Principal Architect Location: Washington, DC About the Role We are seeking a Principal Architect 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 50+ 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 80+, 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 lev