Principle Software Engineer

Job Summary:

You’ll be the senior-most technical leader on our data platform — the foundation every OpenGov product depends on. Your primary mandate is to define how AI reshapes our platform: from the APIs and services that enable AI-powered product experiences, to the engineering workflows that let your team ship 3–10x faster with AI-assisted development. You’ll own the architecture of systems at scale and set the technical bar for an engineering team that’s operating in an AI-native way.

What you’ll ship:

• Architect and build the APIs and services that power OpenGov’s data and reporting platform at scale, with first-class support for AI agent consumption alongside human interfaces
• Define and drive the technical strategy for AI integration across the product — from agent-driven workflows and AI-powered data analysis to retrieval-augmented generation over government datasets
• Establish AI-augmented engineering practices across your teams: evaluate and adopt AI development tools, define review standards for AI-generated code, and measure the productivity impact
• Lead end-to-end delivery of features from design collaboration through production monitoring, using AI-assisted workflows to compress cycle times
• Identify performance bottlenecks and architectural choices that unlock the next stage of platform scale
• Mentor senior engineers and shape an engineering culture where AI fluency is a core competency, not an optional skill

You may be a good fit if you

• Have 10+ years building production software, with a clear track record of owning critical systems end-to-end
• Have deep experience with distributed systems, API design, and cloud infrastructure (we use AWS, Kubernetes, Docker)
• Are fluent across the stack — comfortable in React/TypeScript, Node.js, and relational + non-relational databases (PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis)
• Have led technical direction across multiple teams without needing formal authority — you lead through quality of thinking and trust
• Have hands-on experience building AI-powered product features: agents, AI-driven UX, workflow automation, or retrieval systems (direct ML/model training experience not required)
• Actively use AI-assisted development tools (Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, or similar) and have a point of view on how they change software engineering practices
• Take a product-focused approach: you understand customer problems and translate them into technical solutions, not just tickets
• Thrive in a fast-paced, high-growth environment where shipping daily and staying close to customer outcomes is the norm

Strong candidates may also have

• Experience designing APIs that serve both human users and AI agents, including context-aware retrieval and structured tool interfaces
• Experience with event-driven architectures and stream processing (Kafka preferred)
• Background in domain-driven design or serverless scaling strategies
• History of working directly with customers to improve product experiences
• Previous work in govtech, fintech, or regulated SaaS environments

Our stack

React · TypeScript · Ember.js · Node.js · GraphQL · REST · PostgreSQL · MongoDB · AWS · Azure · Kubernetes · Docker · GitHub