closely with customers to solve real-world production challenges and influence the long-term technical direction of the platform.

Requirements

• 7+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• Strong experience with Go, Kubernetes, Python, and AWS.
• Experience designing, building, and owning distributed systems in production.
• Demonstrated ability to take projects from architecture through deployment and long-term ownership.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related technical field.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to thrive in a collaborative, fast-paced startup environment.
• Comfortable taking initiative, operating with autonomy, and making technical decisions with a high degree of ownership.
• Heavy customer-facing experience.