Principal AI Engineer (Platform team)
Improvado Open · verified Oct 22, 2026 At a glance
Senior AI Engineering role at Improvado. Remote · full-time.
Pay not stated AI Engineer salary
aimlroles summary, based on the employer's posting.
What you'll do
- Set the design direction for Python extraction, loading and pipeline systems that support more than 500 integrations
- Find and address speed and reliability constraints across Kubernetes, distributed systems and ClickHouse or PostgreSQL
- Build agentic coding workflows for code upkeep, with checks, tests and safeguards before changes are accepted and rolled out
- Write code, record key technical choices and set expectations for code quality and system reliability
- Coach engineers in AI-assisted development and work with product and AI teams on rollout and new integrations
What you bring
- At least seven years of hands-on backend programming, including two years in a principal or architect role responsible for production systems
- You have built and scaled complex systems, rather than only maintaining them
- You have used AI-assisted development tools such as Claude Code and built agentic frameworks for maintaining and rolling out code
- You bring distributed-systems experience with Kubernetes, workflow orchestration or message queues, plus SQL tuning across PostgreSQL and ClickHouse
- You can work within the EST timezone and are fluent in English
Who this fits
This hands-on principal role suits an engineer ready to shape platform architecture while writing code, reviewing designs and mentoring others. It requires work within the EST timezone; the role is remote-first.
From the employer
We're a fast-growing Series A startup ($34M raised, $10.3M ARR, 75% gross margin) building the unified marketing intelligence platform for enterprises like Spotify, Asus, and Colgate. Our Platform Team owns the core data pipeline infrastructure powering 500+ integrations — and we're now rebuilding how that work gets done, with AI at the center.
We're looking for a Principal Engineer who can set the technical direction for AI-assisted engineering across the Platform Team — someone who doesn't just use AI tools, but defines how they're used responsibly at scale.
About the Role
You'll be the architectural voice on the Platform Team, shaping how we design, build, and evolve our core Python-based extraction and load infrastructure. More than that, you'll own the engineering practices shift: defining how agentic coding, AI-assisted development, and LLM tooling integrate into our delivery process without sacrificing reliability or maintainability. This is a hands-on role — you'll be writing code, reviewing architecture, and mentoring engineers, not just advising.
Responsibilities
- Own platform architecture: design and evolve data extraction, load, and pipeline systems serving 500+ integrations at scale
- Identify architectural bottlenecks and drive performance/reliability improvements at scale (Kubernetes, distributed systems, ClickHouse/PostgreSQL)
- Lead modernization of legacy systems into scalable, AI-native infrastructure
- Design and implement agentic development frameworks for codebase maintenance and continuous improvement — owning the full loop from AI-assisted development to automated acceptance and rollout, with proper validation, testing, and architectural guardrails
- Make and document key technical decisions; set the bar for code quality, system reliability, and performance
- Mentor and level up engineers on AI-assisted development practices — help them ship faster without introducing hidden risk
- Collaborate cross-functionally with product and AI teams on agentic framework rollout and new integration capabilities
Requirements
- 7+ years of backend engineering (hands-on programming), with at least 2 years in a principal/architect-level role owning production systems
- You've designed and scaled complex systems, not just maintained them
- Hands-on experience with AI-assisted development (Claude Code, agentic coding) — you ship with it, know its limits and where they break, and have built agentic frameworks for code maintenance and rollout
- Strong distributed systems background: Kubernetes, workflow orchestration (e.g. Temporal), message queues (e.g. RabbitMQ)
- Experience building secure systems that are hard to break, hard to breach, and resilient
- Experience with reliability practices at scale: observability, alerting, incident response
- Solid SQL and query optimization across PostgreSQL and ClickHouse
- Comfortable with ambiguity and high-velocity, fast-shifting priorities — we move like a startup, not a committee
- Ability to work within EST timezone
- Fluency in English
Nice to Have
- Track record of defining engineering standards and driving adoption across a team
- Experience migrating legacy pipeline systems
- Background in data integration or ETL infrastructure
What We Offer
- Remote-first environment
- Direct impact on platform architecture — your decisions matter
- Modern AI-native tech stack with real freedom to experiment
- 20 PTO days + US holidays
- Stock options
- Professional development reimbursement
- Optional relocation assistance to Latin America after trial period