Principal Software Engineer

GitHub is the world’s leading platform for agentic software development, and they are seeking a Principal Software Engineer to help shape the future of their core platform infrastructure. In this leadership role, you'll drive system architecture, mentor engineering teams, and ensure the stability and performance of GitHub's services for millions of developers worldwide.

Responsibilities:

• Lead and influence system architecture design for complex products and solutions, ensuring they meet security, compliance, and performance requirements
• Establish and mentor best practices for testing, performance tuning, and code quality, defining success metrics and ensuring maintainability across dependencies
• Provide technical leadership during code reviews to ensure reliability, scalability, and alignment with product goals
• Partner with product managers and technical leads to define service requirements and incorporate feedback into future designs
• Act as an expert in debugging tools and methods, leading proactive and reactive development to resolve issues across teams
• Optimize deployments and runtime performance to meet business objectives, ensuring safe rollouts aligned with GitHub's standards
• Drive improvements in development quality and team performance through tooling, automation, and knowledge sharing
• Lead product refinement through telemetry analysis, performance metrics, and experimentation frameworks to inform engineering decisions
• Develop strategies to identify and mitigate technical risks, including frameworks for risk assessment and contingency planning
• Shape the strategic vision for technology and product development, identifying opportunities for innovation and leading initiatives aligned with GitHub's long-term goals

Requirements:

• 11+ years experience in Software Engineering, Computer Science, or related technical discipline with proven experience maintaining and delivering production software coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Go, Ruby, Rust, or Python
• OR Associate's Degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Math, Physics, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field AND 10+ years experience in Software Engineering, Computer Science, or related technical discipline with proven experience maintaining and delivering production software coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Go, Ruby, Rust, or Python
• OR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related field AND 9+ years experience in Software Engineering, Computer Science, or related technical discipline with proven experience maintaining and delivering production software coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Go, Ruby, Rust, or Python
• OR Master's Degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Math, Physics, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field AND 7+ years experience in Software Engineering, Computer Science, or related technical discipline with proven experience maintaining and delivering production software coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Go, Ruby, Rust, or Python
• OR PhD Degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Math, Physics, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field AND 5+ years experience in Software Engineering, Computer Science, or related technical discipline with proven experience maintaining and delivering production software coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Go, Ruby, Rust, or Python
• OR equivalent experience
• Experience with cloud platforms like Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services
• Understanding of production system monitoring and observability
• Ability to think critically about both system design and software engineering concepts and blend those perspectives pragmatically based on project needs
• Demonstrated experience with large-scale system architecture and design, particularly in cloud-based environments, with a strong understanding of distributed systems and microservices
• Experience working closely with product management, design, and other engineering teams to drive cross-functional projects and deliver high-quality product