Yourgi Principal Engineering

Yourgi, Inc.; United States; Remote; USD 248,000 - 303,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Vision and dental

Life insurance

401(k) match

Pet care discounts

Flexible time off

Startup mentality

Job summary

Yourgi, a remote-first company in the United States, seeks a Principal Engineer to set technical direction for cloud services, data, and API design across our platform. You will own architecture, mentor engineers, and drive performance, observability, and cost-efficiency while collaborating with product and design.

Expected is a strong track record with AWS, serverless patterns, relational databases, and scalable systems.

Qualifications

• 12+ years building production software with leadership experience.
• Proven API, services, and data model design that multiple teams depend on.

Responsibilities

• Own the target cloud services architecture on AWS and the roadmap, simplifying Lambda estate.
• Lead service design with API patterns and versioned contracts across apps.
• Own database design, performance tuning, and data governance from MySQL to modern models.
• Draft architecture docs and chair cross-team reviews for payments, bookings, or customer data.
• Raise engineering bar for reviews, testing, observability, and latency budgets.
• Shape AI-assisted delivery workflow with product and design from PRD to deploy.
• Mentor senior engineers, aid hiring, and guide build-vs-buy in cloud/AI costs.

Skills

Leadership

Architectural vision

Mentoring

Strong written communication

Problem solving

Tools

AWS

Serverless

Microservices

CI/CD

Observability

MySQL/PostgreSQL

Job description

**Who we are:** Yourgi is on a mission to become Earth's most trusted pet care connector, connecting pet parents with a reliable local network of certified professionals, pet resorts, and veterinary centers. Backed by a passionate team, our mission is to make pet care simple, accessible, and joyful for all. Because pets aren't just animals—they're family.Yourgi's mission is to be pet parents' most trusted source for pet care services. We are building a differentiated experience for both pet parents and pros through our marketplace and software platform. Pet parents book grooming, boarding, daycare, and training, and independent pet-care pros run their businesses with Yourgi Pro, Connect, and Match. We also power booking for Destination Pet's own locations. We're rebuilding how we deliver: AI-first workflows from spec to deploy, automated testing at every layer, real production monitoring, and continuous delivery. As our first Principal Engineer, you'll set the technical direction for cloud services, service design, and data across API, web, and mobile. You'll own the architecture for our software platform, and you'll lead by example by designing, prototyping, reviewing, coding, and delivering simplicity from complexity and ambiguity. **LOCATION** **:** Remote (US only; must be authorized to work in the US, no visa sponsorship) **REPORTS TO**: VP of Engineering **PAY:** $275,000 base +20% bonus **CORE RESPONSIBILITES:** * Own the target cloud services architecture on AWS and the roadmap to get there, including simplifying a large estate of Lambda services and reducing dependence on legacy partner systems.* Lead service design: define service boundaries, event and API patterns, and versioned contracts that stay backward compatible with older app versions.* Own database design and optimization: data models, schema standards, query and index performance, and the path from today's MySQL databases to a well-governed data architecture.* Draft architecture and design documentation and chair reviews for any change that crosses teams or touches payments, booking, or customer data.* Raise the engineering bar for code review, testing strategy (unit through end-to-end and performance), observability, and performance budgets such as P75 latency.* Partner with Engineering Services on CI/CD, unattended deploys and rollbacks, and production monitoring.* Shape our spec-driven, AI-assisted delivery workflow with product and design, from PRD to stories, code, tests, and deploy.* Mentor senior engineers and tech leads, help hire, and assess build-vs-buy decisions with cloud, AI, and third-party cost in view. **30/60/90 plan** **First 30 Days:** Map the current architecture, data stores, key technical risks, and sources of production issues. Meet with every pod and its leads to understand existing workflows, challenges, and priorities. By the end of the first 30 days, review the current-state architecture and data map with the VP of Engineering and identify and rank the top 10 technical risks. **By Day 60:** Publish the target architecture and establish the direction for the data model. Collaborate with the Head of Backend Services to align on API contract and schema standards. By day 60, publish the target architecture and the first five architectural decision records, ensuring that API teams have adopted the agreed-upon contract and schema standards. **By Day 90:** Partner with a pod to implement and launch the first component of the target architecture. Run an AI-assisted workflow end to end on a live project to evaluate its effectiveness and practical application. By the end of 90 days, deliver the first architecture improvement to production with measurable results, such as improved latency, reduced costs, or lower error rates, and align with leadership on the 90-day technical roadmap for the next phase. **What will you need?** **Required skills and experience** * 12+ years building and running production software, including 4+ years as a staff, principal, or architect-level engineer.* Deep experience with AWS cloud services, serverless and event-driven systems, and microservice-to-platform migrations.* A record of designing APIs, services, and data models that many teams and client versions depend on.* Strong relational database design and performance tuning (MySQL or PostgreSQL), including schema evolution in live systems.* Hands-on with modern testing, CI/CD, and observability; you've made a team faster and more stable.* Practical experience using AI coding and agent tools on real codebases, with sound judgment about where they help.* Clear writing; you persuade with design docs, not authority.**Differentiators** * Marketplace, booking, scheduling, or payments (Stripe) systems.* Data architecture for analytics: pipelines, a data lake or warehouse (e.g., Snowflake), and event tracking.* Mobile apps that must support older versions in the field.* Technical leadership through an org or platform transformation. **PERKS:** * Health, vision, dental, long & short-term disability, and Life insurance* A Startup mentality company with stable funding* 401k match* Pet Care discounts* Flexible Time Off* Opportunity to grow your career with a network of like-minded professionals