Job Application for Principal Software Engineer at Engine

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Join Our Journey at Engine

At Engine, we’re revolutionizing work travel. Our modern travel platform isn’t just about booking trips; it’s about transforming how businesses and their teams experience travel. From seamless booking options with top airlines, hotels, and car rental providers to single-invoice billing and flexible trip modifications, we make travel not only easier to manage but also enjoyable. Backed by powerhouse investors like Telescope Partners, Blackstone, Elefund, and Permira, we’re growing fast—and we want you to be part of it.

Your Mission:

As a Principal Engineer at Engine, you will play a key role in shaping the technical direction of our platform as we transition from monolithic applications to a distributed architecture. You’ll work across teams to define service boundaries, ensure system coherence, and guide the evolution of our platform while maintaining scalability, performance, and maintainability.

You will:

Define and champion architectural best practices, helping teams design services that are modular, maintainable, and aligned with long-term business needs.
Lead the transition from monoliths to distributed systems, ensuring scalability, resilience, and long-term maintainability.
Shape the technical roadmap, working with engineering leaders to drive key decisions around service design, data flow, and system interactions.
Dive deep into technical challenges, collaborating with engineers to solve complex problems and ensure high-quality implementations.
Mentor and influence engineers, fostering a culture of strong engineering fundamentals, service ownership, and thoughtful system design.
Collaborate across teams to ensure our architecture supports business needs without unnecessary complexity.

What You’ll Bring to Engine:

We’re looking for someone who brings deep technical expertise, strategic thinking, and strong influence skills to help us scale our platform.

12+ years of experience designing and evolving high-scale distributed systems.
Strong architectural leadership—you have driven major technical initiatives across multiple teams and influenced engineering direction at an organizational level.
Expertise in designing modular, loosely coupled systems, with experience breaking down monolithic applications into well-structured services.
Proven ability to guide teams through complex technical challenges, making high-impact decisions in ambiguous environments.
Mastery of cloud environments and services (AWS preferred), including best practices for building reliable, scalable systems.
Experience designing APIs and defining clear service boundaries, ensuring interoperability and maintainability.
Deep understanding of distributed system patterns, including event-driven architectures, data consistency models, and service communication strategies (REST, gRPC, messaging).
Strong problem-solving skills and a pragmatic approach—you know when to apply best practices versus when to adapt to practical constraints.
Excellent collaboration and communication skills, with experience influencing engineering teams and leadership without direct authority.

Bonus if you have experience with:

AdTech or analytics platforms

Cash compensation: The base salary range for this role is $220,000 to $250,000. Final compensation packages are determined by various factors, including prior experience and expertise. This role is also eligible to receive equity compensation.

The Engine Edge: Perks & Compensation
We believe in rewarding great work with great benefits:

Compensation: Competitive base pay tied to role and experience, with opportunities for bonuses, commissions, and equity.
Benefits: Check out our full list at engine.com/culture.
Environments for Success: Different roles have different needs in terms of the environments that drive success which is why we have a hybrid-hub model. Whether you are in one of our amazing offices or fully remote, we’ll make sure you have what you need to succeed.

Perks and benefits may vary based on employment type, location, and more.

Ready to Build the Future of Work Travel?
Join us on our mission to transform how work travel works—for businesses, for travelers, and for the industry. Apply now and let’s make travel simpler, smarter, and more enjoyable—together.

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Principal Software Engineer

What You’ll Bring to Engine:

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