Principal Software Engineer, Backend

About the Principal Software Engineer, Backend at Headspace:

At Headspace, you’ll be working on a highly impactful consumer facing product that impacts millions of members globally. Our mission is to transform mental healthcare to improve the health and happiness of people all over the world, so join us to make that happen! As a Principal Engineer, you’ll play a key role in shaping the technical foundation of our platform as we scale to serve millions of users. You will help us bring new features to life to meet our mission, while also helping push our platform to newer technologies as we embrace the cutting edge. A big goal needs talented people, so come join us and give your day job a sense of purpose!

What you will do:

• Lead architecture and design of high-scale, low-latency applications that are core to Headspace’s business and member experience.
• Define long-term technical strategies and implementation paths for complex systems.
• Own and drive engineering excellence across multiple domains or squads. Write high-quality, performant, and testable code — primarily in Typescript — and set the standard for craftsmanship across the organization.
• Shape product and platform evolution by partnering with PMs, EMs, and stakeholders across Product, Data, Security, and Infrastructure to align technical vision with business goals.
• Author technical specs and RFCs that guide not only your product pillar, but the entire company through critical design decisions.
• Take end-to-end ownership of features, from ideation and architecture to monitoring in production.
• Mentor and elevate engineers across levels, helping them scale their impact while promoting inclusive and empowering team dynamics.
• Drive operational excellence by developing resilient systems, implementing observability, and guiding production support practices. Lead efforts to improve system reliability, developer velocity, and cost efficiency.
• Act as a thought leader and multiplier, identifying systemic issues and architecting platform-level solutions with reusability and extensibility in mind.
• Provide a point of escalation for engineering teams facing complex technical challenges.
• Define coding standards, development processes, and best practices to ensure high-quality software development across engineering.
• Stay abreast of emerging technologies, industry trends, and best practices, evaluating their potential application and driving innovation within the software engineering and tech team broadly.

What you will bring:

Required Skills:

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience, with a proven track record of building and scaling production-grade APIs and distributed backend systems.
• Deep expertise in system design and software architecture, with the ability to decompose complex problems into scalable, maintainable components.
• Extensive experience with Node.js and TypeScript, especially in the context of building high-scale backend services.
• Experience leading the definition, design, and delivery of complex software features in asynchronous and distributed team environments.
• Strong hands-on experience with unit, integration, and end-to-end testing, along with building and maintaining robust CI/CD pipelines for reliable, automated delivery.
• Exceptional communication and collaboration skills—you can influence technical direction, align stakeholders, and clearly articulate trade-offs and decisions to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Experience mentoring engineers and leading cross-functional technical initiatives across teams.
• Ownership mindset: you thrive in ambiguity, consistently raise the bar, and take accountability for outcomes across teams.
• Comfortable making strategic technical decisions and coaching others through uncertainty, with a pragmatic eye on long-term impact and technical debt.
• Ability to balance technical excellence with product and business priorities, making decisions aligned with company goals.

Preferred Skills:

• BS/MS degree in Computer Science or related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Demonstrated success designing and maintaining high-availability systems, with strong observability practices (metrics, logging, alerting).
• Deep knowledge of database design, data modeling, and query performance optimization across both relational and NoSQL systems.
• Familiarity with cloud-native architectures and services (e.g., AWS, GCP, Kubernetes) and modern DevOps practices.
• Track record of improving engineering velocity and reducing tech debt at scale.
• Strong debugging skills and comfort working within complex, distributed systems.
• Demonstrated ability to drive build vs. buy vs. refactor decisions with long-term implications in mind.

Pay & Benefits:

The base salary range for this role is determined by a number of factors, including but not limited to skills and scope required, relevant licensure and certifications, and unique relevant experience and job-related skills. The base salary range for this role is $162,000 - $275,000.

At Headspace, cash salary is but one component of our Total Rewards package. We’re proud of our robust package inclusive of: base salary, stock awards, comprehensive healthcare coverage, monthly wellness stipend, retirement savings match, lifetime Headspace membership, unlimited, free mental health coaching, generous parental leave, and much more. Paid performance incentives are also included for those in eligible roles. Additional details about our Total Rewards package will be provided during the recruitment process.

How we feel about Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging:

Headspace is committed to bringing together humans from different backgrounds and perspectives, providing employees with a safe and welcoming work environment free of discrimination and harassment. We strive to create a diverse & inclusive environment where everyone can thrive, feel a sense of belonging, and do impactful work together.

As an equal opportunity employer, we prohibit any unlawful discrimination against a job applicant on the basis of their race, color, religion, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, national origin, family or parental status, disability*, age, veteran status, or any other status protected by the laws or regulations in the locations where we operate. We respect the laws enforced by the EEOC and are dedicated to going above and beyond in fostering diversity across our workplace.

*Applicants with disabilities may be entitled to reasonable accommodation under the terms of the Americans with Disabilities Act and certain state or local laws. A reasonable accommodation is a change in the way things are normally done which will ensure an equal employment opportunity without imposing undue hardship on Headspace. Please inform our Talent team by filling out this form if you need any assistance completing any forms or to otherwise participate in the application or interview process.

Headspace participates in the E-Verify Program.

Privacy Statement

All member records are protected according to our Privacy Policy. Further, while employees of Headspace (formerly Ginger) cannot access Headspace products/services, they will be offered benefits according to the company's benefit plan. To ensure we are adhering to best practice and ethical guidelines in the field of mental health, we take care to avoid dual relationships. A dual relationship occurs when a mental health care provider has a second, significantly different relationship with their client in addition to the traditional client-therapist relationship—including, for example, a managerial relationship.

As such, Headspace requests that individuals who have received coaching or clinical services at Headspace wait until their care with Headspace is complete before applying for a position. If someone with a Headspace account is hired for a position, please note their account will be deactivated and they will not be able to use Headspace services for the duration of their employment.

Further, if Headspace cannot find a role that fails to resolve an ethical issue associated with a dual relationship, Headspace may need to take steps to ensure ethical obligations are being adhered to, including a delayed start date or a potential leave of absence. Such steps would be taken to protect both the former member, as well as any relevant individuals from their care team, from impairment, risk of exploitation, or harm.

For how how we will use the personal information you provide as part of the application process, please see: https://www.headspace.com/applicant-notice