Principal Software Engineer - PA172

ZoomInfo; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 164,000 - 257,000; Full time

Job summary

ZoomInfo is accelerating careers by building a Go-to-Market Intelligence platform powered by real-time data and AI-ready insights. We design distributed systems, scalable APIs, and intelligent workflows that analyze billions of events daily.

You will work with engineers, data scientists, and product teams to deliver customer-facing features while mentoring teammates and advancing system observability and performance.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of backend, data, or infrastructure engineering experience, or equivalent impact and leadership.
• Proficiency in Java, Go, or Python.
• Solid grasp of SQL and large-scale data modeling.
• Familiarity with ClickHouse, DynamoDB, Bigtable, Memcached, Kafka, Kinesis, Firehose, Airflow, Snowflake.
• Experience with AI/ML and LLM-based extraction, classification, or reasoning tasks.

Responsibilities

• Design and build distributed systems that process, enrich, and respond to billions of behavioral events per day in real time.
• Develop high-performance APIs and services supporting advertising, identity, and intent features.
• Leverage ML/LLMs to analyze data, classify content, extract signals, and enable intelligent decisions.
• Build intelligent agents using frameworks like LangGraph or MCP to power insights.
• Operate data pipelines with Kafka, Kinesis, and ClickHouse for streaming and batch workloads.
• Drive quality, performance, scalability, and observability across all owned systems.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with product managers, data scientists, and engineers to deliver features and tooling.
• Contribute to technical leadership and mentorship of teammates.

Skills

Backend engineering

Distributed systems

Java

Go

Python

SQL

Big data

AI/ML

Tools

ClickHouse

DynamoDB

Bigtable

Memcached

Kafka

Kinesis

Firehose

Airflow

Snowflake

Job description

ZoomInfo is where careers accelerate. We move fast, think boldly, and empower you to do the best work of your life. You'll be surrounded by teammates who care deeply, challenge each other, and celebrate wins. With tools that amplify your impact and a culture that backs your ambition, you won't just contribute. You'll make things happen-fast.

What You'll Do

• Design and build distributed systems that process, enrich, and respond to billions of behavioral events per day in real time
• Develop high-performance APIs and services that support advertising, identity, and intent features across the Marketing Platform
• Leverage machine learning and large language models (LLMs) to analyze behavioral data, classify content, extract signals, and enable intelligent decision-making
• Build intelligent agents using frameworks like LangGraph or MCP to reason over data and power user-facing insights
• Design and operate data pipelines using tools like Kafka, Kinesis, and ClickHouse to support both streaming and batch workloads
• Drive quality, performance, scalability, and observability across all systems you own
• Collaborate cross-functionally with product managers, data scientists, and engineers to deliver customer-facing features and internal tooling
• Contribute to technical leadership and mentorship of teammates

What We're Looking For

• 8+ years of backend, data, or infrastructure engineering experience, or equivalent impact and leadership.
• Strong experience in at least one of the following:
  • Distributed systems engineering (e.g., building low latency high and throughput APIs, scalable microservices, event processing pipelines)
  • Big data infrastructure (e.g., streaming, warehousing, low-latency storage at scale)
  • Applied AI/ML, including use of LLMs for extraction, classification, or reasoning tasks
• Proficiency in one or more core languages: Java, Go, Python
• Solid grasp of SQL and large-scale data modeling
• Familiarity with databases and tools such as: ClickHouse, DynamoDB, Bigtable, Memcached, Kafka, Kinesis, Firehose, Airflow, Snowflake

AI-Native Development Mindset

• Comfortable using LLMs as part of your development workflow - whether via tools like Copilot, Cursor, ChatGPT, Claude, or others to boost productivity, explore architecture ideas, and rapidly prototype.
• Skilled at designing and implementing LLM-powered systems such as RAG pipelines, agent frameworks (e.g., LangGraph), or intelligent workflows that reason across large datasets in real time.

Bonus Points

• Experience in ad tech, real-time bidding (RTB), or programmatic systems
• Background in identity resolution, attribution, or behavioral analytics at scale
• Contributions to open source in ML, infrastructure, or data tooling
• Strong product instincts and a passion for building tools that drive meaningful outcomes

Actual compensation offered will be based on factors such as the candidate's work location, qualifications, skills, experience and/or training. Your recruiter can share more information about the specific salary range for your desired work location during the hiring process. We want our employees and their families to thrive.

In addition to comprehensive benefits we offer holistic mind, body and lifestyle programs designed for overall well-being. Learn more about ZoomInfo benefits here.

$163,800-$257,400 USD

About Us

ZoomInfo (NASDAQ: GTM) is the Go-To-Market Intelligence Platform that empowers businesses to grow faster with AI-ready insights, trusted data, and advanced automation. Its solutions provide more than 35,000 companies worldwide with a complete view of their customers, making every seller their best seller.

ZoomInfo is committed to protecting your privacy when you apply for jobs with us. Please review our Job Applicant Privacy Notice for more details on how we handle your personal information.

ZoomInfo may use a software-based assessment as part of the recruitment process. More information about this tool, including the results of the most recent bias audit, is available here.

ZoomInfo is proud to be an equal opportunity employer, hiring based on qualifications, merit, and business needs, and does not discriminate based on protected status. We welcome all applicants and are committed to providing equal employment opportunities regardless of sex, race, age, color, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, disability status, religion, protected military or veteran status, medical condition, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. We also consider qualified candidates with criminal histories in accordance with legal requirements.

For Massachusetts Applicants: It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability. ZoomInfo does not administer lie detector tests to applicants in any location.