Principal Software Engineer

About Loop:

Loop AI is a San Francisco–based tech company founded in 2022. We provide a Delivery Intelligence Platform for data-driven digital food brands, helping them optimize operations and make informed decisions. As an early stage AI startup, we are revolutionizing the restaurant industry by streamlining and automating back-office operations through cutting-edge AI technology. Loop is at the forefront of food-tech innovation, building solutions that power the future of digital-first restaurants.

About the Role:

We are looking for a Principal Software Engineer with deep technical experience to join our fast-growing, high-impact team. This senior leadership role is ideal for a seasoned technologist who thrives on solving complex, ambiguous technical challenges, has a relentless focus on engineering excellence, and can define and drive architectural strategy across multiple domains. You will act as a force multiplier, setting the technical bar and directly influencing the long-term vision of our platform.

At Loop, you will play a critical role in defining the next generation of our platform architecture, establishing best-in-class engineering practices, and providing technical leadership and mentorship to engineering teams, while also serving as a key technical liaison for product and business leadership.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and Drive Architectural Vision: Own the end-to-end architectural strategy for major components of the platform, ensuring scalability, reliability, security, and cost-effectiveness over a 6-12 month horizon.
• Solve the Most Complex Problems: Lead the design and implementation of highly ambiguous, non-linear, and mission-critical technical challenges that span multiple domains or products.
• Cross-Cutting Execution: Architect, execute, and deliver complex cross-cutting projects that require coordination and alignment across multiple engineering pods, product teams, and organizational boundaries.
• Technology Roadmapping: Anticipate future technical needs (3-6 months out) and proactively define the engineering backlog and roadmap, including evaluating and championing major tech stack changes and strategic investments (e.g., AI/ML integration).
• Proof-of-Concept Leadership: Perform hands-on IC work, including conducting PoCs for high-complexity, high-risk projects to de-risk key architectural decisions and establish the engineering path forward for subsequent quarters.
• Serve as a Technical Force Multiplier: Set an extremely high bar for engineering excellence, coding standards, and operational rigor across the entire team.
• Mentorship and Growth: Act as a dedicated mentor and technical coach for Staff and Senior Engineers, helping them grow their impact, technical breadth, and strategic influence.
• Stakeholder Trust: Establish complete trust with product and business leadership, making high-stakes technical decisions that are broadly accepted and require minimal oversight

What we are seeking

• 10+ years of deep, hands-on technical experience designing, building, and operating large-scale, distributed systems.
• Proven track record of defining and executing architectural strategy that delivered significant business impact and improved platform longevity.
• Exceptional ability to "zoom out," assess the long-term technical landscape, and proactively manage the engineering backlog, balancing technical debt reduction with feature delivery.
• Deep expertise in at least one core domain of our platform (e.g., distributed databases, high-throughput APIs, cloud infrastructure, real-time data processing).
• Demonstrated leadership in executing complex projects across organizational boundaries and managing technical risk.
• A commitment to mentorship and development, with experience guiding high-performing senior engineers.