Principal Software Engineer, Developer Producti...

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 $276,300—$373,800 USD US Zone 2 $248,600—$336,400 USD US Zone 3 $221,000—$299,000 USD The range(s) listed above is the expected annual salary/OTE (On-Target Earnings) for this role, subject to change. Please note, OTE are for sales roles only. Salary/OTE is just one component of Dropbox’s total rewards package. All regular employees are also eligible for the corporate bonus program or a sales incentive (target included in OTE) as well as stock in the form of Restricted Stock Units (RSUs). Dropbox takes a number of factors into account when determining individual starting pay, including job and level they are hired into, location/metropolitan area, skillset, and peer compensation. We target most new hire offers between the minimum up to the middle of the range. Dropbox uses the zip code of an employee’s remote work location to determine which metropolitan pay range we use. Current US Zone locations are as follows: