Principal Software Engineer, Developer Acceleration (Release Engineering)

HubSpot is an AI-powered customer platform that empowers engineers to build, test, and deploy code at scale. The Principal Software Engineer in Developer Acceleration will define the future of release engineering, focusing on large-scale distributed systems and integrating AI into the delivery pipeline.

Responsibilities:

• Own the future of HubSpot's release engineering platform
• Shape the technical direction for the build, test, and deploy systems that underpin how HubSpot ships software
• Drive architectural decisions across pipeline design, test infrastructure, deployment orchestration, and developer ergonomics
• Help define what the next generation of HubSpot's delivery platform should look like — not just how to operate the current one
• Write production code regularly and lead complex initiatives from idea to rollout
• Design and implement AI-powered QA agents that run on every deploy, reducing risk and increasing confidence in continuous delivery
• Turn ambiguous infrastructure problems into simple, scalable systems and clear technical direction
• Challenge 10-year-old assumptions about build systems and deployment pipelines given what's actually possible today
• Rethink testing infrastructure for a world where software behavior is increasingly non-deterministic
• Drive the roadmap toward 500+ deploys per minute, identifying and eliminating bottlenecks across the delivery pipeline
• Partner with engineering leaders to align release engineering direction with what HubSpot needs to build next
• Work horizontally across teams to guide technical tradeoffs, rationalize configuration and change management across concurrent teams, and raise the architectural bar for platform work
• Act as a multiplier through design reviews, technical mentoring, and principled decision-making on the most critical systems in the space

Requirements:

• Deep experience building and evolving large-scale distributed systems, particularly in CI/CD, build infrastructure, release engineering, or foundational backend platforms
• Strong architectural instincts with a bias toward simplicity, clarity, and long-term platform leverage — and a healthy skepticism toward complexity that isn't earned
• Experience operating at hyperscaler or platform-provider scale
• A track record of owning and delivering complex, cross-team technical initiatives with org-wide or company-level impact
• A hands-on mindset. You lead by building, debugging, reviewing, and shipping — not by staying removed from the systems you influence
• The ability to move into unfamiliar technical territory quickly, form strong opinions grounded in first principles, and help teams make better long-term decisions