Principal Software Engineer

Role Description

We’re looking for a Principal Software Engineer to shape the future of Dropbox through bold new ideas and technical leadership. You’ll help define the vision, architecture, and execution for our most forward-looking products — building the foundation for what comes next at Dropbox.

This role sits at the heart of innovation, blending hands-on engineering with strategic thinking. You’ll explore new product spaces, prototype ideas that don’t yet have a home, and guide how we integrate new technologies — whether we build them or bring them in. Along the way, you’ll help foster a strong, collaborative engineering culture and partner closely with product, design, and strategy to turn high-potential ideas into real impact.

Responsibilities

Build and foster a strong engineering culture focused on excellence, velocity, and innovation

Define the architecture and integration strategy for new initiatives, including both internally developed and acquired products

Conduct technical due diligence on potential M&A targets to assess scalability, quality, and strategic fit

Rapidly prototype new product ideas and validate emerging opportunities that fall outside existing teams

Partner cross-functionally with product, design, and strategy teams to translate vision into technical execution

Maintain a high technical bar and guide the team through complex architectural decisions

Contribute to shaping Dropbox’s long-term innovation roadmap through technical insight and experimentation

Requirements

10+ years of full-stack engineering experience, including 3+ years in a technical leadership role

Proven success operating at both startup and enterprise scale—building early MVPs and scaling to millions of users

Deep understanding of product architecture evolution and trade-offs between speed and scalability

Experience With Technical Diligence And Evaluating Software Systems For Integration Or Acquisition

Some experience in engineering management preferred

Strong bias toward experimentation and comfort navigating high-ambiguity problem spaces

Preferred Qualifications

Experience Leading 0→1 Product Development Or Founding Early-stage Startup Teams

Demonstrated success incubating and scaling new technologies or products within a larger organization

Strong background in distributed systems design, data-intensive applications, or cloud infrastructure

Familiarity with modern AI/ML technologies, developer platforms, or productivity tools

Compensation

US Zone 1

This Role Is Not Available In Zone 1

US Zone 2

$256,300

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$346,700 USD

US Zone 3

$227,800

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$308,200 USD