Senior Principal Engineer

About Us
Founded in 1992 in Dover, NH, Planet Fitness is one of the largest and fastest-growing franchisors and operators of fitness centers in the United States by number of members and locations. We have over 2,700+ stores in 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Canada, Panama, Mexico, Spain, and Australia. 90% of Planet Fitness stores are owned and operated by independent franchisees.

At Planet Fitness, our unique mission has always been to enhance people's lives by providing a high-quality fitness experience in a welcoming, non-intimidating environment. And we're proud of the amazing Planet Fitness team that supports our clubs and team members. They are comprised of dynamic, dedicated, and talented individuals who represent our values of integrity, transparency, passion, respect, and excellence (while having fun) in everything they do.

Joining the PF family means being part of a company that cares about bettering the health and wellbeing of our communities. It means being a part of a supportive, engaging workforce with an inclusive culture that values diversity and creates an environment where everyone can feel they belong. It means encouraging professional growth and development. It means making true, lasting connections with your co-workers with celebrations, team building activities and engaging corporate events It means creating a positive impact in our local communities through our Judgement Free Generation philanthropic initiative. It means being part of a brand that you can be proud of

For the past 30 years, we've helped millions of people in their fitness journey and revolutionized the industry along the way. And we're just getting started

Overview
The Senior Principal Engineer will lead and oversee the architecture, design, development, and delivery activities of multiple cross-functional engineering teams. Through a mix of hands-on technical contributions and cross-team leadership and coordination, the Senior Principal Engineer will instill technical excellence across key strategic initiatives. In this role, you will partner closely with Product and Design counterparts to identify innovative solutions to user and business challenges using leading technology options and delivery practices. This role will also work closely with Data, Security, Infrastructure, and Operations teams to define and refine our methodologies and ways of working.

As a senior member of a growing team, you'll play a crucial role in shaping and defining the team's culture. You'll get the benefits of a fast-paced environment in an environment where teamwork, culture, and collaboration are paramount.

This is a hybrid role based out of our Hampton, NH office or our future Boston, MA office.

Responsibilities
Technical Leadership

• Define and articulate the long-term technical vision and strategy across multiple platforms and product lines
• Serve as a trusted technical advisor and decision-maker for complex architectural and design solutions
• Provide hands-on mentorship and guidance to the engineering team, fostering skill growth and innovation
• Act as a technical ambassador, representing engineering to executive leadership and external stakeholders
• Champion best practices in system design, development, testing, and deployment, including AI-powered engineering capabilities.

Cross-Functional Discovery & Collaboration

• Partner with Product and Design teams to rapidly explore solutions that amaze users and drive business outcomes
• Work across engineering, infrastructure, data, and security teams to align methodologies, platforms, and delivery practices
• Launch new capabilities, rapidly while managing risk continuously from inception through operations
• Develop and execute implementation plans that take advantage of cutting-edge technologies to deliver solutions that exceed expectations
• Anticipate and mitigate risks early in the development cycle, ensuring scalable and resilient solutions
• Advocate for customer-centric design thinking while balancing technical feasibility and business priorities.

High-Quality Development & Delivery

• Maintain hands-on involvement in critical projects, providing technical expertise and oversight on architecture, implementation, and integration
• Establish pragmatic, repeatable approaches for writing, validating, and shipping high-quality software, empowering your team to excel in an agile, outcome-oriented environment.
• Partner with the IT team to bring AI to development and delivery, establishing new patterns of engagement across cross-functional teams
• Drive adoption of modern engineering practices, including CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, observability, and cloud-native patterns.

Team & Culture Building

• Cultivate a high-performance engineering culture based on trust, collaboration, inclusivity, and accountability
• Mentor and grow the next generation of technical leaders within the organization
• Promote a culture of continuous learning, experimentation, and technical excellence
• Serve as a role model for engineering values, instilling ownership, craftsmanship, and pride in delivery.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of software engineering experience and must have at least 3+ years of experience leading and supporting 2 or more delivery teams
• Bachelor's degree in a related field (Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Management Information Systems, etc.). Master's degree, a plus
• Significant breadth and depth of experience in the architecture, development, and implementation of software products and systems. This includes a proven track record of leading development teams through everyday project tasks and collaborating across multiple functional and technical teams to deliver an outcome
• Deep hands-on experience using modern programming languages (Java, TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, Go, etc.) and libraries (Spring Boot, React / Remix, Vue, Gin) suitable for full-stack application development. Experience with CI/CD pipeline development and AI-powered engineering tooling is a strong plus
• Deep knowledge and practical experience with cloud architecture on platforms such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure, or Google Cloud Platform (GCP). You should be skilled in designing and building scalable, reliable, and secure cloud-native solutions. Experience using Generative AI (GenAI) user-facing software products or applications is also highly desirable
• A strong background in relational database design, non-relational database design, and enterprise integration patterns. You should have a practical understanding of RESTful service design and be skilled in designing and building synchronous and asynchronous interfaces
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to tackle ambiguous problems and make data-driven decisions
• Strong attention to detail, efficient, and organized with an ability to establish priorities and objectives
• Excellent presentation and communication skills along with the ability to communicate effectively across all levels of the organization
• Able to establish and maintain effective, collaborative work relationships with diverse individuals, internally and externally
• Dedicated learner with a natural curiosity for consistent growth
• Exhibits comfort, ease, and flexibility working in an extremely fast-paced ever-changing, deadline-driven environment
• Cooperative team player with an upbeat, positive, "can-do" attitude

Perks

• Hybrid work schedule out of our Hampton, NH or Boston, MA office
• Competitive salaries and comprehensive benefits package, including medical, pharmacy, dental and vision benefits
• Generous vacation/holiday pay
• Volunteer days off
• 401(k) Retirement
• Employee Stock Purchase Program
• Childcare reimbursement
• Pet care reimbursement
• Tuition reimbursement
• Learning and development programs
• Discount programs, including vacations, theme parks, shopping, meal delivery services & much more
• Free Black Card membership and fun exercise incentives
• Company-sponsored social events
• Access to our private gym at the Club Support Center, complete with locker rooms and Black Card Spa area
• Delicious, healthy breakfast and lunch options served at our Club Support Center café

Note to Applicants:
We have been made aware of an increasing number of hiring fraud schemes across numerous platforms. Planet Fitness never requires advance payments of any kind for computer equipment or any other purpose at the start of employment. Any request for you to provide payment information during the application process is part of a fraud scheme. Further, we recommend that you do not provide sensitive personal information (SSN, DOB, driver's license number) as part of the initial application process.