Principal Software Engineer

About the role

Snap Inc. is a technology company that believes the camera presents the greatest opportunity to improve the way people live and communicate. The company operates Snapchat, a visual messaging app, and Specs Inc., a subsidiary dedicated to making computing more human, among other digital services. We are seeking a Principal Software Engineer to join our team.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and scale critical engineering components and services to support Snap's most strategic initiatives
• Work across teams to understand product requirements, evaluate trade-offs, and deliver the solutions needed to build innovative products or services
• Advocate for and apply best practices when it comes to availability, scalability, operational excellence, and cost management
• Provide technical direction that influences the entire company
• Utilize AI tools and high velocity engineering workflows to design and ship scalable services while upholding rigorous standards for code correctness, security, and production ready quality code

Requirements

• Excellent programming and software design skills, including debugging, performance analysis, and test design
• Proven track record of operating highly-available systems at scale
• Ability to proactively learn new concepts and technology and apply them at work
• Skilled at solving ambiguous problems
• Strong collaboration and mentorship skills
• Proficiency in, or a strong aptitude for, leveraging AI tools to streamline development, paired with the critical judgment to audit generated output for architectural integrity, performance bottlenecks, and security risks
• Adaptability in learning and applying evolving AI systems and tools to remain at the forefront of engineering trends and modern development practices

Qualifications

• Bachelors in technical field such as computer science, mathematics, statistics or equivalent years of experience
• 10+ years of post-Bachelor’s software development experience; or a Master’s degree in a technical field + 9+ year of post-grad software development experience; or a PhD in a related technical field + 6+ years of post-grad software development experience
• 2+ years of experience with technical leadership or acting as the domain-expert to a technical organization
• Experience in technical leadership/ownership and setting technical direction for engineering projects
• Experience architecting, designing, and developing distributed systems

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced degree in a technical field such as computer science
• Experience with cross platform development
• Ability to promote product excellence and collaboration, driving a portfolio of concurrent engineering projects, from short-term critical feature launches to long-term research initiatives
• Ability to create a compelling vision for the future, communicate clearly, and have a collaborative leadership approach

Benefits

We offer a variety of benefits including paid parental leave, comprehensive medical coverage, emotional and mental health support programs, and compensation packages that let you share in Snap’s long-term success!

Pay

The starting pay for this position may be negotiated within the salary range for the position. These pay zones may be modified in the future.

Schedule

This position is eligible for equity in the form of RSUs.