Principal Software Engineer

Position:

Principal Software Engineer - AI-native/Agentic Development

Location:

Remote - Canada (EST/CST)

Compensation:

$180,000-$250,000 per year CAD (flexible) + up to 10% bonus + full benefits + unlimited vacation + 5% RRSP match

Job Type:

Full-time

Posting Type:

Open vacancy

About the Opportunity Our client is building a new B2B SaaS product and is seeking a

Principal-level Software Engineer

to lead its technical direction and build the platform from the ground up.

This is a hands‑on leadership role for an experienced software engineer who combines strong architectural judgment with a proven ability to deliver production‑ready software using AI agents throughout the development lifecycle.

The ideal candidate goes beyond AI‑assisted code generation. You have successfully used AI agents to drive multiple projects from requirements and system design through implementation, automated testing, integration, and production deployment. You are comfortable orchestrating AI-driven development across 5-10+ concurrent projects or workstreams while maintaining high standards for architecture, security, and code quality.

You’ll lead a lean engineering team, work closely with the Chief Architect, and help establish the technical foundations and AI‑assisted development practices for a greenfield enterprise product.

Key Responsibilities Own architecture and technical direction: Design the foundational architecture of a new enterprise‑grade B2B SaaS platform, making key decisions around system design, scalability, security, integration, and technology choices. Drive end-to-end AI‑powered development: Use AI coding tools and autonomous or semi‑autonomous agents throughout the software development lifecycle, including requirements analysis, planning, architecture, coding, testing, debugging, code review, integration, and deployment. Orchestrate multiple development workstreams: Coordinate AI agents across 5-10+ concurrent projects or workstreams, managing dependencies, validating outputs, resolving integration issues, and maintaining architectural consistency. Build production‑ready software: Remain actively involved in full‑stack development, backend engineering, API design, cloud infrastructure, distributed systems, and production deployment. Establish engineering practices: Define standards for AI‑assisted development, automated testing, CI/CD, observability, security, code quality, and production readiness. Lead and mentor engineers: Provide technical guidance to two software engineers while fostering an effective, AI‑enabled engineering culture. Shape the product: Build capabilities that help organizations monitor AI usage, consumption, and spending across platforms and assess the value of their AI investments. Own delivery: Take responsibility for an assigned product or workstream, from initial design through implementation, release, and ongoing improvement.

Required Qualifications Principal Engineer, Staff Engineer, or hands‑on Software Architect experience, with the technical depth to make high‑impact architectural decisions. Demonstrated success building and shipping multiple software projects using AI agents across the full development lifecycle, from design and implementation through testing and production deployment. Practical experience with AI development tools such as Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, GitHub Copilot, or comparable agentic development solutions. Ability to direct, orchestrate, and validate AI‑generated work rather than relying on generated code without appropriate engineering oversight. Strong full‑stack engineering capabilities and experience building B2B SaaS products or enterprise applications from the ground up. Experience delivering production software for large enterprise customers, with an understanding of scalability, reliability, security, and maintainability. Strong knowledge of software architecture, backend development, APIs, cloud platforms, distributed systems, automated testing, and CI/CD. Ability to work across programming languages and technology stacks. Relevant backgrounds may include C#, Go, Python, Java, C++, or other modern languages. Strong technical leadership skills, with the ability to remain hands‑on while guiding a small engineering team. Comfortable working independently in a greenfield environment, making decisions with incomplete information, and adapting quickly as product requirements evolve.

What Will Set You Apart Experience coordinating multiple AI agents across parallel software development projects or workstreams. A repeatable approach to using AI agents for planning, implementation, test generation, debugging, integration, code review, and deployment. Experience building AI‑enabled developer workflows that improve delivery speed without compromising software quality or security. Experience with data en