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Senior Principal Engineer

Atlassian

San Francisco, CAJob$202–318K/yrPosted 2w agoStill listed today

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At a glance

Compensation
$202–318K/yr
Location
San Francisco, CA
Work Authorization
Not specified

Olive lists jobs from US employers, including remote roles you can work from the United States.

Job overview

Atlassian is hiring a Senior Principal Engineer for its AI Foundations team, which builds systems for AI across the software development lifecycle. The role sets technical direction and develops infrastructure for measuring AI effectiveness, providing context, and running AI reliably and affordably at scale. It also partners with engineering and product teams, guides build-versus-buy decisions, and mentors senior engineers.

Skills & qualifications

RequiredNice to have

Skills

Artificial IntelligenceSoftware DevelopmentTechnical ManagementDistributed ComputingCloud InfrastructureData SystemMetric SystemsTechnical LeadershipSoftware Development LifecycleTechnical DirectionDistributed SystemsDeveloper PlatformsData SystemsMeasurement SystemsApplied AICost OptimizationDecision-MakingInfluencing Decision MakersAmbiguity ManagementLarge Language ModelsAI AgentsAI Developer ToolsDeveloper ExperienceDeveloper ProductivityCI/CD

Qualifications

12+ Years Technical Leadership

Full job description

Overview

Working at Atlassian Atlassians can choose where they work – whether in an office, from home, or a combination of the two. That way, Atlassians have more control over supporting their family, personal goals, and other priorities. We can hire people in any country where we have a legal entity.

Responsibilities

Dev Infra builds the tools, platforms, and infrastructure that every engineer at Atlassian uses to ship. We are hiring a Senior Principal Engineer for our AI Foundations team, the group responsible for making AI work well across our engineering: how we measure it, the context we feed it, and the compute it runs on. The reach of this work is unusual. Because Dev Infra builds and stress tests the same class of developer tools Atlassian sells, what you build shapes both how Atlassian ships software and what Atlassian ships to millions of developers. In this role, you will:

  • Set the technical vision for how Atlassian enables and builds AI across the software development lifecycle, and turn it into infrastructure teams adopt.

  • Stay hands on. Prototype the hardest parts yourself, write code, and set the engineering bar others build to. At this level you lead by doing.

  • Build the foundational systems that make AI effective for every engineer, including how we measure whether AI works, give it the right context, and run it reliably and affordably at scale.

  • Give engineers and leaders real signal instead of hype, so the company can see where AI genuinely helps.

  • Partner across engineering and product teams to shape both the tools we use internally and the AI capabilities we ship to customers.

  • Decide when to buy a proven solution, when to build alongside our product teams, and when a problem deserves something purpose built.

  • Grow the talent around you. Mentor senior engineers, align principals across the organization, and raise the ceiling for what the team believes is possible.

Compensation

At Atlassian, we strive to design equitable, explainable, and competitive compensation programs. We follow consistent hiring practices and account for each candidate's skills, knowledge, and experience when setting base pay within the range. Please visit go.atlassian.com/payzones for more information on which locations are included in each of our geographic pay zones. However, please confirm the zone for your specific location with your recruiter. This role may also be eligible for benefits, bonuses, commissions, and equity.

Pay Ranges

In The United States, we have three geographic pay zones. For this role, our current base pay ranges for new hires in each zone are: Zone A: $243,900 - $318,425 Zone B: $219,510 - $286,583 Zone C: $202,437 - $264,293

Qualifications

  • 12+ years in hands on technical leadership roles, with end to end ownership across the software development lifecycle.

  • A track record of setting technical direction across a function or organization, not just one team, and bringing many engineers with you.

  • Deep expertise building large scale systems in one or more of: distributed systems and cloud infrastructure, developer platforms, data and measurement systems, or applied AI.

  • Genuine technical depth. You still write code, go deep into hard problems, and raise the quality bar for everyone around you.

  • Strong judgment on cost, scale, and return on investment. You treat efficiency as a real engineering problem.

  • Experience influencing decision makers and turning ambiguity into a clear plan.

  • Real excitement for an open, unmapped space. Building software with AI is being invented now, and you want to help invent it.

Nice to have:

  • Hands on experience with modern AI systems such as large language models, agents, or AI developer tools.

  • Background in developer experience, developer productivity, or the tooling and infrastructure behind CI and CD.

Benefits & Perks Atlassian offers a wide range of perks and benefits designed to support you, your family and to help you engage with your local community. Our offerings include health and wellbeing resources, paid volunteer days, and so much more. To learn more, visit go.atlassian.com/perksandbenefits. About Atlassian At Atlassian, we're motivated by a common goal: to unleash the potential of every team. Our software products help teams all over the planet and our solutions are designed for all types of work. Team collaboration through our tools makes what may be impossible alone, possible together. We believe that the unique contributions of all Atlassians create our success. To ensure that our products and culture continue to incorporate everyone's perspectives and experience, we never discriminate based on race, religion, national origin, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, or marital, veteran, or disability status. All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines. To provide you the best experience, we can support with accommodations or adjustments at any stage of the recruitment process. Simply inform our Recruitment team during your conversation with them. To learn more about our culture and hiring process, visit go.atlassian.com/crh. In line with local law, identity verification (which may include use of biometric data) is a condition of employment with Atlassian for employment fraud purposes.

How this job compares

Set against the 8,550 open Software Engineering jobs on Olive Jobs, counted November 5, 2026.

Pay
  • This posting$202–318K/yr
  • California median$189–275K/yr1,270 salary ranges
  • US median$150–250K/yr6,438 salary ranges

This range's midpoint, $260K, is 13% above the California median midpoint ($230K) — in the middle half of Software Engineering salary ranges in California.

Openings
Olive Jobs lists 1,735 open Software Engineering jobs in California and 8,550 across the US. 10% of them nationwide are listed as remote or flexible.
Hiring the most in California
Experience
This posting asks for at least 12 years of experience — more than three in four Software Engineering postings that state a minimum ask for (median 7 years, across 6,580 postings).
Education
2,272 of the 8,550 open Software Engineering jobs (27%) ask for a bachelor's degree or higher.

Counted across the open, public US postings on Olive Jobs on November 5, 2026. Pay medians are the middle values of the low ends and of the high ends of postings that list both ends of a range in the same cadence (a yearly salary or an hourly rate); a range's midpoint is halfway between its ends. Pay and experience figures resting on fewer than 20 postings are left out.

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