Principal Backend Engineer, Ruby on Rails

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in United States, +19 more locations.

📋 Description

• Take ownership of the technical strategy and architecture for our backend systems, documenting decisions that influence scalability, reliability, and long-term maintainability while proactively identifying and mitigating architectural risks and technical debt.

• Facilitate design reviews for significant backend projects and document key decisions as architecture decision records (ADRs).

• Define and oversee the functional discipline roadmap for backend engineering, ensuring alignment with the organization-wide roadmap, and collaborate with Product Leadership to identify and advocate for cross-cutting strategic initiatives.

• Establish and uphold engineering standards, including repository health (documentation, testing, structure), application performance, security, experimentation, and product analytics, by publishing them in the engineering playbook.

• Lead assessments of third-party engineering tools, making final decisions based on technical suitability and merit.

• Write production code for complex, high-impact challenges and perform comprehensive code reviews to enhance the quality of the codebase and elevate the skills of surrounding engineers.

• Utilize AI tools proficiently to boost your own productivity and that of the team—not merely as a novelty, but as a true multiplier—and guide others in achieving strong outcomes with these tools.

• Mentor engineers through pairing, design reviews, and constructive feedback, sharing knowledge widely through tech talks and contributions to the playbook.

⛳️ Requirements

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience with a proven trajectory into senior technical leadership roles.

• Extensive expertise in backend engineering, with a strong and current command of Ruby on Rails.

• Demonstrated experience in designing and delivering large-scale, distributed systems that are maintainable, observable, and reliable in production environments.

• Strong understanding of software design principles, including SOLID, DRY, domain-driven design, and event-driven architecture.

• Experience in leading technical design efforts across multiple teams or product areas without direct authority.

• Proven AI-forward practice: actively utilizing AI tools to achieve significant results and possessing a clear perspective on their advantages and limitations.

• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, capable of producing clear architecture documents, decision records, and technical specifications, and effectively communicating them to both engineers and non-engineers.

• Comfort in a remote, asynchronous work environment with a high level of ownership and autonomy.

🏝️ Benefits

• We are a fully distributed company – unless specifically indicated in the job description, this is a work-from-home position.

• Employer-matched 401(k).

• Medical/Dental/Vision insurance with generous employer contributions (including HSA).

• Maternity and Paternity leave and benefits.

• Three weeks of paid vacation, 12 paid holidays, a paid community service day, and a flexible work schedule.

• Annual wellness allowance, along with a paid mental health day each year when needed.

• Automatic WFH contribution included in each paycheck.

• Employee Assistance Program (EAP).