Principal Engineer

\n

About this role:

The Principal Engineer is a senior individual contributor role that provides technical leadership for a rapidly growing platform initiative and partners closely with Engineering, Product, Operations, and business stakeholders to shape the platform's architecture, scalability, and long-term technical strategy. This individual will lead complex technical initiatives and drive key architectural decisions that enable teams to deliver reliable, scalable solutions. Beyond pure technical leadership, the Principal Engineer will bring demonstrated operational awareness and project management experience — serving as a connective force between engineering execution and real-world business outcomes. They will play a hands-on role in identifying operational efficiencies, contributing to product roadmap discussions, and ensuring that the platform's technical direction directly supports the goals of our customers and partners.

This role requires balancing strategic thinking with pragmatic execution — helping teams solve complex challenges while maintaining a strong focus on quality, performance, on-time delivery, and long-term maintainability. The ideal candidate is equally comfortable operating at a systems architecture level and rolling up their sleeves to move a critical initiative forward. They bring a builder's mindset, a bias toward action, and the interpersonal skills to work effectively across internal teams and external stakeholders alike.

Apply if you’re excited to:

• Lead the technical vision, architecture, and long-term engineering strategy for the platform, driving architectural decisions that balance speed, flexibility, maintainability, and long-term platform health as the business grows

• Design and evolve a platform capable of supporting integrations across dozens of third-party systems — including pharmaceutical manufacturers and clinic systems — while maintaining reliability, observability, and operational excellence

• Architect data pipelines, APIs, and services that enable seamless data exchange between veterinary clinics, pet owners, drug manufacturers, and industry partners

• Translate market opportunities and customer needs into scalable technical solutions that directly support product roadmap planning and prioritization

• Work to streamline processes, reduce manual effort, and improve system reliability and throughput

• Oversee the end-to-end technical execution of key initiatives — managing timelines, dependencies, and cross-functional coordination to ensure on-time delivery and high-quality outcomes

• Conduct architecture reviews and hands-on technical guidance sessions, providing project-level oversight for complex initiatives spanning multiple teams and systems

• Identify and mitigate technical risks associated with third-party integrations, data quality, platform scalability, and system performance before they impact customers or partners

• Evaluate emerging technologies and industry trends related to integrations, data platforms, APIs, and distributed systems to inform the technical roadmap

About You:

• 10+ years of progressive software engineering experience, with at least 3 years operating at a Staff or Principal Engineer level or equivalent technical leadership capacity
• Deep expertise in designing and operating distributed systems, integration platforms, APIs, and data-intensive applications at scale
• Demonstrated experience building and supporting complex third-party integrations, preferably within healthcare, veterinary technology, fintech, SaaS, or similarly interconnected ecosystems
• Strong understanding of system architecture, event-driven design, data modeling, and modern cloud-native application development
• Proven ability to influence technical direction across multiple teams and drive alignment without formal authority
• Experience evaluating architectural tradeoffs and making pragmatic decisions that balance short-term business needs with long-term scalability
• Strong proficiency in modern programming languages and cloud platforms, with the ability to contribute hands-on when needed
• Self-directed and highly collaborative with a builder's mindset, strong business acumen, and a genuine passion for solving complex problems that impact real customers

\n$164,000 - $180,000 a year\n

PetDesk combines the industry's most user-friendly client engagement tools with the highest-rated pet parent app to simplify your veterinary clinic’s operations while strengthening client relationships.

Our recruiting process is rooted in “Who: The A Method of Hiring” and consists of an average 2-week hiring timeline. This standardized interview process allows candidates to answer the same questions, experience the same process, and ensure a fair performance review from multiple perspectives.

Please, no external recruiters—candidate profiles submitted from external recruiting agencies will not be considered.