Principal Engineer

About the Job

You’ll have a pivotal role in accelerating the company’s growth and shaping its long-term vision through the synergy of product and technology. As a Principal Engineer, you will guide a team of highly motivated engineers, take on diverse responsibilities, tackle complex problems, and deliver solutions that have tangible impact. This role offers a unique chance to combine technical mastery with inspiring leadership, influencing both team development and business outcomes. You’ll report directly to the CEO, with a clear path toward becoming a CTO.

About Us

We are a fully remote SaaS company dedicated to providing global online privacy and fast, reliable access to public web data. Operating since 2008, we serve thousands of active users. Our remote team is passionate, diverse, and continuously growing, and we are actively looking for skilled professionals to join us on this exciting journey.

Watch our CEO & Founder introduce the company: YouTube Video

Our Core Values

Striving for Excellence: We consistently go the extra mile in everything we do.
Ownership: We take responsibility for our areas and outcomes.
Challenging Limits: We embrace “no” as just a starting point, always looking for solutions.
Collaboration: Every team member’s contribution matters.

About the Role

As our engineering team lead, you will steer the team as we transition our legacy customer platform (WHMCS / PHP) into a modern web application. This position is highly hands-on: you’ll code regularly, define architecture, oversee execution, and act as the main engineering liaison to the PM/CEO, translating product requirements into actionable plans.

Hands-on vs Leadership

Expect your time to be split roughly 50/50 between coding and architectural work, and planning, mentoring, and managing team delivery — a balance typical for a Team Lead in a small but dynamic team.

Reporting

You will collaborate closely with the CEO/PM and coordinate with the rest of the engineering team.

Your First 30 Days: Assessment

Initially, you’ll focus on diagnosing the full product and technical landscape — analyzing tech stack, WHMCS dependencies, billing processes, internal tools, and customer needs. You should be able to:

Distinguish root issues from surface-level problems.
Suggest practical ways to overcome technical limitations in a lean, agile manner.
Produce a 90-day plan aligning technical feasibility with business priorities.

Key Responsibilities

Technical Leadership

Define and guide the technical direction for the client-area migration and decoupling.
Implement engineering best practices, including code quality, testing strategies, and review processes.
Make pragmatic decisions that maximize learning and delivery speed while avoiding future pitfalls.

Delivery & Planning

Turn product objectives into actionable milestones, sequences, and risk assessments.
Break down initiatives into executable tasks for the team.
Monitor progress using lightweight KPIs, and report status clearly.

Team Leadership

Mentor engineers through pairing, feedback, and coaching.
Conduct effective 1:1s and clarify expectations and growth opportunities.
Elevate team standards for structured thinking and ownership.

Hands-on Engineering

Develop critical components of the new client area and middleware.
Review code, improve legacy systems, and guide safe refactoring.
Enable the team to move faster through better tools and patterns, including AI-assisted workflows.

Product Contribution

Participate in defining the roadmap and aligning team expectations.
Conduct customer interviews and discovery work to translate insights into product priorities.

Required Hard Skills

Deep Technical Expertise: Ability to bridge engineering, product, and developer needs.
System Thinking: Understand complex systems, dependencies, and bottlenecks to make informed decisions.
Product Discovery: Use structured methods to uncover customer problems and validate solutions.
Data & Analytics: Make evidence-based decisions, design dashboards, and analyze metrics.
AI & Coding: Use AI tools for faster development while maintaining quality.
Communication: Clearly share risks, ask the right questions, and communicate with technical and business stakeholders.
Business Acumen: Translate technical details into actionable business language for leadership.

Desired Personality Traits

Start-up Mindset: Comfortable wearing multiple hats and navigating ambiguity.
Hands-on Attitude: Willing to dive into details and work at a fast pace.
Customer-Centric: Prioritize customer needs and continuously gather insights.
Results-Driven: Take ownership of outcomes and proactively solve problems.
Technical Passion: Love exploring systems and learning deeply about technology.
Product-Oriented: Combine commercial awareness with product sensibility.

Career Background

5+ years of software engineering experience, ideally in startups or fast-moving teams.
2+ years of product or business involvement, with experience translating technical language into product outcomes.
Fluent in English, written and spoken.

Benefits

100% Remote Work: Flexibility to work from anywhere in the world.
Professional Growth: Exposure to all aspects of the business.
Mentorship: Work closely with the CEO & Founder for coaching and guidance.
Influence: Contribute to shaping the product and company direction.
Supportive Culture: Enjoy a collaborative and friendly environment.
Career Path: Opportunity to advance to Head of Engineering or CTO.
Emergency Fund: Access to an interest-free fund for urgent needs.
Unlimited PTO: Take time off as needed to recharge.

Interview Process

Initial Call: 30-minute screening and application form.
Test Task & Personality Assessment: Evaluate practical skills and traits.
Competency Interview (1h): Assess role-specific capabilities.
Technical Interview with CTO (45–60 min): Deep dive into technical expertise.
Work History (1h): Explore past career achievements.
Reference Check: Gather feedback from previous colleagues and managers.