Principal Engineer - Growth and Activation

As a Principal Software Development Engineer – Growth and Activation, you will develop standardized, scalable, repeatable, and operationalized frameworks to produce user-facing product experiences and lifecycle journeys. Your work will focus on creating structured approaches for addressing critical verticals and significant life events such as retirement, auto buying, taxes, job seeking, and more. Collaborating closely with Product, Design, and Engineering teams, you'll drive the establishment of reusable platforms that accelerate time-to-market and ensure consistent, high-quality user experiences. This role demands deep expertise in systems thinking, scalable product engineering, and operational excellence, focusing on enabling rapid and efficient deployment of new growth initiatives. Key Responsibilities include architecting, designing, and implementing scalable frameworks to rapidly develop, deploy, and maintain user-facing experiences and lifecycle journeys; creating standardized methodologies and operational processes to effectively replicate and scale growth initiatives across diverse verticals and significant life events; collaborating with Product and Design teams to identify and operationalize repeatable approaches to user activation, engagement, and retention; ensuring consistency, scalability, and high performance across all product experiences through rigorous architectural standards; establishing best practices for platform engineering, focusing on modularity, reusability, experimentation, analytics, and security; mentoring engineers, fostering technical excellence, and championing systematic approaches to user-centric growth. Required qualifications include at least 15 years of software development experience with emphasis in scalable product engineering, frameworks, and lifecycle management; at least 12 years of experience with modern programming languages and full-stack web frameworks such as Ruby on Rails, Django, Next.js, Laravel; and a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related field. Preferred qualifications include experience creating operationalized frameworks targeting major life events, financial services, or similar complex verticals; familiarity with lifecycle marketing automation, personalization platforms, and systematic growth methodologies; prior experience integrating platforms with identity management systems, fintech solutions, or highly regulated industries; demonstrated success in building scalable, standardized, and operationalized product frameworks; extensive experience with experimentation platforms, analytics integration, and data-driven decision-making; strong background in creating modular, scalable, and high-performance product architectures for web and mobile platforms; exceptional problem-solving and analytical skills focusing on system scalability, operational excellence, and user-centricity; expertise in A/B testing frameworks, journey orchestration, and behavioral analytics; and proven ability to influence engineering and product strategies across diverse teams and at the highest levels. The position requires onsite presence 4-5 days per week at Mountain View, CA or McLean, VA office. The company offers comprehensive benefits and a competitive salary range.