Principal Software Engineer

PSL is a startup studio and early-stage venture capital fund building the next generation of software companies in the Pacific Northwest. We partner with exceptional entrepreneurs to develop ideas and validate or kill them (ruthlessly). For the best ideas, we invest significant development work and capital to turn these ideas into venture-funded companies with rapid customer and market adoption.  See a few examples here.

Over 9 years, 450 tested ideas and 40 spinouts, we have developed a successful, systematic approach for validating, launching, and scaling great ideas. Our team of engineers, designers, marketers, and operators is obsessed with supporting and accelerating the work of uncommonly talented founders.

We are looking for a highly talented generalist software engineer. Like founding a startup, partnering with early-stage founders requires flexibility, multidisciplinary skills, and on-the-job learning. In this role, you will work alongside the Pioneer Square Labs team and portfolio company leaders, to do whatever is necessary to validate and launch startup ideas.

You are curious, optimistic yet discerning, and highly autonomous. You absolutely love startups. 

As an engineer on the core team a typical day might include the following . . . 

• Explore a new idea using the latest AI models
• Rapidly prototype to de-risk new ideas
• Work on a production-grade MVP for a new startup in typescript/python
• Help venture partners assess risk and opportunity in the Seed/A startup market
• Working with a seed-stage startup CEO to derisk a product and develop a roadmap 
• Evaluate hosting or 3rd party providers to solve a business problem
• Talk to prospective customers about an idea you’re working on
• Set the technical foundation, infrastructure and tools for early spinout traction and success
• Recruit and interview high-caliber technical talent for the “first 5” roles across our portfolio companies (e.g. CTO, early-engineering hires)
• Developing internal systems, tools, and processes for repeatable scaling and learning

Signs this might be a fit

• You love writing code, building things, and moving fast.
• You’ve founded your own or worked in other early-stage, high-growth companies
• Thinking about possibilities keeps you up at night.
• You’re customer-focused 
• You like to have a say in product direction and design.
• You like to learn and teach others.
• You have great taste and judgment when it comes to tooling and architecture.
• You pride yourself on being a resource, even for non-technical people on your team.
• You engage directly with and add value to other communities of practice around Seattle.
• You thrive in an environment that changes quickly and is inherently uncertain.

Bonus points if 

• You’re comfortable navigating enterprise security and compliance requirements.
• You have deep expertise in developing evaluation suites for LLMs.
• You have strong, direct connections to infrastructure partners (AWS, Azure, Github,, OpenAI…)
• You have a thought leadership position and you like creating content
• You’ve managed a large, well-known engineering team

The salary range for this position is $215,000-250,000

 

Please note that the base salary range is a guideline, and individual total compensation will vary based on factors such as the candidate's relevant experience, qualifications, education, skill level, competencies, and work location. In addition, this position is eligible for an equity grant.

 

PSL provides the following benefits for regular, full-time employees: 

• Medical, dental, vision, EAP and life insurance.  Employee premiums are covered at 100% and dependent premiums are covered at 75%
• Long and Short-term disability coverage fully paid for by PSL
• Self-managed paid time off
• Commuter benefit of either a fully subsidized ORCA pass or a parking spot (value up to $300/month)
• Once weekly lunch delivery
• Two volunteer days off to dedicate to a cause important to you
• Professional development allowance up to $1500 annually

We are an equal opportunity employer and highly value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.