Principal Engineer, IO

Are you a seasoned distributed systems architect who has led multi-domain engineering initiatives across data platforms? Do you thrive on solving foundational challenges in eventing, durable state, and cross-region resiliency while shaping long-term technical strategy? Are you excited to influence senior engineers and executives alike, driving clarity and consistency across complex architectural landscapes? If so, we invite you to be a part of our innovative team.

As a Principal Engineer, IO at Ridgeline, you’ll provide technical leadership across data engineering domains including semantic modeling, governance controls, event backbones, durable state systems, and unified data access layers. You will drive 0–1 adoption of modern architectural patterns, scale foundational systems, and shape the long-term technical narrative for data engineering across the firm. You’ll work hands-on and strategically—solving complex distributed systems challenges while elevating standards across teams. In our fast-paced, progressive engineering environment, you’ll leverage cutting-edge technologies—including AI tools like GitHub Copilot and ChatGPT—to enhance design quality, accelerate innovation, and improve developer productivity across the software lifecycle.

At Ridgeline, how we work matters as much as what we build. Ridgeliners act like owners, choose growth over comfort, and communicate with transparency. We assume positive intent, bias toward action, and bring solutions—not just problems. We celebrate wins, learn from setbacks, and thrive in a resilient, collaborative, high-performing culture.
If this excites you, we’d love to meet you.

You must be work authorized in the United States without the need for employer sponsorship.

The impact you will have:

• Lead architectural strategy across data engineering, aligning storage, eventing, governance, and access layers under a cohesive long-term vision
• Establish consistent architectural patterns that reduce duplication, increase replaceability, and strengthen system durability
• Drive adoption of canonical solutions for event propagation, schema contracts, semantic governance, replication, and query abstraction
• Guide large-scale technical decisions involving distributed coordination, replay semantics, durable state, and cross-region resiliency
• Influence engineering leaders and senior engineers to align around shared standards and principled system design
• Facilitate cross-team architectural reviews that elevate technical rigor and reinforce transparency
• Mentor senior engineers while cultivating a culture of ownership, operational excellence, and continuous growth
• Strengthen observability, disaster recovery, performance, and reliability across mission-critical systems
• Partner with product and engineering leadership to balance long-term architectural clarity with pragmatic delivery
• Contribute reference implementations and technical documentation that empower teams to move quickly and confidently

What we look for:

• 12+ years of experience building and operating large-scale distributed systems
• Proven track record of leading cross-team architectural initiatives from concept to production
• Deep expertise in event-driven architectures, durable state systems, and distributed coordination
• Strong experience with messaging systems such as Kafka, change data capture, replay semantics, and replication strategies
• Familiarity with query engines, data federation, and abstraction layers separating application logic from storage engines
• Experience designing systems with governance controls and policy enforcement patterns
• Demonstrated ability to influence senior engineers and executives without direct authority
• Exceptional communication skills with the ability to articulate complex technical tradeoffs clearly
• Willingness to embrace cutting-edge technologies and AI-assisted development practices
• Serious interest in having fun at work

Bonus:

• Experience designing multi-region architectures with automated disaster recovery
• Background in metadata systems, schema registries, or semantic modeling frameworks
• Experience scaling high-availability systems under strict performance and reliability constraints
• Familiarity with financial systems, compliance-driven architectures, or multi-tenant environments

About Ridgeline

Ridgeline is the first front-to-back system of record for investment managers. Founded by visionary entrepreneur Dave Duffield (co-founder of both PeopleSoft and Workday), the company was created to modernize an industry held back by outdated, disconnected technology. Powered by a single, real-time data set and embedded AI, Ridgeline helps firms automate complexity, accelerate collaboration, and deliver tailored client experiences at scale, without added headcount or risk. Ridgeline is headquartered in Lake Tahoe, with offices in New York, Reno, and the Bay Area, and is recognized by Fast Company as a “Best Workplace for Innovators,” by Frost & Sullivan as a “Technology Innovation Leader,” and by The Software Report as a “Top 100 Software Company.”

Ridgeline is proud to be a community-minded, discrimination-free equal opportunity workplace.

Ridgeline processes the information you submit in connection with your application in accordance with the Ridgeline Applicant Privacy Statement. Please review the Ridgeline Applicant Privacy Statement in full to understand our privacy practices and contact us with any questions.

Compensation and Benefits

The typical starting salary range for new hires in this role is $255,000 - $300,000. Final compensation amounts are determined by multiple factors, including candidate experience and expertise and may vary from the amount listed above.

As an employee at Ridgeline, you’ll have many opportunities for advancement in your career and can make a true impact on the product.

In addition to the base salary, Ridgeline employees can participate in our Company Stock Plan subject to the applicable Stock Option Agreement. We also offer rich benefits that reflect the kind of organization we want to be: one in which our employees feel valued and are inspired to bring their best selves to work. These include unlimited vacation, educational and wellness reimbursements, and $0 cost employee insurance plans. Please check out our Careers page for a more comprehensive overview of our perks and benefits.

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