Principal Software Engineer, Backend Engineering

Location: Seattle, WA or McLean, VA or Remote

About Trase

Co-founded in 2023 by Joe Laws and Grant Verstandig, Trase Systems is AI, Uncomplicated. Trase empowers enterprise leaders to harness the full potential of AI without the associated complexity and risks. We are an end-to-end solution for deploying, managing, and optimizing AI in the enterprise. Our platform specializes in bridging the “last mile” of AI adoption, unlocking AI's full potential while driving efficiency and significant cost savings. Trase is at the forefront of AI Agent innovation, topping the Hugging Face GAIA Leaderboard for Generalized AI Assistants, ahead of industry giants such as Google, Meta, Microsoft, and OpenAI. We are leveraging our cutting-edge technologies to develop mission-critical agentic applications in complex industries such as Healthcare, Oil & Gas, and National Security. 

About the Role

Are you passionate about building scalable and robust backend services? Do you excel at building microservices and managing cloud infrastructure? If so, we have an exciting opportunity for you as a Principal Backend Software Engineer at Trase Systems.

As a Principal Software Engineer specializing in Backend Engineering, you will play a pivotal role in designing, developing, and maintaining our backend services and cloud infrastructure. You will work with a team of talented engineers to deliver high-quality, scalable solutions that power Trase’s agentic applications. If you're a hands-on problem solver with a passion for innovation, cloud technologies, and shaping the future of enterprise AI, we invite you to join our mission.

Responsibilities

• Define and own the long-term technical vision and architectural roadmap, aligning it with business and product strategy.  
• Drive the selection and governance of foundational technologies, frameworks, and architectural patterns.
• Future-proof the platform by anticipating technical challenges and industry trends.
• Establish and enforce engineering-wide best practices for architecture, code, and design.  
• Drive initiatives to reduce technical debt and enhance platform scalability, security, performance, and observability.  
• Serve as the decision-maker on critical system designs, ensuring architectural cohesion across teams.
• Mentor senior engineers and tech leads, elevating the team's architectural and problem-solving skills.  
• Lead hands-on by prototyping solutions and solving the most complex technical challenges.  
• Cultivate a culture of technical excellence and innovation across the engineering organization.
• Translate ambiguous business needs into clear technical strategies by partnering with executive, product, and enterprise leaders.  
• Communicate complex architectural decisions to all stakeholders to build consensus and drive company-wide alignment.

Requirements

• 10-15+ years of experience designing, building, and operating large-scale, distributed, cloud-native platforms.  
• Proven experience as a Principal/Staff Engineer or Senior Architect, setting technical direction and making high-impact architectural decisions across multiple teams.  
• Proficiency in programming languages such as Python, Go, or Typescript, with a strong ability to write clean, maintainable code.
• Expertise in modern cloud architecture (GCP, AWS, Azure), containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), and IaC (Terraform).  
• Deep knowledge of scalable architectures, API design (REST, gRPC), and event-driven systems.  
• A systems-thinking approach to problem-solving and making strategic trade-offs (performance, cost, security).  
• Exceptional communication skills with a proven ability to drive technical alignment.  
• Significant plus: Experience with infrastructure for ML Ops (model training, deployment, monitoring).
• BS/MS in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent experience.

Benefits

• 100% employer-paid, comprehensive health care including medical, dental, and vision for you and your family. 
• Paid maternity and paternity for 14 weeks at employees' normal pay. 
• Unlimited PTO, with management approval. 
• Opportunities for professional development and continued learning with educational reimbursements. 
• Optional 401K, FSA, and equity incentives available. 
• Mental health benefits through TARA Mind.

Some travel is required.

If you want to be on the cutting edge of technology, building AI solutions for the future, and are up for a challenge, let’s talk!

Salary Range: $200,000-300,000. This represents the typical salary range for this position based on experience, skills, and other factors.

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