Principal Software Engineer

About the role

Sezzle is seeking a seasoned Principal Software Engineer to drive innovation and technical excellence. This role offers a significant opportunity to shape backend systems and influence the adoption of AI technologies within a growing organization. You will mentor other engineers and tackle complex challenges that impact both internal users and customer experiences.

Key facts

What you'll do

Architect, design, and construct scalable backend services and APIs using Golang, AWS, and RDS (MySQL/Postgres).

Lead initiatives to integrate AI and automation, enhancing developer productivity and customer-facing applications.

Collaborate with product and business teams to translate strategic goals into technical roadmaps.

Drive consistency and performance across a distributed microservices environment.

Champion engineering best practices for observability, security, and CI/CD.

Mentor team members and foster a culture of continuous improvement and innovation.

Requirements

A minimum of 12 years of professional software engineering experience, with a strong focus on backend development.

Proven track record of deploying significant changes to production applications recently.

Expertise in Golang and building RESTful APIs.

Experience with React JS.

Deep understanding of SQL-based RDBMS, including performance optimization for MySQL and PostgreSQL.

Familiarity with distributed systems design patterns.

Demonstrated ability to propose new ideas, influence technical direction, and lead complex projects.

A Bachelor's degree in Computer Science.

Hands-on experience using AI tools like Claude or similar large language models for productivity enhancement and research.

Nice to have

Proficiency with observability tools such as Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog, or New Relic.

Experience with AWS cloud infrastructure, specifically AWS Aurora RDS.

Background in fintech, payments, BNPL, or consumer lending.

Experience with CI/CD pipelines and containerized microservices (Docker, Kubernetes).

Working knowledge of TypeScript, React, or React Native.

Familiarity with AI/ML tooling like OpenAI API, LangChain, or Hugging Face.

Experience shipping commercial APIs and data-driven applications in fast-paced environments.

Demonstrated leadership in technical strategy, system reliability, and scaling engineering teams.

Skills & tools

Golang, Typescript, Python, React, React Native, MySQL, Postgres, Elasticsearch, AWS, Kubernetes, Git, Gitlab, Claude, Codex, Cursor.

Practical notes

The interview process includes a Wonderlic test, recruiter interview, coding assessment, and interviews with engineering leadership.