Hybrid Principal Engineer

at Terrific

• Job title: Principal Engineer
• Job type: Full Time
• Experience level: Lead
• Salary: Not specified
• Degree requirement: Bachelor's Degree
• Tech skills: Angular, BigQuery, Cloud, Firebase, Google Cloud Platform, JavaScript, Node.js, NoSQL, React, SQL, TypeScript
• Location requirements: Hybrid, Ramat Gan, Israel

About the role

• Principal Engineer leading the technical direction at Terrific, a social commerce platform. Building AI-powered, real-time shopping experiences with a modern tech stack.

Responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end architecture of the Terrific platform across backend, frontend, data, AI, and real-time systems.
• Drive engineering standards - code quality, testing, observability, security, and operational excellence - and raise the bar across the team.
• Mentor engineers; grow the technical depth of the organization.
• Design and implement new services and features end-to-end, from database to UI, with high performance and responsiveness.
• Build rapid prototype features A to Z.
• Tackle the highest-risk, highest-impact problems personally - live video reliability, real-time engagement, commerce integrations, and AI-powered experiences.
• Evolve our stack thoughtfully: React, Angular, Node.js, TypeScript, GCP, Firebase, Firestore, Cloud Functions, BigQuery, and Pub/Sub.
• Architect for global, 24/7 live operation — uptime, latency, cost, and graceful degradation during peak live events.
• Build for B2B2C scale: systems that serve enterprise customers (brands, retailers, broadcasters) and their consumer audiences across multiple regions and languages.
• Partner with Product and Data on experimentation infrastructure so every meaningful change can be A/B tested and measured.
• Partner with Product and Design from concept through launch, taking full ownership in a fast-paced, collaborative environment.
• Represent engineering with strategic customers and partners on deep technical topics; translate customer reality into architectural decisions.
• Make the whole team better - through design reviews, technical writing, mentorship, and hiring.

Requirements

• 10+ years of hands-on software engineering experience, with a track record of leading at staff/principal level at high-scale products(!).
• Expert-level Node.js and TypeScript; strong frontend experience in React and/or Angular (both a significant plus).
• Deep experience designing and operating distributed, real-time systems in production, 24/7, under load.
• Strong data engineering instincts: SQL/NoSQL, event-driven architectures, and analytical stores (BigQuery or equivalent).
• Hands-on experience building or shipping AI/ML-powered features in production - personalization, recommendations, search, or generative AI.
• Experience on GCP (Firebase, Cloud Functions, Firestore, Realtime Database, Pub/Sub) is a strong advantage.
• Experience with commerce platforms such as Shopify or WooCommerce, and/or live video/streaming infrastructure, is a plus.
• Excellent judgment on trade-offs between scope, speed, performance, and UX; strong product intuition.
• Clear, calm communicator: writes well, pushes back thoughtfully, and makes the people around them more effective.

Benefits

• Principal-level ownership of the platform that defines live, shoppable media.
• Real, global scale — top brands, retailers, and broadcasters, running 24/7 across LatAm, Europe, and Israel.
• A modern stack (Node.js, TypeScript, React, Angular, GCP, Firebase, BigQuery, Pub/Sub) with the autonomy to evolve it.
• A tight, senior team where product, design, data, and engineering ship together