Principal Software Engineer
About CrazyCatz
CrazyCatz was incorporated to exploit the very latest developments in Artificial Intelligence to realize the vision of "Agents where people don't need to be". Specifically, despite the founders extensive experience in building multiple waves of market defining innovations in IT and SecOps, there is still a wasteful use of human resources performing repetitive and low impact knowledge work. These people need liberating to free them from drudgery and CrazyCatz will pioneer this change.
We will build a series of unique foundational models, some based upon learning the patterns and sequences in machine data, to drive a leading edge agent first platform. Replacing SIEM/SOAR and XDR by the revolutionary combination of AIDR (AI Detection & Response) for SecOps and a novel Generative AIOps platform, we will bring to market the world's first XOps platform. Humans will only ever be pulled into the loop to oversee the army of agents that will secure and assure the most sensitive and critical digital infrastructures. This represents a $50 billion market worldwide, and the opportunity with a unique US & UAE capital strategy, to build the fifth essential AI property.
We are seeking talented experts keen to join the next wave of AI first engineering, and help us build a future genuinely free of toil.
As we build out our platform, we are seeking an exceptional Principal Software Engineer to set the technical bar, lead our most complex engineering initiatives hands-on, and help shape a secure, scalable, agent-first platform from the ground up.
Position Summary
The Principal Software Engineer is the company's most senior individual contributor and a hands-on technical authority across the CrazyCatz platform. Reporting to the Chief Technology Officer and working closely with the Chief Architect, Chief Scientist, and engineering teams, this role leads the design and delivery of the platform's most critical and technically demanding systems.
This is a deep technical role for an engineer who still loves to build. Rather than managing a team, the Principal Software Engineer leads through technical direction, exemplary code, sound architecture, and the mentorship of other engineers, multiplying their impact across the organization.
The successful candidate will turn breakthrough research and product vision into production-grade systems capable of supporting some of the world's most critical digital infrastructures, while raising the standard of engineering excellence across the company.
Key Responsibilities
Technical Leadership & Direction
Serve as a hands-on technical leader on the company's most complex, ambiguous, and high-impact engineering initiatives.
Drive key technical decisions and establish engineering patterns, standards, and best practices adopted across teams.
Partner with the Chief Architect to translate architectural principles into well-built, production-ready systems.
Identify technical risks, trade-offs, and opportunities early, and guide the organization toward sound, pragmatic solutions.
Platform & Systems Engineering
Design, build, and operate highly scalable, cloud-native services at the core of the CrazyCatz platform.
Ensure systems are reliable, performant, secure, and resilient under enterprise-scale workloads.
Lead the resolution of the hardest technical problems, including performance bottlenecks, scalability limits, and complex production issues.
Champion automation, observability, and operational excellence throughout the development lifecycle.
AI & Agent Systems Engineering
Partner with the Chief Scientist and Chief Architect to operationalize proprietary foundational models and agent-based systems in production.
Build robust infrastructure and frameworks supporting model inference, orchestration, experimentation, and deployment.
Develop the engineering foundations that allow agents to securely and reliably oversee critical digital infrastructure.
Ensure seamless integration between foundational models, agents, data pipelines, and enterprise applications.
Engineering Excellence & Standards
Set and uphold a high bar for code quality, design, testing, and documentation across the engineering organization.
Lead architecture and code reviews, and embed security, privacy, and compliance into all engineering work.
Define and evolve the tooling, frameworks, and development practices that accelerate the team while preserving quality.
Balance speed, innovation, scalability, and technical debt management in every decision.
Mentorship & Technical Influence
Mentor and grow engineers, raising the technical capability of the entire team.
Influence technical direction across teams without relying on positional authority.
Help attract, evaluate, and onboard exceptional engineering talent.
Act as a trusted technical advisor to engineering and product leadership.
Qualifications
Required Experience
10+ years of hands-on software engineering experience building and operating complex production systems.
Deep expertise in distributed systems, cloud-native architectures, APIs, and modern software development practices.
A proven track record of personally designing, building, and shipping enterprise-grade software at scale.
Strong command of one or more modern programming languages and a high standard of engineering craftsmanship.
Demonstrated ability to lead complex technical initiatives and influence engineering direction as an individual contributor.
Preferred Experience
Experience building AI, machine learning, agentic AI, or large-scale data platforms.
Background in cybersecurity, observability, SecOps, AIOps, or cloud infrastructure.
Experience with model inference, orchestration frameworks, LLM integrations, or data pipelines.
Prior Principal Engineer, Distinguished Engineer, Staff Engineer, or equivalent senior IC experience.
Startup or high-growth technology company experience.
Engineering Competencies
Technical Depth
Systems Thinking
Engineering Craftsmanship
Influence Without Authority
Pragmatic Problem Solving
Bias for Action
Ownership & Accountability
Mentorship
Decision Making Under Ambiguity
Technical Communication
Success Measures
During the first 12 months, the Principal Software Engineer will:
Design and deliver core components of the first generation of the CrazyCatz XOps platform.
Establish engineering patterns and standards that are adopted across the engineering organization.
Raise the overall technical bar for quality, reliability, and security.
Resolve critical scalability, performance, and reliability challenges as the platform grows.
Operationalize AI models and agent-based systems reliably in production.
Mentor engineers and measurably increase the technical capability of the team.
Reporting Relationship
Reports to: Chief Technology Officer
Key Partners: Chief Architect, Chief Scientist, Engineering, Product, and Security teams
Location: Remote / Hybrid
Compensation: Competitive salary, bonus, and meaningful equity participation.