The Principal Software Engineer at Snout will define architectural direction, build features across the stack, and enhance team effectiveness, ensuring quality and performance.
🐶 Our mission
🚀 The opportunity
💻 The role
🛠 What you’ll do
💡What we're looking for
🌟 What will make you stand out
💖 Why you should join Snout
❌ Why this role might not be a fit for you
💸 Compensation
⚕️Benefits
Every pet should get the care they need, regardless of cost. Vet med prices are up 40% since 2020, and pet owners are stuck having to pick between their bank account and furry friend. At Snout, we aim to solve this by enabling clinics to offer pet wellness plans, that actually work.
Snout is one of the fastest growing wellness plan providers in the veterinary space, trusted by clinics across the U.S. We’re a small but mighty startup team of <50 employees. We’re on the lookout for an experienced and remote Principal Software Engineer based in the USA or Ontario, Canada to help build and maintain our web platform and portal.
As a Principal Engineer at Snout, you'll set technical direction across our platform — web apps, payments, and data systems — while still writing code every day. You'll operate across teams, shaping how we build as much as what we build. Quality, security, and performance are first-class concerns, not afterthoughts.
Your impact will be felt immediately and broadly. You'll lead spirited technical debates to establish product and technical plans, then take ownership to deliver on those plans quickly and effectively. You'll work alongside experienced partners who have your back, pair regularly, and help take the product to the moon. As Snout grows, your role will grow with it.
If you're a collaborative engineer who thrives in a small team environment, loves solving real problems for real users, and wants to make veterinary care accessible to everyone — we want to hear from you.
Snout is committed to building a diverse and inclusive team. We know that great candidates may not check every box — and that’s okay. If you're excited about this role and our mission, we encourage you to apply if you meet at least 75% of “what we’re looking for” including the first bullet point. If you need any accommodations during the application or interview process, please let us know — we’re happy to support you.
🛠 What you’ll do
- Define architectural direction and technical standards across the platform
- Build, ship, and maintain features across the full stack
- Shape product direction alongside leadership — you're a partner, not a passenger
- Identify and drive cross-team initiatives that improve how we build
- Make multiple teams better through design reviews, tooling, and mentorship
- Own DevOps, infrastructure, and deployment pipelines
- Turn ambiguous problems into plans others can execute
- 8+ years of software development experience in a production setting
- Broad technical fluency across the stack — JavaScript/TypeScript, Node, React, PostgreSQL, AWS, Linux — with depth where it counts
- Systems thinking: you design for the whole, not just the part in front of you
- Track record of improving how an engineering organization operates — not just shipping features
- Drives alignment across teams; writes compelling technical proposals
- Comfortable with ambiguity at the organizational level — you don't wait for requirements, you create clarity
- Deep knowledge of HTTP, networking, and infrastructure
- Strong product sense — you understand the business, the users, and the trade-offs
- Experience building and scaling SaaS products
- Background working at early-stage startups (Series A/B)
- Familiarity with healthcare or veterinary technology
- Experience working cross-functionally with non-technical teams
- Track record of owning features end-to-end from concept to production
- Passion for pets and understanding of the veterinary space
- Fast growing, venture capital backed technology company focused on improving access to veterinary care
- Ability to have a meaningful impact from Day 1, where your voice and opinion matters
- Unlimited potential to grow in your career, learn and expand your skillsets
- Collaborative, flexible, and friendly culture
- You don’t live near an airport or have the flexibility to travel quarterly
- A fast-moving, startup culture feels overwhelming to you and you aren’t comfortable with ambiguity and figuring things out as you go
- You prefer working independently in your own area rather than collaborating daily with the team online or in person
- You're uncomfortable with spirited technical debates or having your ideas challenged
- $160 000 - $200 000 base salary
- Day 1 medical/dental/vision benefits
- Flexible time off + 11 Snout calendar holidays
- Paid parental leave
Similar Jobs
Cloud • Security • Software • Generative AI
Lead development of Elasticsearch vector similarity search capabilities, including new features, algorithms, data structures, performance improvements, and bug fixes. Collaborate with a globally distributed engineering and open-source community, provide technical expertise, guide initiatives autonomously, and write modern Java for scalable search systems.
Top Skills:
Apache LuceneCassandraElasticsearchGitHnswIvfJavaMongoDBPostgresSlackSolrZoom
Edtech • Software
Defines and evolves the long-term technical roadmap, sets architecture and engineering standards, guides AI adoption in development workflows, prioritizes technical debt, strengthens CI/CD and quality practices, leads design reviews, develops senior technical talent, and supports hiring. The role requires strategic leadership alongside hands-on technical execution across scalable SaaS systems.
Top Skills:
AngularC#/.NetCi/CdAzureRedisSQLTypescript
Cloud • Security • Software • Generative AI
Lead architectural and code-level performance engineering for Elasticsearch. Own major optimization initiatives, develop performance models, profile distributed systems, identify bottlenecks, build benchmarks and regression detection, and improve scalability across stateful and serverless architectures. Develop AI-assisted optimization and benchmarking harnesses, collaborate across teams, and mentor engineers. Work includes Java and JVM optimization, concurrency, distributed systems, vector search, storage engines, and native library integration.
Top Skills:
C++Distributed SystemsElasticsearchEs|QlFlamegraphsJavaJmhJvmRallyRustSimdVector Search
What you need to know about the Boston Tech Scene
Boston is a powerhouse for technology innovation thanks to world-class research universities like MIT and Harvard and a robust pipeline of venture capital investment. Host to the first telephone call and one of the first general-purpose computers ever put into use, Boston is now a hub for biotechnology, robotics and artificial intelligence — though it’s also home to several B2B software giants. So it’s no surprise that the city consistently ranks among the greatest startup ecosystems in the world.
Key Facts About Boston Tech
- Number of Tech Workers: 269,000; 9.4% of overall workforce (2024 CompTIA survey)
- Major Tech Employers: Thermo Fisher Scientific, Toast, Klaviyo, HubSpot, DraftKings
- Key Industries: Artificial intelligence, biotechnology, robotics, software, aerospace
- Funding Landscape: $15.7 billion in venture capital funding in 2024 (Pitchbook)
- Notable Investors: Summit Partners, Volition Capital, Bain Capital Ventures, MassVentures, Highland Capital Partners
- Research Centers and Universities: MIT, Harvard University, Boston College, Tufts University, Boston University, Northeastern University, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, National Bureau of Economic Research, Broad Institute, Lowell Center for Space Science & Technology, National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories
