Principal Engineer

Description

Principal Engineer

Hands-On Technical Leadership | Full-Stack Engineering | AI-Driven Development

Position Summary

We are seeking an experienced, hands-on Principal Engineer to serve as the CTO’s technical right hand and help lead day-to-day engineering execution. This is a senior individual contributor role for a trusted technical leader who combines broad full-stack expertise, strong architectural judgment, and a pragmatic approach to building high-quality software.

Reporting directly to the CTO, you will take ownership of routine engineering decisions, guide technical implementation, review code, unblock developers, and maintain delivery momentum. You will act as the CTO’s technical deputy when needed, allowing the CTO to focus on strategic direction, product vision, and long-term technology priorities.

A defining responsibility of this role is to establish AI-agent-assisted development as a core engineering practice. You will use AI coding agents across the software development lifecycle and help the team adopt effective practices for building, debugging, testing, and reviewing software with AI while maintaining high standards of quality and reliability.

This role is ideal for a technically versatile, low-ego engineer who thrives in ambiguity, takes ownership, and can balance architectural excellence with practical execution.

Key Responsibilities

1. Technical Leadership and CTO Partnership

• Serve as the CTO’s technical deputy, owning routine engineering decisions and representing the CTO’s direction when needed.
• Manage day-to-day engineering execution, including pull request reviews, technical approvals, developer support, and issue resolution.
• Maintain close alignment with the CTO through proactive communication, early escalation of risks, and transparent decision-making.
• Challenge assumptions constructively, evaluate trade-offs, and provide recommendations that improve technical and business outcomes.

2. Architecture and Technical Direction

• Contribute to architecture and system design decisions across the next-generation platform in partnership with the CTO and platform architect.
• Evaluate technical options and select solutions appropriate to current product requirements, operational needs, and anticipated growth.
• Balance maintainability, reliability, performance, and delivery speed without introducing unnecessary complexity.
• Translate product and research requirements into practical technical approaches and actionable implementation plans.

3. Hands-On Full-Stack Engineering

• Design, build, debug, and maintain solutions across databases, backend services, frontend applications, cloud infrastructure, and DevOps.
• Prototype new capabilities, develop critical components, and step in wherever technical expertise is needed.
• Lead by example through clean code, effective testing, sound engineering practices, and production-ready implementations.
• Remain actively involved in development rather than operating primarily as a people manager.

4. AI-Agent-Assisted Development

• Champion the adoption of AI coding agents as a standard part of the engineering workflow.
• Use AI agents across the development lifecycle, including implementation, debugging, investigation, testing, code review, and infrastructure-related work.
• Establish practical standards, workflows, and guardrails for effective agent usage, including context management, prompting, verification, security, and code quality.
• Help engineers improve productivity and problem-solving effectiveness through responsible, effective AI-assisted development.
• Evaluate where AI agents can accelerate delivery and where human judgment, validation, or direct implementation remains essential.

5. Engineering Standards and Delivery

• Maintain high standards for code quality, code reviews, automated testing, CI/CD, observability, and operational reliability.
• Support both established systems and greenfield development initiatives.
• Reduce key-person dependencies by improving documentation, knowledge sharing, and distributed ownership.
• Identify delivery bottlenecks, resolve technical blockers, and keep engineering work progressing efficiently.

6. Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner closely with the CTO, platform architect, engineering team, product, and research stakeholders.
• Communicate technical decisions, trade-offs, dependencies, and risks clearly to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Work effectively across asynchronous and real-time collaboration environments.

Required Qualifications

Technical Expertise

• 10+ years of software engineering experience, including senior-level experience as a Senior, Staff, or Principal Engineer.
• Demonstrated hands-on expertise across the full stack, including databases, backend development, frontend technologies, and cloud infrastructure or DevOps.
• Strong system design and architecture skills, with the ability to evaluate trade-offs and make pragmatic technical decisions.
• Experience building, debugging, testing, and maintaining production software across multiple technology layers.
• Demonstrated fluency with AI coding agents, using them regularly for software development and debugging across the stack.
• Ability to establish engineering practices that enable other developers to use AI agents effectively without compromising code quality, security, or reliability.

Technical Judgment and Ownership

• Proven ability to operate independently with ambiguous requirements and limited supervision.
• Strong decision-making skills, with the confidence to make routine technical calls and the judgment to recognize when escalation is necessary.
• A pragmatic, outcome-oriented mindset that prioritizes effective solutions over unnecessary complexity.
• Ability to challenge technical decisions constructively and serve as a trusted partner to executive technical leadership.
• Strong ownership, accountability, integrity, and follow-through.

Communication and Collaboration

• Excellent written and verbal English communication skills.
• Proactive communication habits, with an emphasis on transparency, early risk identification, and clear documentation.
• Ability to mentor and support engineers through technical guidance, code reviews, and knowledge sharing.
• Availability to work full-time as an embedded team member, with at least three hours of daily overlap with U.S. Pacific morning hours.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience building LLM-powered applications, including retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), tool use, or agentic workflows.
• Experience establishing AI-assisted engineering standards or introducing AI development practices across a team.
• Experience working on early-stage products, next-generation platforms, or greenfield engineering initiatives.
• Experience working closely with a CTO or other senior technical leader in a high-trust, fast-moving environment.

Qualities of a Successful Candidate

• Trusted technical partner: Makes sound decisions, follows through, and operates with integrity.
• Hands-on leader: Remains deeply involved in engineering while helping others succeed.
• Pragmatic architect: Chooses solutions that meet real needs without unnecessary complexity.
• Proactive problem-solver: Creates clarity in ambiguous situations and removes blockers before they slow the team down.
• AI-forward engineer: Treats AI agents as a practical force multiplier for individual and team productivity.
• Collaborative communicator: Keeps stakeholders informed, challenges ideas constructively, and avoids surprises.
• Team multiplier: Shares knowledge, distributes ownership, and raises the effectiveness of the entire engineering organization.

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related discipline, or equivalent practical experience.

Broad knowledge of software engineering principles, modern development frameworks, cloud infrastructure, and emerging engineering practices is expected.

WHY JOIN US

Matrix is a global, dynamic, and fast-growing technology services and consulting company with over 17,000 employees worldwide. Founded in 2001, Matrix has grown through significant organic expansion and strategic acquisitions, executing some of the largest and most impactful technology projects in the market.

We specialize in the design, development, and implementation of advanced technologies, software solutions, and digital products. Our services include infrastructure and consulting, IT outsourcing and offshore delivery, training and assimilation programs, and acting as a trusted implementation and delivery partner for the world’s leading software vendors.

With deep expertise across both the private and public sectors-spanning Finance, Telecom, Healthcare, Hi-Tech, Education, Defense, and Security -Matrix serves a strong customer base in Israel alongside a continuously expanding global client portfolio.

At Matrix, our people are at the heart of our success. We are a community of talented, creative, and dedicated professionals who are passionate about innovation and excellence. We actively attract, develop, and retain top talent, recognizing that every employee’s contribution is critical to our continued growth and future success.

Matrix’s success is built on a challenging and engaging work environment, competitive compensation and benefits, and meaningful career development opportunities. We foster a diverse, inclusive culture that encourages collaboration, continuous learning, and growth-together.

Join the winning team. Be challenged, grow your career, and enjoy the journey in a highly respected global organization.

To learn more, visit: www.matrix-ifs.com

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER: Matrix is an Equal Opportunity Employer and Prohibits Discrimination and Harassment of Any Kind. Matrix is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all employees, providing employees with a work environment free of discrimination and harassment. All employment decisions at Matrix are based on business needs, job requirements, and individual qualifications, without regard to race, color, religion or belief, family or parental status, or any other status protected by the laws or regulations in our locations. Matrix will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics. Matrix encourages applicants of all ages.