Principal Software Engineer

The Mandate

We are seeking a Principal Software Engineer to lead the design and development of core data systems that power a scalable automation platform. This role focuses on building foundational infrastructure for managing complex workflows, system state, and historical data in a high-reliability environment.

This is a highly technical, hands-on role centered on system architecture and platform design. You will create durable, extensible data models and services that enable other engineering teams to build efficiently and safely on top of a shared foundation.

What You’ll Own

• Data Architecture & System Design
• Define and evolve core data models for workflows, system state, actions, and outcomes
• Design scalable, maintainable abstractions across platform services
• Establish clear boundaries between systems and services to support team autonomy
• State Management & Data Systems
• Architect systems for managing workflow state and historical data across distributed infrastructure
• Ensure high performance, reliability, and scalability for high-throughput systems
• Make informed tradeoffs in data modeling, indexing, and access patterns
• Traceability & Data Integrity
• Design systems that support traceability and observability of system behavior
• Ensure data models and storage systems support auditing, versioning, and evolution over time
• Build mechanisms to maintain data consistency and integrity
• Engineering Standards
• Establish best practices for schema management, testing, and data quality
• Improve system reliability and reduce operational overhead through strong architectural patterns
• Collaborate with engineering teams to maintain consistency across the platform
• Environment & Technical Context
• Cloud infrastructure (e.g., AWS)
• Relational databases (e.g., Postgres)
• Backend services (e.g., Python)
• Workflow orchestration systems
• Modern frontend technologies (e.g., React, TypeScript)

What Success Looks Like

• Scalable and reliable data systems that support growing product and customer needs
• Clear and maintainable architecture enabling faster development across teams
• Reduced operational burden through improved system design and reliability
• Strong data governance and consistency across the platform

Ideal Background

• Must Have
• 12+ years owning data architecture in large-scale production systems
• Deep relational database and distributed systems expertise
• Strong experience evolving schemas in complex, regulated domains
• Clear judgment on normalization vs. denormalization, performance tradeoffs, and system boundaries
• Experience handling mission-critical incidents in production
• Comfort operating in ambiguous, fuzzy problem spaces
• Hands-on coding ability in a Python-heavy backend environment. Strong reliability instincts, including observability, testing, and QA rigor
• Nice to Have
• Experience in healthcare, fintech, or infrastructure environments
• Exposure to or experience with modern, scaled, high-throughput infrastructure environments
• Practical understanding of applied AI systems (not pure ML research)
• Comfort in customer-facing technical discussions

The Opportunity

• Build the first context graph and decision tracing system in healthcare
• Join a company that grew revenue 25x in 2.5 years ($1M to $25M)
• Architect greenfield infrastructure analogous to early RAG/LLM-era builds
• Operate in a low-ego, high-velocity engineering culture

Plenful Perks

• Comprehensive Benefits Package: Enjoy unlimited PTO, fully covered health insurance (medical, dental, and vision), meal stipend, health & wellness stipend, 401(k) matching, and stock options
• Mission-Driven, World-Class Team: Join an exceptional group of professionals aligned around a meaningful mission and committed to making an impact
• Opportunities for Growth: Strengthen your partnership expertise through collaboration with experienced, high-performing leaders across the organization
• Flexible Hybrid Work Environment: This position is based out of our downtown San Francisco office 2 days a week.