Principal Engineer- Backend

CodeRabbit is the governance and control layer for agentic software development, helping engineering teams trust the code they ship. AI can generate code faster than people can review and understand it. Teams still need to know whether each change solves the right problem, fits their architecture, and is safe to ship.

We provide independent validation grounded in codebase context and team standards, giving people the evidence they need to judge what should ship. Across Review, Triage, Explain, and Secure, our platform challenges changes before merge, prioritizes pull requests by value, impact, and risk, explains what changed and why it matters, and monitors the codebase for security vulnerabilities after merge.

CodeRabbit serves nearly 20,000 customers and supports approximately 300,000 open-source repositories, performing over 2 million code reviews each week. Our $143M Series C, raised at a $1.5B valuation, supports further product development and international expansion.

We're seeking a Principal Engineer to provide technical leadership across our organization. In this role, you'll shape our technical vision, architect solutions for complex problems, and help build a world-class engineering culture focused on developer tooling excellence.

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  Drive technical vision and architecture decisions across multiple teams

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  Design and implement core systems that power our AI code review platform

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  Identify and solve complex technical challenges that impact product scalability and performance

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  Collaborate with engineering leadership to establish technical standards and best practices

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  Mentor engineers across the organization and elevate the technical capabilities of the team

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  Contribute to open source projects that align with our mission

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  Partner with product leadership to translate business requirements into technical solutions

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  Evaluate new technologies and recommend adoption strategies

• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience

• Proven track record of technical leadership on complex, large-scale software systems

• Deep expertise in at least one programming language and familiarity with multiple others

• Extensive experience building developer tools, platforms, or infrastructure

• Strong understanding of distributed systems, cloud architecture, and system design patterns

• History of meaningful open source contributions or maintenance

• Experience mentoring and growing other engineers

• Outstanding written and verbal communication skills

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or equivalent practical experience

• Experience in static analysis, compilers, or programming language theory

• Track record of published technical content (blogs, talks, papers)

• Experience with code review systems and development workflows

• Familiarity with large language models and their applications

• Previous experience at a developer tools company

• Open source contributions

• Advanced degree in Computer Science or related field

• Technical depth and breadth: You have both specialized expertise and broad knowledge across the stack

• Strategic thinking: You can connect technical decisions to business outcomes

• Community involvement: You're active in the developer community and contribute to collective knowledge

• Systems thinking: You understand how components interact and can anticipate second-order effects

• Product-minded: You build technology not just for its elegance but for the value it delivers to users

• Bias for simplicity: You can distill complex problems down to their essence

1.  Collaborative Humans: Prioritising collective intelligence

2.  Fearless Innovators: Turning obstacles into growth opportunities

3.  Persistent Passionate Developers: Thriving on complex, long-term challenges

4. Impact-Driven Creators: Crafting intuitive tools for developers

5. Rapid Learners and Un-learners: Adapting quickly in our fast-paced technological world