Principal Software Engineer

What You’ll Do

• Define and drive the architectural vision for key systems and platforms, ensuring scalability, reliability, resilience, and long-term maintainability.
• Evaluate and recommend foundational technologies, patterns, and practices that position Ro for future growth.
• Translate complex, ambiguous problem spaces into clear technical roadmaps, identifying tradeoffs and guiding teams toward strategic solutions.
• Lead organization-wide initiatives that improve system health, observability, performance, security, and operational excellence.
• Partner with product, design, data, and other teams to align technical strategy with business priorities.
• Break down large, multi-team initiatives into actionable plans and drive them from concept to delivery.
• Mentor and support Staff, Senior, and early-career engineers in both technical and strategic growth.
• Foster a culture of high-quality engineering, thoughtful design, rigorous review, and continuous learning.
• Provide technical leadership in design reviews, architecture discussions, and cross-team forums.
• Act as a trusted technical advisor to engineering leadership and cross-functional partners.

What You’ll Bring to the Team

• 12+ years of experience building scalable, maintainable software systems
• A proven track record of technical leadership across multiple teams or domains, including designing and evolving complex distributed systems.
• Deep expertise in backend engineering (preferably with a strong proficiency in Python) and experience with distributed systems and relational databases.
• Experience in metrics instrumentation and data-driven performance tuning, leveraging load testing infrastructure and tools like Datadog.
• Strong architectural skills with the ability to reason about long-term tradeoffs, system interactions, operational risks, and platform evolution.
• Demonstrated ability to influence technical strategy, drive alignment across multiple teams, and guide organizations through ambiguity.
• Exceptional communication skills with the ability to articulate technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• A passion for and strong track record of developing other engineers and raising the technical bar through mentorship, coaching, and leadership.

Bonus Skills

• Experience in telehealth or other highly-regulated industries.

We’ve Got You Covered

• Full medical, dental, and vision insurance + OneMedical membership
• Healthcare and Dependent Care FSA
• 401(k) with company match
• Flexible PTO
• Wellbeing + Learning & Growth reimbursements
• Paid parental leave + Fertility benefits
• Pet insurance
• Student loan refinancing
• Virtual resources for mindfulness, counseling, and fitness