Cents

Principal Engineer

Cents$205K — $230K *
Enterprise Technology
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 10+ years of experience in building production software at a staff or principal level.
  • Proven record of ownership of complex technical problems with durable solutions.
  • Expertise in testing strategy and engineering-quality infrastructure, focusing on test automation and CI/CD processes.
  • Excellent architecture and API design skills, capable of making significant technical trade-offs.
  • Demonstrated ability to enhance the technical skills of other engineers as a mentor or guide.
  • Strong ability to influence technical direction without formal authority.
  • Experience with SaaS platforms, particularly in areas like payments or IoT.

Responsibilities

  • Lead architecture and development of key engineering-quality initiatives and testing strategies.
  • Tackle complex technical problems that span multiple teams' codebases.
  • Establish technical direction and make key architecture decisions for cross-cutting systems.
  • Elevate the technical standards of the organization through mentorship and design review.
  • Proactively identify and mitigate systemic technical risks.
  • Collaborate with senior leadership on technical strategy and direction for the platform.
  • Set standards for responsible usage of AI in development practices.

Benefits

  • Comprehensive health benefits including medical, dental, and vision.
  • Unlimited PTO and paid holidays for work-life balance.
  • 401(k) retirement savings plan.
  • Work-from-home and commuter stipends for flexibility.
  • Laundry reimbursement as a unique employee perk.
  • Access to extensive training and development opportunities.
  • Discounts and rewards from various renowned vendors.
Full Job Description
This is a hands-on technical role. You will guide the work and mentor peers, but you will not have direct reports or personnel management duties. Your leverage comes from technical judgment, architecture, and the standard your own work sets - applied to the problems that are too hard or too cross-cutting for any single squad to own. You9ll work directly with the SVP of Engineering as a technical thought partner.

What You9ll Do:

  • Own the architecture and hardest technical work on our engineering-quality initiatives: workflow testing, mutation testing (Stryker), end-to-end testing, our QA agents, and the public API.
  • Go where the hard problems are - across any squad9s code. Your scope is technical correctness and leverage, not a team boundary.
  • Set the technical direction for cross-cutting systems, make the architecture-of-record decisions, and document the trade-offs.
  • Raise the technical ceiling of the org through design review, architecture guidance, and mentorship of senior engineers.
  • Identify systemic technical risk before it becomes an incident, and drive the fix.
  • Partner with the SVP of Engineering on technical strategy - you are a primary technical voice as we shape where the platform goes.
  • Set the standard for using AI in development responsibly: AI-augmented, but with validation of output as a non-negotiable, and you set the example.


What We9re Looking For:

  • 10+ years building production software, with a track record operating at staff or principal level.
  • Demonstrated ownership of hard, cross-cutting technical problems driven to durable solutions - not just shipped, but sound.
  • Deep expertise in testing strategy and engineering-quality infrastructure: test automation, E2E, mutation testing, CI/CD rigor. This is central to the role.
  • Strong architecture and API design experience; able to make and defend consequential technical trade-offs.
  • A force-multiplier track record - evidence that engineers around you got measurably better because of you.
  • Influence without authority: you move technical direction through judgment and trust, not a reporting line.
  • SaaS / platform experience; payments, IoT, or vertical-SaaS exposure a plus.


What This Role Isn9t:

  • Not a delivery/project owner. You own the technical solution - the architecture, the hard build, the standard - not the project plan, staffing, or timeline.
  • Not a maintenance seat. You set the technical direction and crack the hard parts; ongoing implementation and upkeep are carried by the build pod and the FTE owners. You should be pointed at the ceiling, not absorbed into perpetual upkeep.


$205,000 - $230,000 a year

We offer great compensation packages, and comprehensive health benefits, & believe in a strong cohesive team atmosphere. Work from-home office stipend, virtual team events, and access to learning opportunities from our team and network of advisors, and investors are just the starting point.

- Competitive salary

- Equity

- Unlimited PTO and paid holidays

- Health benefits, including medical, dental, vision, mental health support, parental leave, life and AD&D insurance, and disability

- 401(k)

- Work-from-home and commuter stipends

- Laundry reimbursements to support our customers9 businesses

- Comprehensive training, learning, and development programming

- Access to hundreds of discounts and rewards from renowned vendors including deals on health & wellness, travel, dining, auto insurance, and so much more!

About Cents

Cents is a financial services company that provides a platform for users to invest their spare change. The company was founded in 2017 and is based in San Francisco, California. Cents aims to make investing more accessible to everyone by allowing users to invest their spare change from everyday purchases. The platform rounds up each transaction to the nearest dollar and invests the difference in a diversified portfolio of ETFs. Cents charges a monthly fee of $1 for accounts with less than $5,000 and 0.25% per year for accounts with more than $5,000.
Learn more about Cents
Size
10 employees
Industry
Net Income
-$500,000
Founded
2017
5 Year Trend
+50%
Revenue
$1 million

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