The Role
Lead architectural vision and technical execution across engineering; design and scale complex systems, mentor engineers, and spearhead Generative AI projects.
Summary Generated by Built In
About the Role
We are looking for a Senior Principal Engineer who will define the architectural vision and lead technical execution across our engineering organization. This role is ideal for a seasoned technologist who has designed, implemented, and scaled complex systems; collaborated deeply with cross-functional stakeholders; and delivered high-impact projects — including Generative AI initiatives built using open-source LLM models.
As a senior-most individual contributor, you’ll operate as a hands-on technical leader — setting the company’s technical direction, mentoring engineers across teams, and developing high-quality, production-grade code. You’ll act as a multiplier by pairing deep technical expertise with strong cross-functional
Key Responsibilities
- Architectural Leadership: Define and evolve the company’s long-term architectural vision. Provide technical direction that balances innovation, scalability, and maintainability.
- System Design and Scalability: Design, implement, and scale distributed systems and core services to handle growth in data, users, and features.
- Cross-Team Collaboration: Partner with Product, Engineering and business teams to align technical roadmaps with business objectives. Act as a trusted advisor to Engineering Managers and Staff Engineers.
- Generative AI Initiatives: Lead or contribute to projects leveraging open-source LLMs (e.g., Llama, Mistral, Falcon, or similar): own model integration, fine-tuning, and scalable deployment pipelines.
- Technical Excellence: Establish best practices for architecture reviews, design documentation, and system observability to ensure optimal performance and reliability. Drive adoption of modern development frameworks and standards.
- Hands-on Development: Write clean, efficient, and well-tested code. Contribute directly to core systems and frameworks that enable teams to move faster and deliver higher-quality software.
- Mentorship & Influence: Coach senior engineers and influence decision-making across teams through technical reviews, design sessions, and hands-on prototyping.
- Execution and Delivery: Work closely with leadership and stakeholders to turn complex ideas into reliable, production-ready systems that deliver measurable business impact.
Qualifications
- 12+ years of experience in software engineering, with at least 4+ years in principal or staff-plus roles.
- Proven track record designing, implementing, and scaling distributed systems or platforms.
- Experience driving architectural initiatives across multiple teams and domains.
- Deep understanding of backend architectures, data modeling, and system reliability patterns.
- Demonstrated success in delivering GenAI or ML-driven applications using open-source LLMs and cloud-native infrastructure.
- Strong communication skills and the ability to influence technical and non-technical stakeholders.
- Passion for mentorship, technical leadership, and hands-on coding.
- Bonus Qualifications
- ● Experience with multi-tenant SaaS architecture and microservices at scale.
- ● Familiarity with vector databases, prompt engineering, and AI orchestration frameworks
- (LangChain, LlamaIndex, etc.).
- ● Prior experience in shaping technical strategy within high-growth startups or enterprise
- environments.
Bonus Qualifications
- Experience with multi-tenant SaaS architecture and microservices at scale.
- Familiarity with vector databases, prompt engineering, and AI orchestration frameworks (LangChain, LlamaIndex, etc.).
- Prior experience in shaping technical strategy within high-growth startups or enterprise environments.
What Success Looks Like
- You’ve defined and evangelized a cohesive architectural roadmap adopted across teams.
- You’ve guided at least one major Generative AI initiative from prototype to production.
- You’re a sought-after mentor and thought leader within the engineering organization.
- Systems you design are measurable in their scalability, reliability, and developer productivity gains.
Top Skills
Ai Orchestration Frameworks
Cloud-Native Infrastructure
Distributed Systems
Microservices
Open-Source Llm Models
Vector Databases
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The Company
What We Do
Unusual Ventures is raising the bar for what founders should expect from their venture investors. We enable startups with the hands on support and expertise they need to be successful during their early stage journey. Unusual Ventures is an early-stage firm that invests in both enterprise and consumer startups.
