Principal Software Engineer, Applied AI Services

About the team

About the role

We are looking for a P5 Principal Software Engineer Applied AI Services to lead the architecture and evolution of our backend and AI systems across Shopper Journey Services and partner this crosscutting role you will operate at the intersection of largescale backend systems (microservices APIs data stores eventdriven architectures ZGCP/Kubernetes AWSclass cloud infrastructure) and applied AI/ML systems (offline data ingestion feature and signal pipelines LLM/MLpowered capabilities evaluation frameworks and AIdriven workflows). You will play a leading role in how we bring AI capabilities into production services safely and repeatably evolve our user intent flywheel and HDP backend platform and define systemwide standards frameworks and abstractions that enable many teams to ship AIpowered features faster and with higher quality. This is a handson principal IC role where you will both design and build systems yourself and provide technical leadership across multiple teams and orgs without direct reporting lines.

You Will Get To

• Architect endtoend applied AI services that connect offline data ingestion AI/ML/LLM workflows and online services and APIs defining shared patterns for batch and streaming data pipelines (e.g. Databricks Spark Kafka or equivalents) feature and signal stores and evaluation and guardrail frameworks for AIpowered capabilities.

• Create reusable building blockssuch as libraries templates and reference implementationsthat make it straightforward for product teams to integrate AI into their services and ship AIpowered features faster.

• Lead conventional backend and platform excellence by architecting and guiding highscale microservices in a Kubernetes environment driving patterns for eventdriven architectures (including event schemas contracts and consumption patterns) and setting standards for databases caching and data access that support both HDP backend and AI use cases.

• Drive AI/ML and LLMpowered systems from prototype to production including ingestion and transformation of training and inference data integration of models and LLMs into online decision flows and APIs and the definition of evaluation methodologies metrics and regression gates (e.g. LLMasjudge offline/online evaluation humanintheloop review loops).

• Partner with AI/ML Agentic AI and data platform teams to clarify ownership boundaries and interfaces (for example around crosscutting evaluation capabilities such as Evaluate MCP) and to ensure AI systems remain measurable debuggable and reproducible as they scale.

• Lead multiteam technical initiatives that span SJS AI/ML teams HDP and other backend groups defining and rolling out systemwide standards and abstractions for APIs and contracts (REST/GraphQL events DRDCs) data schemas and lineage across offline and online paths and observability evaluation and operational runbooks for AIpowered services.

• Mentor senior engineers run deep design reviews and champion the use of AI as a force multiplier for engineeringsuch as background agents for KTLO (library updates security posture config drift) and AIassisted design implementation and testing patternshelping define which workflows should be agentassisted versus humanled in safe observable and costeffective ways.

In addition to a competitive base salary and benefits this position is also eligible for equity awards based on factors such as experience performance and location.

Who you are

• You have 10 years of software engineering experience with a strong track record of delivering and scaling complex distributed backend systems in large engineering organizations.

• You have built largescale microservices and eventdriven architectures in cloud environments (AWS or equivalent) ideally including Kubernetes and you bring strong expertise in databases caching and dataintensive services including schema design performance optimization and reliability.

• You are experienced with data pipelines and ML workflows (e.g. Databricks Spark Kafka Airflow or equivalents) and how they connect to online systems and you have designed systemwide abstractions frameworks or platforms that are used by multiple teams.

• You have handson experience building or scaling AI/ML or LLMpowered systems in production including integrating models or LLMs into production services owning or coowning data ingestion feature pipelines or modelserving paths and defining or implementing evaluation and guardrail mechanisms.

• You have led crossteam technical initiatives as an IC influencing architecture and standards beyond a single team and you communicate clearly with engineers product partners and leadership to drive clarity and alignment in ambiguous problem spaces.

• You are familiar with personalization recommendations or user intent modeling domains and you have experience or interest in LLMbased workflows including prompt design evaluation strategies and safety and guardrail patterns.

• You have experience with modern API and integration layers such as GraphQL or similar patterns that sit between backend services and userfacing clients and you have helped modernize legacy services and data paths into cohesive platformaligned systems.

• You care deeply about reliability observability and operational excellence and you design systems for longterm maintainability debuggability and measurability from the start.

Get to know us

At Zillow were reimagining how people movethrough the real estate market and through their careers. As the most-visited real estate platform in the U.S. we help customers navigate buying selling financing and renting with greater ease and confidence. Whether youre working in tech sales operations or design youll be part of a company thats reshaping an industry and helping more people make home a reality.

Zillow is honored to be recognized among the best workplaces in the country. Zillow was named one of FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For in 2025 and included on the PEOPLE Companies That Care 2025 list reflecting our commitment to creating an innovative inclusive and engaging culture where employees are empowered to grow.

No matter where you sit in the organization your work will help drive innovation support our customers and move the industryand your careerforward together.

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.

Los Angeles County applicants: Job duties for this position include: work safely and cooperatively with other employees supervisors and staff; adhere to standards of excellence despite stressful conditions; communicate effectively and respectfully with employees supervisors and staff to ensure exceptional customer service; and follow all federal state and local laws and Company policies. Criminal history may have a direct adverse and negative relationship with some of the material job duties of this position. These include the duties and responsibilities listed above as well as the abilities to adhere to company policies exercise sound judgment effectively manage stress and work safely and respectfully with others exhibit trustworthiness and professionalism and safeguard business operations and the Companys reputation. Pursuant to the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.