Principal Software Engineer - Developer Productivity

Role Description

Dropbox is seeking a Principal Engineer to define the long-term technical vision and execution strategy for Developer Productivity. This role will serve as the architectural and strategic leader for building a modern AI-augmented internal developer experience platform serving Dropbox engineers across our multi-product stack.

In this high-impact cross-cutting role you’ll shape how development flows from idea to production—streamlining workflows reducing friction and introducing agentic workflows that enable faster higher-quality software delivery. You’ll work across distributed systems address the challenges of a complex monorepo and introduce intelligent systems that empower developers through automation guidance and seamless tooling integration.

This is a career-defining opportunity to reimagine how software gets built at scale—and bring the promise of AI to everyday developer tasks.

Responsibilities

• Define the long-term architecture for Dropbox’s developer productivity platform including a unified internal developer portal (“Dropbox Console”) default workflows and intelligent agents.

• Own platform-wide architectural patterns that streamline the entire SDLC: from local dev and CI to testing debugging and deployment.

• Build abstractions and systems that scale across monorepo multi-platform (desktop/web/mobile) and hybrid cloud/on-prem environments.

• Lead the design and implementation of agentic workflows for core developer tasks—code reviews test generation flaky test triage documentation migrations etc.

• Design systems that embed safe and assistive AI directly into development surfaces and tools enabling faster iteration while preserving quality and auditability.

• Define best practices for integrating LLMs into engineering workflows including supervision checkpoints rollback strategies and metrics.

• Partner with infrastructure product and engineering teams to identify bottlenecks and define metrics that matter for business outcomes.

• Drive migration from fragmented tools and tribal workflows to a unified platform that enables flow-state for developers.

• Set and enforce standards for quality safety and reliability of automation and AI workflows.

• Serve as a technical multiplier mentoring teams across Dropbox and raising the bar on system design platform thinking and developer empathy.

• Collaborate deeply with PMs DX researchers SREs and leadership to align priorities and deliver developer delight.

• Represent Dropbox in the external platform and AI productivity communities through talks papers and open-source contributions where appropriate.

Requirements

• 12+ years of engineering experience with a deep background in distributed systems internal developer platforms or DevProd infrastructure.

• Deep understanding of monorepos complex CI/CD setups local development multi-platform development and developer journey mapping.

• Demonstrated experience building large-scale platforms with high reliability composability and extensibility.

• Passionate about AI with hands-on experience (or deep exposure) to integrating LLMs RAG systems or intelligent assistants into engineering workflows.

• Strong product sense and empathy for developer pain—capable of translating data and feedback into high-leverage solutions.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience leading or contributing to AI developer tooling or developer experience

• Proven success operating as a principal+ level engineer across large orgs

Compensation

US Zone 1

$276300—$373800 USD

US Zone 2

$248600—$336400 USD

US Zone 3

$221000—$299000 USD