Dropbox

Principal Software Engineer – Corporate AI

Dropbox

full-time

Posted on:

Location Type: Remote

Location: United States

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Salary

💰 $256,300 - $346,700 per year

Job Level

Lead

About the role

  • Define, drive, and communicate the technical vision for intelligence, AI, and data initiatives, ensuring alignment with CIT strategy, EPD goals, and broader organizational objectives.
  • Take a holistic view of CIT systems and architecture to ensure they are scalable, reliable, secure, and maintainable over multiple years.
  • Lead the design, development, and deployment of high performance AI systems, data pipelines, and intelligent services from conception through production.
  • Make strategic architectural decisions to address complex AI, data, and platform challenges, balancing short term delivery with long term resilience and scalability.
  • Identify opportunities to simplify systems, reduce operational and security risk, and improve developer productivity.
  • Contribute directly to prototyping, proof of concepts, and implementation of technical components when needed to validate strategy, de-risk decisions, or accelerate progress.
  • Architect, evolve, and scale AI, automation, and intelligence platforms that enable advanced analytics, personalization, search, and intelligent decision making.
  • Drive innovation in intelligence models, distributed training, optimization techniques, and data engineering to maximize performance, quality, and business impact.
  • Enhance search and discovery capabilities using intelligent algorithms, natural language processing, and modern data systems.
  • Evaluate, select, and integrate emerging technologies in AI, ML, and automation to maintain a competitive and forward looking technical posture.
  • Partner across engineering, product, design, infrastructure, and other stakeholders to ensure intelligence initiatives directly support strategic objectives.
  • Translate technical capabilities and advancements into clear business outcomes that improve productivity, efficiency, and growth.
  • Resolve conflicting requirements and priorities with sound technical judgment that favors long term organizational outcomes over local optimization.
  • Advocate for intelligence driven solutions across the organization and influence company wide technical priorities.
  • Act as a trusted technical advisor to senior engineering leadership, with IC6 scope extending to org wide and EPD level strategy.
  • Provide mentorship and technical guidance to engineers and data scientists from mid level through senior, fostering continuous learning and technical excellence.
  • Serve as a technical multiplier by raising the effectiveness of surrounding teams through design reviews, code reviews, architectural guidance, and pragmatic execution.
  • Facilitate knowledge sharing across teams through documentation, design writeups, technical discussions, and mentorship programs.
  • Act as a voice for engineers by synthesizing feedback, surfacing gaps and risks, and communicating them clearly to leadership.
  • Contribute to multi year technical vision and roadmap planning, anticipating future scale, complexity, and organizational needs.
  • Identify architectural, operational, and security risks early and mobilize proactive mitigation plans across org boundaries.
  • Partner closely with managers, product leaders, and senior engineers to ensure ambitious initiatives remain feasible, sustainable, and well aligned.
  • For IC6 scope, influence technical direction beyond CIT and partner directly with senior EPD leadership on company wide strategy.
  • Lead and support critical, high impact initiatives by defining technical direction, clarifying requirements, gathering estimates, and ensuring delivery against milestones.
  • Drive execution on complex projects with significant ambiguity or high cost of failure.
  • Improve engineering effectiveness by championing best practices such as CI, automated testing, reliability reviews, and clear ownership models.
  • Promote a bias toward action, thoughtful experimentation, and continuous learning.
  • Model excellence in engineering craft, collaboration, accountability, and inclusive behavior.
  • Lead by example in living Dropbox values, including integrity, ownership, simplicity, and inclusivity.
  • Support hiring by interviewing, calibrating candidates against a high technical bar, and representing Dropbox authentically to candidates and partners.

Requirements

  • 12+ years of professional experience in software engineering, with depth in areas such as intelligent workflows, enterprise scale AI adoption, automation, or data engineering.
  • Proven track record of leading large scale, multi team technical initiatives from conception to production, including solving ambiguous problems, setting technical vision, and driving impact without direct authority.
  • Strong architectural judgment and systems thinking, with the ability to balance short term delivery with long term sustainability, scalability, and operational excellence.
  • Demonstrated ability to influence across teams and disciplines through technical leadership, collaboration, and sound decision making rather than formal authority.
  • Experience mentoring engineers and raising the technical bar of an organization through design reviews, code reviews, and technical guidance.
  • Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to clearly explain complex technical concepts, translate technical strategy to diverse audiences, and influence stakeholders at all levels.
Benefits
  • Health insurance
  • Retirement plans
  • Paid time off
  • Flexible work arrangements
  • Professional development
  • Bonuses
  • Stock options
Applicant Tracking System Keywords

Tip: use these terms in your resume and cover letter to boost ATS matches.

Hard Skills & Tools
AI systemsdata pipelinesintelligent servicesarchitectural designautomationnatural language processingdata engineeringdistributed trainingoptimization techniquesCI
Soft Skills
technical leadershipcollaborationcommunicationmentorshipinfluencesystems thinkingproblem solvingdecision makingaccountabilitycontinuous learning