Principal Software Engineer

Gradial is the marketing operations system of work that helps marketers and creatives move from idea to execution faster. Our platform orchestrates across martech stacks, workflows, and people to automate marketing execution, cutting execution time, so marketers focus on the work only humans can do: shaping brands, understanding customers, and creating the work that moves people. Backed by leading investors, we’re building software that adapts to the user, not the other way around. We move with urgency, operate with ownership, and solve hard problems from first principles. If you want to do ambitious work, take real responsibility, and help define the future of AI-native content operations, you’ll do your best work here.The Role Gradial is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to drive the architecture and technical vision behind AI-native systems that transform how creative teams build and update websites. As a foundational technical leader, you’ll push the boundaries of how LLMs can power real-world workflows and reimagine the intersection of language, software, and creativity.  You’ll work closely with engineering, product, and design leaders to shape not just features, but the technical backbone and strategic direction of the company. This is a rare opportunity to set the blueprint for a fast-evolving product in a high-agency, low-ego environment committed to solving hard problems from first principles.  What You'll Own Define and drive the technical architecture for systems that convert natural language into intelligent, multi-step workflows using generative AI.  Lead the design, implementation, and scaling of LLM agents for real-time inference, dynamic prompting, memory management, and tool orchestration.  Set engineering standards and influence system design across the stack, with a focus on performance, reliability, and long-term extensibility.  Design learning systems that integrate customer feedback, usage data, and brand preferences to evolve autonomously over time.  Mentor senior engineers, fostering a culture of technical excellence, rapid iteration, and ownership.  Collaborate deeply with product and design leaders to rethink how interfaces and features dynamically adapt to user intent.  Champion best practices in testing, observability, deployment, and operational excellence to ensure system health at scale.  Own critical, ambiguous problem spaces from end to end, advocating for technical and product innovation.  What We're Looking For 8+ years of professional software engineering experience, including significant leadership of complex technical initiatives.  Deep expertise in distributed systems, algorithms, and scalable software design.  Proven track record architecting and shipping systems in fast-moving, high-ambiguity environments.  Hands-on experience with LLM integration, generative AI frameworks, or building AI-native applications.  Strong communicatio...