Principal Engineer, Software Development
Location Details: Remote, Serbia. At GoDaddy the future of work looks different for each team. Some teams work in the office full-time; others have a hybrid arrangement (they work remotely some days and in the office some days) and some work entirely remotely. This is a remote position, so you’ll be working remotely from your home. You may occasionally visit a GoDaddy office to meet with your team for events or meetings. Join Our Team This is a hands-on, Principal-level Individual Contributor (IC) role designed for a technical architect and systems thinker. You will not be a people manager, but a hands-on-keyboard technical leader who sets the standard for engineering excellence and multiplies the impact of the entire team. Your primary responsibility will entail architecting the technical direction, diving deep into our codebase, untangling its intricacies, and crafting a new future by harnessing innovative AI and automation. You will operate with significant autonomy, driving the technical strategy for our key products and elevating the technical capabilities of senior engineers through deep technical mentorship. What you’ll get to do… Lead systematic technical discovery : Perform deep architectural analysis of the codebase to identify bottlenecks, design stabilization strategies, and architect a phased technical transformation roadmap. Pioneer AI-enabled automation : Design, prototype, and ship production-grade AI systems (e.g., intelligent triage, anomaly detection, predictive maintenance) that fundamentally improve product stability and customer experience. Own the technical vision from concept through deployment. Architect observability infrastructure : Design and implement a comprehensive instrumentation and observability strategy using tools like Grafana. Define the technical standards for visibility, establish SLOs/SLIs, and engineer solutions that drastically reduce Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR). Drive technical decision-making : Decompose complex, ambiguous problems and set the technical direction. Document architectural decisions (ADRs), establish engineering standards, and lead by example through code reviews and pairing sessions that elevate the entire team’s capabilities. Bridge technical strategy with business outcomes : Partner directly with Product Management and Architecture to influence and shape technical strategy. Translate sophisticated technical concepts into business value and advocate for technical investments that drive long-term success. Your experience should include… 7+ years of progressive software engineering experience with at least 3+ years as a recognised technical leader (Staff/Principal Engineer, Tech Lead, or Architect). Proven track record as a technical leader: You have driven significant technical initiatives from conception to delivery, made architectural decisions with lasting impact, and established technical standards adopted by your teams. Deep, hands-on expertise refactoring, stabilizing, and instrumenting large, monolithic, legacy codebases. You’ve owned the technical strategy for modernization efforts. Demonstrated ability to architect and ship AI/ML solutions that solve real business problems. You move beyond theory to deliver production-grade, measurable outcomes. Expert-level knowledge of observability engineering using tools like Datadog, New Relic, or Grafana. You’ve defined observability strategies, created actionable dashboards, established SLOs, and used telemetry to drive engineering decisions at scale. Consistent record as a self-directed technical leader who thrives in ambiguity. You identify critical technical problems, articulate compelling technical visions, drive consensus, and execute while raising the technical bar for those around you. You might also have… Deep technical expertise within the WordPress ecosystem. Production experience architecting solutions on cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP). Hands-on proficiency with our technology stack: AWS (EC2, ECS, S3, SQS, IAM), Grafana, Terraform, Ansible. We’ve got your back… We offer a range of total rewards that may include paid time off, retirement savings (e.g., 401k, pension schemes), bonus/incentive eligibility, equity grants, participation in our employee stock purchase plan, competitive health benefits, and other family-friendly benefits including parental leave. GoDaddy’s benefits vary based on individual role and location and can be reviewed in more detail during the interview process. We also embrace our diverse culture and offer a range of Employee Resource Groups ( Culture ). Have a side hustle? No problem. We love entrepreneurs! Most importantly, come as you are and make your own way. About us… GoDaddy is empowering everyday entrepreneurs around the world by providing the help and tools to succeed online, making opportunity more inclusive for all. GoDaddy is the place people come to name their idea, build a professional website, attract customers, sell their products and services, and manage their work. Our mission is to give our customers the tools, insights, and people to transform their ideas and personal initiative into success. To learn more about the company, visit About Us . At GoDaddy, we know diverse teams build better products—period. Our people and culture reflect and celebrate that sense of diversity and inclusion in ideas, experiences and perspectives. But we also know that’s not enough to build true equity and belonging in our communities. That’s why we prioritize integrating diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging principles into the core of how we work every day—focusing not only on our employee experience, but also our customer experience and operations. It’s the best way to serve our mission of empowering entrepreneurs everywhere, and making opportunity more inclusive for all. To read more about these commitments, as well as our representation and pay equity data, check out our Diversity and Pay Parity annual report which can be found on our Diversity Careers page . GoDaddy is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. GoDaddy will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with local and federal requirements. Refer to our full EEO policy. Our recruiting team is available to assist you in completing your application. If they could be helpful, please connect with [email protected]. GoDaddy doesn’t accept unsolicited resumes from recruiters or employment agencies.