Chief Engineer (Principal Engineer)
Interface AIabout 1 month ago
Base Salary
$330k - $375k/yr
Responsibilities
- Own a technical domain’s architecture, implementation, technical quality, velocity, and outcomes.
- Design systems and write production code while setting the technical standard through hands-on execution.
- Ship and review code and maintain the quality bar across the domain’s pods.
- Steer, unblock, and grow the technical capability of engineers and leads without becoming a pure manager.
- Partner as an equal with the Domain PM on domain delivery and impact.
- Build on frontier models and standardize AI development tools such as Claude Code and Cursor across the domain.
- Participate in a weekly technical council alongside the founders.
Requirements
- Senior-most individual contributor at Principal or Distinguished level, or a hands-on technical founder.
- Experience building and operating core production systems at real scale, ideally taking an ambiguous initiative from 0-to-1 or 0-to-general availability.
- Demonstrated category-defining technical range and ownership of company-defining systems or products.
- Deep credibility in AI and agents or comparable subject-matter depth, with continued hands-on coding.
- Daily use of frontier AI tools and experience adapting team workflows around them.
- Strong first-principles problem-solving, learning velocity, and judgment in high-ambiguity environments.
- BS/BA in Computer Science required; MS or PhD strongly preferred.
- Conversational AI, voice AI, agentic systems, fintech, banking, regulated financial services, platform-building, published writing, conference talks, or open-source work are bonus qualifications.
- Must be San Francisco-based and committed to working onsite; H1B transfers are welcome.
Benefits
- 100% paid health, dental, and vision care; 401(k) and financial wellness perks; daily meals; commuter benefit; monthly wellness stipend; Claude Enterprise and frontier AI tools; discretionary PTO; paid parental leave; mental health, wellness, and family benefits; founding-team-tier equity; San Francisco office-based work.