Principal Architect

Principal Architect & Technical Team Lead All potential applicants are encouraged to scroll through and read the complete job description before applying. Location: Washington, DC About the Role We are seeking a Principal Technical Team Lead to drive the design, development, and deployment of our agentic AI products in a fast-paced, collaborative, extremely high-visibility environment. In this role, you will lead a team of 20+ engineers, providing both strategic and technical guidance. You’ll be responsible for high-impact architectural decisions, cross-company collaboration, and executive level engagements. What You’ll Do Team Leadership: Lead and mentor a high-performing engineering team of 20, fostering a culture of technical excellence and ownership. Technical Direction: Guide your team through complex challenges involving LLMs, AI agents, and large-scale distributed systems. Executive Stakeholder Engagement: Represent Scale AI in high-stakes negotiations and strategic discussions with senior external partners, demonstrating strong technical competence and credibility. Strategic Planning & Communication: Develop and communicate a compelling vision for Scale AI’s technology applied to your program. Provide regular updates to senior leadership and key stakeholders on progress, risks, and opportunities. Culture & Teamwork: Foster a culture of speed, unity of purpose, resilience, and teamwork. Lead through uncertainty with determination and adaptability. What We’re Looking For 10+ years of software engineering experience, including 5+ years in a technical leadership or staff role. Deep understanding of modern AI/ML technologies, including experience working with LLMs and AI agents. Proficient in one or more modern programming languages (Python, JavaScript/TypeScript). Hands-on experience with Kubernetes and cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, or Azure). Strong product and business sense, with a track record of aligning engineering efforts with company goals. Ability to operate effectively in ambiguous, fast-changing environments and guide your team to do the same. Experience in executive level engagement with industry partners and Public Sector customers Success Metrics Within 6 months: Successful demonstration of agentic AI’s mission value in high-stakes customer demonstrations Establish Scale AI as the preferred agentic AI partner for the PEO Establish high velocity, agile engineering cadence both internally and with our industry partners Within 12–18 months: Secure follow-on contract award with expanded scope for Scale Position Scale AI as the global AI leader in this mission area Establish developed solutions as Scale product offerings to deliver on future contracts Compensation & Benefits Compensation packages at Scale for eligible roles include base salary, equity, and benefits. The base salary range for this full-time position in Washington, DC is $257,000 — $321,000 USD . You’ll also receive benefits including, but not limited to: comprehensive health, dental and vision coverage, retirement benefits, a learning and development stipend, and generous PTO. This role may be eligible for additional benefits such as a commuter stipend. Equity-based compensation is subject to Board approval and details will be shared by your recruiter during the hiring process. PLEASE NOTE: Our policy requires a 90-day waiting period before reconsidering candidates for the same role. About Us At Scale, we believe that the transition from traditional software to AI is one of the most important shifts of our time. Our mission is to make that happen faster across every industry, and our team is transforming how organizations build and deploy AI. Our products power the world's most advanced LLMs, generative models, and computer vision models. We are trusted by generative AI companies such as OpenAI, Meta, and Microsoft, government agencies like the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force, and enterprises including GM and Accenture. We are expanding our team to accelerate the development of AI applications. We are proud to be an inclusive and equal opportunity workplace and are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability status, gender identity or Veteran status. We provide reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities. If you need assistance, please contact us at Please review the Know Your Rights poster and Pay Transparency information as part of our compliance resources. We collect, retain and use personal data for our professional business purposes, including notifying you of job opportunities and sharing with affiliates. xrczosw Any information we collect will be treated in accordance with our privacy policy.