As a Senior Principal Engineer in Zillow’s Industry Software organization, you will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of software for real estate professionals. Reporting directly to the VP of Engineering, you will drive architectural coherence across teams, set the long-term technical vision, and ensure engineering strategy aligns with business priorities. Your impact will extend beyond technology, influencing how we serve agents, brokers, and MLSs with innovative, scalable tools, and shaping the culture and operating rhythm of our teams. This is a hands-on leadership role where you will earn trust through technical depth, clear communication, and collaborative decision-making.
As a Senior Principal Engineer, You Will Get To:
Set technical vision and strategy across Industry Software, ensuring architectures align with business goals and organizational scalability.
Balance architecture with execution by engaging in code reviews, prototypes, and system-wide strategy.
Rapidly build domain expertise in real estate professional workflows to connect technical decisions to customer needs.
Leverage experience scaling B2B/SaaS platforms to introduce fresh patterns and systems thinking.
Drive innovation by anticipating technology and business trends, translating foresight into product and platform improvements.
Influence through code and communication, guiding teams on when to simplify, invest, or create leverage.
Partner closely with Product, Design, Data, and Marketing to ensure technical decisions strengthen business outcomes.
Mentor senior engineers and technical leaders, fostering growth and amplifying team impact.
A hands-on technical leader with 10+ years of experience building and shipping production-grade software or services.
Skilled in distributed systems, SaaS platforms, and B2B systems, with the ability to balance immediate needs and long-term design.
Experienced in setting architecture strategy for organizations and shifting technical momentum as needed.
Comfortable navigating ambiguity and breaking down complex problems into clear, actionable steps.
A trusted cross-functional partner who builds strong relationships across Product, Design, BizOps, and Marketing.
An exceptional communicator, fluent in code reviews, design docs, executive briefings, and cross-org alignment.
Passionate about mentoring and growing technical leaders, amplifying the impact of others.
Both an innovator and pragmatist, able to explore new technologies while grounding them in business reality.
Experience with enterprise monetization platforms is a plus (billing, payments, subscriptions, entitlements, usage metering) to help shape how Industry Software scales sustainably as a business.
Deep expertise in microservice design, event-driven and stream processing platforms (e.g., Kafka, Flink, Spark), and data-centric architectures.
Here at Zillow – we value the experience and perspective of candidates with non-traditional backgrounds. We encourage you to apply if you have transferable skills or related experiences.
Zillow is reimagining real estate to make home a reality for more and more people.
As the most-visited real estate website in the United States, Zillow® and its affiliates help movers find and win their home through digital solutions, first class partners, and easier buying, selling, financing and renting experiences. Millions of people visit Zillow Group sites every month to start their home search, and now they can rely on Zillow to help make it easier to move. The work we do helps people get home and no matter what job you're in, you will play a critical role in making home a reality for more and more people.
Our efforts to streamline the real estate transaction are supported by a deep-rooted culture of innovation, our passion to redefine the employee experience, a fundamental commitment to Equity and Belonging, and world-class benefits. These benefits include comprehensive medical, dental, vision, life, and disability coverages as well as parental leave, family benefits, retirement contributions, and paid time off. We’re also setting the standard for work experiences of the future, where our employees are supported in doing their best work and living a flexible, well-balanced life. But don’t just take our word for it. Read recent reviews on Glassdoor and recent recognition from multiple organizations, including: the 100 Best Companies to Work For, Glassdoor Employees’ Choice Award, Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index, Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Corporate Equity Index, and TIME 100 Most Influential Companies list.
Zillow Group is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering an inclusive, innovative environment with the best employees. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please contact your recruiter directly.
Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with applicable state and local law.
Applicants who receive job offers from Zillow Group will be asked to sign a Proprietary Rights Agreement which includes confidentiality, intellectual property assignment, customer and employee non-solicitation, and non-competition provisions. If you are contacted for a role at Zillow Group and wish to review a copy of the Proprietary Rights Agreement prior to receiving an offer, you may request a copy from your Recruiter.
Top Skills
What We Do
Join our mission to give the people power to unlock life’s next chapter.
Our homes are the heartbeat of our lives, and we believe that finding a home shouldn’t be so hard in today’s always-on world. That’s why we’re reimagining the traditional rules of real estate to make it easier than ever to move from one home to the next.
Our journey began nearly 15 years ago with a handful of employees and one big idea: to make it radically easier for people to move. We began by helping people understand and track their homes with the Zestimate, our proprietary algorithm, and then with advanced technology and valuable connections with real estate professionals. Today, Zillow has become a household name. People are more likely to search for “Zillow” than “real estate,” and our name is often used as a verb.
While other industries have ushered in a new era of convenience, the time for seamless and convenient real estate experience is now. This is our next chapter as a company.
We’re looking for smart, passionate adventurers to join us as we reimagine the real estate transaction and change the way people buy, sell, rent and finance their homes.
