Principal Software Engineering

Introduction to Demandbase: 

Demandbase is the leading account-based GTM platform for B2B enterprises to identify and target the right customers, at the right time, with the right message. With a unified view of intent data, AI-powered insights, and prescriptive actions, go-to-market teams can seamlessly align and execute with confidence. Thousands of businesses depend on Demandbase to maximize revenue, minimize waste, and consolidate their data and technology stacks - all in one platform.

As a company, we’re as committed to growing careers as we are to building world-class technology. We invest heavily in people, our culture, and the community around us. We have offices in the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, and India, as well as a team in the UK, and allow employees to work remotely. We have also been continuously recognized as one of the best places to work in the San Francisco Bay Area including, “Best Workplaces for Millennials” and “Best Workplaces for Parents”!

We're committed to attracting, developing, retaining, and promoting a diverse workforce. By ensuring that every Demandbase employee is able to bring a diversity of talents to work, we're increasingly capable of living out our mission to transform how B2B goes to market. We encourage people from historically underrepresented backgrounds and all walks of life to apply. Come grow with us at Demandbase!

About the Role:

Demandbase is looking for a Principal Software Engineer who thrives on solving complex technical challenges and delivering scalable, high-impact systems. This role is ideal for an experienced Staff or Principal Engineer with a passion for technical leadership, architectural excellence, and building innovative solutions that drive measurable customer outcomes.

You’ll serve as a technical leader across teams, owning architecture, guiding system design, and mentoring engineers. You’ll collaborate closely with Engineering Managers and Product Managers to align execution with product strategy, and to bring cutting-edge AI-powered B2B solutions to life.

This role is based in San Francisco, CA.

The base compensation range for this position for candidates in the SF Bay Area is: $204,000-$306,000. For all other locations, the base compensation range is based on the primary work location of the candidate as our ranges are location specific. Actual compensation packages are based on a wide array of factors unique to each candidate, including but not limited to skillset, years of experience, and depth of experience.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Drive technical direction and architecture across projects involving scalable microservices, distributed systems, and modern data platforms.
• Collaborate with product and engineering leadership to translate product vision into actionable technical roadmaps.
• Stay hands-on by participating in technical design reviews, code reviews, architectural planning, and incident retrospectives.
• Support engineering teams in delivering high-impact work while maintaining quality, security, and system resiliency.
• Partner with Staff and other Principal Engineers to integrate generative and agentic AI capabilities into our platform to drive customer outcomes.
• Champion modern engineering practices such as continuous delivery, test automation, observability, and cloud-native deployment.

What We’re Looking For

• A seasoned Staff+ engineer with a strong track record of delivering impactful software in complex technical environments.
• Interest in leveraging AI and automation to improve developer experience and product capabilities.
• Proven ability to drive large-scale technical initiatives with cross-functional alignment.
• Strong communicator who can bridge technical and business priorities, and foster collaboration across teams.
• A hands-on technical leader who is comfortable engaging in architecture discussions and digging into complex systems when needed.
• Passion for helping engineers grow through mentorship, feedback, and clear goals.
• Strong background in agile development methodologies (Scrum, Kanban, SAFe, etc.).

Qualifications

• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience, with at least 2–3 years in a Staff Engineer or Principal Engineer role.
• Demonstrated success leading delivery of distributed systems or cloud-native platforms.
• Proficient in one or more modern backend languages (Java, Scala, Python preferred).
• Experience with modern CI/CD pipelines, container orchestration (Kubernetes), and cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure).
• Deep understanding of system design,