Principal Software Engineer - Hybrid AI Platforms Leader

Wayfair; Mountain View (CA); Hybrid; USD 210,000 - 280,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid in-office 3 days/week

Job summary

Wayfair is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to lead cross-domain architectural strategy across front-end, back-end, and platform layers. You will partner with Engineering Directors, Product, Design, Applied Science, and Data Science to define multi-year roadmaps and hands-on implementations.

You will shape AI-enabled platform architectures, establish guardrails for safety and cost, and mentor senior engineers while driving scalable, reliable experiences for millions of Wayfair customers.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of software engineering experience and a track record of large-scale distributed systems.
• Staff or Principal-level leadership across multiple teams and domains.
• Strong judgment in system trade-offs, architecture, and delivery.
• Proficiency in Java, GraphQL/REST data federation, and modern web tech.

Responsibilities

• Define and communicate a multi-year architecture strategy and roadmaps.
• Architect and evolve high-scale distributed systems across frontend, backend, and platform stacks.
• Drive ADRs, architecture reviews, prototypes, and critical technical decisions.
• Design AI-enabled platform architectures and guardrails for safety and cost.

Skills

Java

GraphQL/REST

Distributed systems

React/Next.js

Cloud/native

Observability

AI APIs

Tools

Next.js

React

Node.js

Kubernetes

CI/CD

Job description

Wayfair is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to lead cross-domain architectural strategy across front-end, back-end, and platform layers. You will partner with Engineering Directors, Product, Design, Applied Science, and Data Science to define multi-year roadmaps and hands-on implementations.

You will shape AI-enabled platform architectures, establish guardrails for safety and cost, and mentor senior engineers while driving scalable, reliable experiences for millions of Wayfair customers.