The Principal Engineer will provide architectural leadership in building Minted's e-commerce and digital platforms, ensure the scalability and performance of systems, mentor engineers, and drive technical innovation by implementing strategies aligned with business objectives.
The Role:
Minted is looking for a passionate Principal Engineer who will join us in building our e-commerce and digital experiences, as well as our artist community and product launch platforms. This role is pivotal in shaping the next generation of our platforms as we move from a monolithic to a microservices architecture. You will use your deep understanding of e-commerce, digital, and marketplace technologies to lead us in both defining and executing on short and mid-term strategy, while also driving a broad spectrum of architecture, design, and vendor decisions that will define and evolve mid to long-term strategies – while ensuring quality, timely delivery of the roadmap, and operational stability of the experiences. As a technical leader, you will drive innovation, mentor technical team members, and ensure seamless collaboration across engineering, product, and leadership teams to achieve strategic objectives.
At Minted engineering, we marry design with technology to deliver unique products that are beautiful and co-created by our artist community and our customers. Our engineers take on multiple roles and challenges not defined by titles, and we have a strong culture of collaboration and mentorship. We are a metrics-driven organization, and we work hard to make sure every project is measurably impactful. We strive to maintain the balance between building out new features and scaling our platform, while staying agile in a fast-moving environment.
You will:
- Provide architectural leadership in designing and evolving the architecture of Minted's platform, focusing on scalability, performance, observability, and maintainability.
- Plan and help to implement major technical projects in collaboration with the Engineering teams, Product Management, stakeholders, and leadership.
- Define and implement technical strategies aligned with Minted's business objectives, leveraging industry best practices and emerging technologies, including the pragmatic adoption of AI/LLM capabilities where they create measurable product or productivity value.
- Lead the design, implementation, and maintenance of robust APIs and MFEs that serve as the backbone and user-facing experience of Minted's services, ensuring seamless integration across various applications and vendor platforms.
- Drive build vs buy decisions on key components of our stack, such as CMS, marketing, and analytics tooling.
- Solve hard problems while also mentoring engineers, conducting code reviews, and fostering a culture of technical excellence and collaboration across the teams.
- Be a force for continuous improvement by role modeling best-in-class engineering, mentoring those around you, and championing initiatives that raise the bar on Minted engineering practices across teams, from better processes and tooling to the thoughtful adoption of AI code assistants (e.g., Cursor, Claude Code) with appropriate guardrails.
You are:
- A technical expert in SOA & distributed system development, with extensive experience in designing and implementing scalable experiences, APIs, and platforms in a high-traffic e-commerce environment, and a working fluency with AI/LLM-powered tooling.
- An architectural expert with a deep understanding of software architecture principles, including microservices, MFEs, RESTful APIs, message queues, and caching strategies.
- A technical leader with proven ability to lead technical initiatives, find the right solutions, influence decision-making, and drive consensus across teams.
- A problem solver, with strong analytical skills and a pragmatic approach to balancing technical objectives with business requirements, whether that's classic distributed systems trade-offs or the newer cost/quality/latency triangle of AI-powered features.
- A communicator with excellent verbal and written communication skills, and the ability to both articulate and present complex technical concepts to diverse audiences in a clear and concise manner.
You have:
- 15+ years of professional software development experience
- 10+ years in technical leadership roles
- 3+ years in Architect, Principal Engineer, or Solution Architect level roles
- Strong programming skills in multiple programming languages, cloud infra, databases, caching, containers, CI/CD tools, and AI-assisted development tooling
- Extensive experience designing, building, and migrating complex software systems
- The ability to understand business problems and synthesize the patterns and designs that accurately model them
- A solid understanding of reliability and scalability issues with distributed systems on unreliable hardware and/or software
- Experience working in a fast-paced, Agile Scrum environment
Bonus Points:
- Experience with ReactJS, Python, NodeJS, PHP, or GoLang
- Experience with Amazon Web Services, Docker & Kubernetes
- Experience with Analytics & Experimentation tools
- Experience integrating AI/LLM capabilities into products using AI Platforms or LLM API providers (e.g. Anthropic, OpenAI, AWS Bedrock), including an understanding of prompt engineering, model selection, context-window constraints, and the operational and cost implications of running AI features
- Experience with e-commerce CMS, Search & PIM, including AI-powered features
Compensation:
The compensation range for the role applies to employment offers from Minted. Our employment offers fall between the minimum and midpoint of the range to allow for continued salary growth during your employment at Minted. The upper half of the range accommodates this growth and supports our intention to create an environment that encourages lasting relationships between Minted and our employees.
Minted utilizes a market-based compensation model with four geographic tiers. Final compensation is determined based on the candidate’s primary work location, defined as their residence within 60 miles of a metropolitan area:
Geo 0: San Francisco, CA In-Office - $230,729 - $302,832
Geo 1: New York, NY; Los Angeles, CA & all other California markets - $212,270 - $278,605
Geo 1: New York, NY; Los Angeles, CA & all other California markets - $212,270 - $278,605
Geo 2: Boston, MA; Washington, DC; Chicago, IL; Seattle, WA; Austin, TX; Atlanta, GA; Portland, OR - $196,119 - $257,407
Geo 3: All other U.S. metro locations - $179,968 - $236,209
Salaries will vary based on various factors, including but not limited to professional and academic experience, associated job responsibilities, and/or other business or organizational needs.
This role is eligible for a bonus and stock options.
Benefits:
Benefits will be effective on the first of each month following your initial hire date.
- Medical, Dental, and Vision Benefits
- Employer Funded Health Savings Account
- 10 Paid Holidays
- Paid Time Off and Sick Leave
- Paid Parental Leave
- Monthly Gym/Wellness Reimbursement
- 401(k) retirement savings plan
- Employer Funded Commuter Benefits
- Employee Discount
- Friends and Family Discount
DISCLAIMER:
We verify identity at the start of interviews to ensure fairness and security. We reserve the right to withdraw candidates who misrepresent their identity, experience, or qualifications at any stage of the process.
Notice of AI Use in Employment Decisions:
We use AI-powered tools, including Brainner AI, to support our hiring and employment processes. These tools help assess job-related qualifications and improve efficiency, but all decisions involve human review.
About Minted:
Artists shape culture. They spark conversation, create connection, and bring beauty into the world. Minted is where they come together to reach further. Our marketplace empowers a thriving community of independent artists to sell and scale their work. We nurture self-expression, cultivate community, and bring the best in visual art to a global audience.
We’re building a new way to discover the world’s best creative talent. We’re here for the emerging talent ready to take off, the local favorites ready to grow, and the established artists ready to dream bigger.
At Minted, our people don’t just believe in the power of art–we live it. We have our finger on the pulse of what’s new and now. We’re obsessed with great design, art, and interiors. We’re in galleries, at fairs, and constantly finding inspiration online. We seek undiscovered talent that deserves to stand up and stand out. We connect with artists that have something to say, and we collaborate to amplify their work. The Minted community’s art, stationery, and textiles products have reached over 75 million homes worldwide.
Our marketplace brings the best in independent design to consumers everywhere. We recognize the challenges independent artists face, and we leverage our resources to level the playing field and create a platform that gives artists the freedom to develop their craft and grow their business.
We are headquartered in San Francisco, CA and currently employ 350+ full-time employees, plus additional temporary workers during the holiday season. We have raised over $300M from top-tier investors including Benchmark Capital, T. Rowe Price, Permira, Ridge Ventures, Technology Crossover Ventures, and Norwest Venture Partners. Angel investors include Marissa Mayer, Jeremy Stoppelman, Julia & Kevin Hartz, Yishan Wong, and more.
Minted is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to inclusion and diversity. We welcome people of different backgrounds, experiences, abilities and perspectives and will consider all qualified applicants for employment in accordance with all state, local, and federal laws. Minted participates in the E-verify program.
How Our Process Works:
Minted uses technology and innovative practices to bring unique, best-selling design to market at scale. Using its crowdsourcing technology, consumers are empowered to vote for the designs they love and want to see sold, ensuring that Minted always sells continuously fresh and trend-forward product. The winning designs are manufactured by Minted, enabling artists from around the world to share and sell their work while letting Minted do the rest. Since launch in 2007, the company has expanded to serve consumers in new categories including wall art, textiles, digital content and home decor, as well as serve major retailers and consumer products brands with data-backed design through licensing and wholesale partnerships.
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