Principal Software Engineer
Principal Software Engineer
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Job Description
About CEF AI
CEF AI is a stealth-stage startup building foundational AI infrastructure to power the next generation of sovereign scalable and deeply personalized AI systems. We operate at the intersection of frontier research and applied systems design with a focus on giving individuals and organizations full control over their data and AI agents. Our team brings together top-tier engineers founders and thinkers passionate about shaping a more open and equitable AI future.
About the Role
Were hiring a Principal Software Engineer to architect build and scale the core systems that power our privacy-first edge-native AI platform. This is a high-impact role for an engineer who thrives at the intersection of product vision technical execution and team leadership.
Youll lead critical initiatives across backend services SDKs and developer platformsdriving performance reliability and usability across the stack. More than just a builder youll be a force multiplier: mentoring engineers influencing architectural direction and helping define how AI-native infrastructure gets built in the real world.
Tasks
- Systems Architecture: Design implement and scale foundational backend systems and APIs that power decentralized real-time AI workflows.
- Developer Experience: Own the end-to-end developer journey by building SDKs CLIs and interfaces that make it easy to interact with our platform.
- Cross-Stack Execution: Rapidly prototype and productize features using tools like Cursor React and TypeScriptwithout sacrificing quality or scale.
- Technical Leadership: Guide architectural decisions lead design reviews and mentor engineers in best practices for distributed high-performance systems.
- Collaboration: Partner with product design and leadership to align technical execution with company vision and user needs.
- Execution Ownership: Drive key projects from 01 with autonomy accountability and a strong bias for action.
Requirements
- Experience: 4 years in high-performance software environments with a proven track record of shipping complex systems end-to-end.
- Deep Technical Expertise: Mastery of one or more systems languages (Go Rust Kotlin etc.) and strong backend engineering fundamentals.
- Architectural Fluency: Experience designing and scaling distributed systems with performance reliability and observability in mind.
- Quality & Testing: Strong discipline around testing CI/CD and long-term maintainability (TDD preferred).
- Builder Mindset: Ability to turn ambiguity into architecture and architecture into reliable extensible code.
- Communication: Clear concise communicator who can explain tradeoffs write technical specs and mentor junior engineers.
- Bonus: Experience with edge computing Web3 protocols real-time data infra or AI/ML-powered systems.
Benefits
- Competitive Compensation & Meaningful Equity: We offer founder-level alignment because this is a founder-level role.
- High-Ownership Role: Youll directly shape our technical direction and long-term stack architecture.
- Work with Top-Tier Founders & Engineers: Collaborate daily with a deeply technical mission-driven leadership team.
- Build the Future of AI Infrastructure: Were not optimizing yesterdays workflowswere inventing tomorrows.
- Zero Bureaucracy Maximum Autonomy: We stay lean move fast and trust you to lead.
- Remote-First In-Person When It Counts: Were distributed across SF and Europe with monthly hackathons and off-sites to align and build together.
Our Hiring Process
We move fast stay transparent and focus on real collaboration. Heres what the process looks like:
- Intro Call A quick chat to align on expectations interests and team fit.
- Technical Deep Dive A focused conversation with our Engineering Manager to explore your systems thinking and past work.
- CEO Interview A strategic discussion around vision mindset and long-term alignment.
- Reference Collection Well speak with a few people youve worked closely with.
- Paid Trial (5 Days) A short real-world engagement so we can see how we work together happening in parallel with offer and terms discussion.
Join CEF AI as a Principal Software Engineer to help design and deliver the future of privacy-first agentic AI. If you want to work on original systems that will define the next decade of computeapply now.
Employment Type
Full Time
