Principal – Staff Software Engineers

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in California, +2 more states.

📋 Description

• Define and enhance the comprehensive architecture for Unstructured’s data transformation and retrieval platform.

• Develop and expand distributed systems that handle significant volumes of unstructured data across various formats and sources.

• Act as the organization-wide expert on Kubernetes orchestration, cluster design, performance optimization, and reliability.

• Lead the architectural direction and best practices for Python—ensuring performance, modularity, and maintainability across services.

• Design and refine Postgres schemas, queries, and indexing strategies to support extensive metadata and retrieval pipelines.

• Guide senior engineers through design evaluations and coding support, elevating the standard of technical excellence within the organization.

• Collaborate with infrastructure and product teams to convert research prototypes into production-ready systems.

• Assess emerging technologies and open-source tools in LLM infrastructure, retrieval, and orchestration—determining the best integration methods.

⛳️ Requirements

• Possess 10+ years of software engineering experience with a specialization in distributed systems, infrastructure, or data architecture.

• Be a Python specialist—capable of creating frameworks and high-performance services from the ground up.

• Have extensive Kubernetes knowledge; able to design, deploy, and debug at scale while teaching others how to implement it securely in production.

• Be proficient in Postgres—understanding query planning, partitioning, and tuning for high-throughput scenarios.

• Have a passion for clean, scalable architecture and the ability to lead design reviews that influence the evolution of entire systems.

• Bring experience in high-performance data or AI/ML systems—particularly those involving retrieval pipelines, embeddings, or hybrid workloads.

• Excel in fast-paced, uncertain environments where technical depth and judgment are prioritized over rigid processes.

🏝️ Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision coverage effective the 1st of the month following your start date.

• Life and disability insurance.

• Unlimited PTO.

• Flexible parental leave.

• 401(k) with company match.

• Equity.

• $500 work from home stipend.

• $70/month internet reimbursement.

• Team/company offsites throughout the year.