Principal Software Engineer, AI Email Applications, Artificial Intelligence (AI) Required - Work From Home
Next Step Systems Open At a glance
Senior Engineering Leadership role at Next Step Systems. Remote, United States · full-time · $160,000–$190,000 base.
remoteroles summary, based on the employer's posting.
What you'll do
- Set the engineering direction for backend, mobile and desktop applications, then guide delivery across those areas
- Design AI workflows that manage state, tool use, retries and failures without compromising reliability
- Create APIs and software layers that connect AI systems with usable product features
- Lead senior engineers through architecture and code reviews while staying involved in implementation
- Strengthen production monitoring, testing and operational practices, balancing speed, cost, reliability and user experience
What you bring
- AI experience is required, including work integrating products with machine learning or large language model capabilities
- You have led application or product engineering for complex systems and shipped backend software into production
- You bring deep expertise in at least one platform and can work across backend and client applications
Who this fits
This suits a hands-on technical leader who can guide a small, senior engineering team while remaining close to the code. The role is fully remote and requires completing a sixty-minute coding assessment.
From the employer
Principal Software Engineer, AI Email Applications, Artificial Intelligence (AI) Required - Work From Home
As the Principal Software Engineer, AI Email Applications, you own the engineering layer that turns Artificial Intelligence (AI) capability into a reliable product. You will shape the architecture across backend services, APIs, and client applications, while leading a small team of senior engineers. This is a hands-on leadership role. You stay close to the code, make critical architectural decisions, and ensure the system remains fast, reliable, and coherent as it scales. This position is 100% Remote.
MUST BE WILLING TO TAKE A 60 MINUTE CODING ASSESSMENT.
Principal Software Engineer Responsibilities:
- Own the application engineering strategy and execution across backend, mobile, and desktop.
- Design reliable systems for AI-powered workflows, including state, orchestration, tool use, retries, fallbacks, and failure handling.
- Build the APIs and abstractions that connect Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems to real-world product experiences.
- Lead a small, senior engineering team and raise the technical bar through design reviews, code reviews, and hands-on mentorship.
- Make high-impact trade-offs across latency, reliability, cost, security, and user experience.
- Establish strong production foundations: observability, monitoring, testing, and operational excellence.
- Partner closely with Machine Learning (ML) leadership to turn model capabilities into robust, shippable product experiences.
- Move quickly while keeping the architecture simple, maintainable, and ready to scale.
Principal Software Engineer Outcomes:
- Production systems are observable, monitored, and stable under real-world load.
- Decisions consistently balance speed, cost, reliability, and user experience.
- Features across backend, mobile, and desktop work smoothly and reliably.
- Latency and reliability improve measurably over time.
Principal Software Engineer Qualifications:
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) experience is required.
- Significant experience leading application or product engineering for complex systems.
- Strong hands-on background building and shipping backend systems used in production.
- Experience building AI-powered products or systems that integrate with modern Machine Learning (ML)/Large Language Model (LLM) capabilities.
- Strong technical judgment and the ability to make decisions with incomplete information.
- Comfortable working across backend and client platforms, with deep expertise in at least one.
- A strong bias toward ownership, shipping, and learning from real-world usage.
- High standards for code quality, reliability, and engineering fundamentals.
Benefits include medical insurance, Dental, Vision, Savings Plan Options, PTO, etc.
Keywords: San Francisco CA Jobs, AI, Artificial Intelligence, AI Email Applications, APIs, Backend, Desktop, IT Lead, LLM, Large Language Model, ML, Machine Learning, Mobile, Principal Software Engineer, Work From Home, Remote, California Recruiters, IT Jobs, California Recruiting
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Please check out all of our jobs at www.nextstepsystems.com.
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