Principal Software Engineer, Backend

Headspace

Principal Software Engineer at Headspace developing scalable backend solutions for mental healthcare. Leading engineering excellence and mentoring teams to deliver high-quality software.

Posted 4/29/2026full-time🇺🇸 United StatesLead💰 $162,000 - $258,750 per yearWebsite

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

JavaScriptNode.jsPythonTypeScript

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Lead architecture and design of high-scale, low-latency applications that are core to Headspace’s business and member experience.
Define long-term technical strategies and implementation paths for complex systems.
Own and drive engineering excellence across multiple domains or squads. Write high-quality, performant, and testable code — primarily in Typescript and Python — and set the standard for craftsmanship across the organization.
Shape product and platform evolution by partnering with PMs, EMs, and stakeholders across Product, Data, Security, and Infrastructure to align technical vision with business goals.
Author technical specs and RFCs that guide not only your product pillar, but the entire company through critical design decisions.
Take end-to-end ownership of features, from ideation and architecture to monitoring in production.
Mentor and elevate engineers across levels, helping them scale their impact while promoting inclusive and empowering team dynamics.
Drive operational excellence by developing resilient systems, implementing observability, and guiding production support practices. Lead efforts to improve system reliability, developer velocity, and cost efficiency.
Act as a thought leader and multiplier, identifying systemic issues and architecting platform-level solutions with reusability and extensibility in mind.
Provide a point of escalation for engineering teams facing complex technical challenges.
Define coding standards, development processes, and best practices to ensure high-quality software development across engineering.
Stay abreast of emerging technologies, industry trends, and best practices, evaluating their potential application and driving innovation within the software engineering and tech team broadly.

Requirements

What you’ll need

8+ years of professional software engineering experience, with a proven track record of building and scaling production-grade APIs and distributed backend systems.
Deep expertise in system design and software architecture, with the ability to decompose complex problems into scalable, maintainable components.
Extensive experience with Node.js, TypeScript, and Python especially in the context of building high-scale backend services.
Experience leading the definition, design, and delivery of complex software features in asynchronous and distributed team environments.
Strong hands-on experience with unit, integration, and end-to-end testing, along with building and maintaining robust CI/CD pipelines for reliable, automated delivery.
Exceptional communication and collaboration skills—you can influence technical direction, align stakeholders, and clearly articulate trade-offs and decisions to both technical and non-technical audiences.
Experience mentoring engineers and leading cross-functional technical initiatives across teams.
Ownership mindset: you thrive in ambiguity, consistently raise the bar, and take accountability for outcomes across teams.
Comfortable making strategic technical decisions and coaching others through uncertainty, with a pragmatic eye on long-term impact and technical debt.
Ability to balance technical excellence with product and business priorities, making decisions aligned with company goals.

Benefits

Comp & perks

base salary
stock awards
comprehensive healthcare coverage
monthly wellness stipend
retirement savings match
lifetime Headspace membership
generous parental leave

ATS Keywords

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Hard Skills & Tools

TypescriptPythonNode.jsAPI developmentSystem designSoftware architectureUnit testingIntegration testingEnd-to-end testingCI/CD pipelines

Soft Skills

CommunicationCollaborationMentoringLeadershipProblem-solvingInfluencingAccountabilityStrategic decision-makingAdaptabilityTeam dynamics