Principal Engineer, Tech Lead

About the role

Join Horizon3 as a Principal Engineer and Technical Lead for the Platform Integration team. This role is crucial for scaling our NodeZero platform, focusing on building robust APIs and strategic integrations. You will guide technical direction, contribute code, and mentor engineers within a fast-growing cybersecurity company.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Define the technical vision for the Integration team and its supporting services, from initial concept to long-term evolution.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to translate product goals into technical strategies and execution plans.
• Write production code, setting high standards for design, quality, and operational rigor.
• Lead architectural decisions for scalable backend systems, balancing velocity, reliability, and maintainability.
• Manage multiple projects, identifying risks and dependencies, and sequencing work effectively.
• Partner with Product, Engineering leadership, and Design to deliver cross-functional initiatives.
• Clearly communicate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Elevate technical standards through architecture reviews, code reviews, and technical writing.
• Mentor and develop engineers by providing feedback and technical coaching.
• Support hiring efforts by attracting and interviewing engineering talent.

Requirements

• Deep understanding of software architecture, distributed systems, and engineering tradeoffs for scalable products.
• Strong technical leadership experience as a senior individual contributor, leading through influence.
• Excellent product judgment and ability to translate business needs into pragmatic technical decisions.
• Proven ability to manage multiple concurrent projects and priorities.
• Effective collaboration with cross-functional partners including Product, Design, and leadership.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, explaining technical decisions to non-technical stakeholders.
• History of mentoring engineers and improving team performance.
• Comfort operating in ambiguous environments and making sound decisions with incomplete information.
• A platform and systems-oriented mindset, balancing security, usability, and scalability.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• Experience building backend services using Python, Go, Java, TypeScript, or similar.
• Experience with SQL and at least one relational database in production.
• Experience building backend services on a cloud platform (AWS, GCP, or Azure), with Docker and containerized applications.

Nice to have

• Experience leading initiatives around API platforms, headless customer experiences, or agent-based customer flows.
• Experience with an integrations platform, especially for accelerating new integrations.
• Experience with PostgreSQL and performance tuning for large datasets.
• Experience with graph databases like Neo4j, or interest in learning them.
• Experience building or consuming GraphQL backends.
• Experience with ETL pipelines and data processing tools (e.g., Airflow-like frameworks).
• Experience with observability stacks (e.g., Datadog, Prometheus, Grafana) and service instrumentation.
• Experience in cybersecurity, vulnerability management, security analytics, or security data platforms.
• Experience building products or platforms in vulnerability management, exposure management, or security telemetry.
• Familiarity with risk scoring, prioritization systems, or data-intensive backend workflows.
• Experience partnering with product managers to define and sequence MVPs.
• Track record of shaping technical direction and defining standards across an organization.

Skills & tools

• Backend development: Go, Rust, Python, Java
• API design and operation
• Asynchronous and event-driven systems
• Data modeling and persistence layers
• Cloud-native application development (AWS, GCP, Azure)
• Docker, containerized applications
• SQL, relational databases (e.g., PostgreSQL)
• Observability, reliability, and operational best practices
• Technical design documentation

Practical notes

This is a fully remote position, with up to 10% travel required for team and company meetings. Full-time roles include an equity package in stock options. Benefits include health, vision, and dental insurance, flexible vacation, and generous parental leave. Horizon3 values diversity, equity, and inclusion, fostering a welcoming and respectful workplace.

About the company

Horizon3.ai uses real-world attacks to safely show what attackers can actually do in your environment - so you can fix and prove what matters.