Principal Software Engineer (AI Platform)

• We’re looking for a Principal Software Engineer to help architect and build Redpanda’s Agentic Data Plane (ADP), the control and execution layer that powers how AI agents safely interact with real-world data across the technological sprawl of the modern enterprise
• Redpanda’s Agentic Data Plane enables intelligent agents to autonomously access, reason over, and act on enterprise data in real time, while providing their human counterparts with the visibility and control to ensure and validate that they do so securely
• It combines Redpanda’s industry-leading low-latency streaming layer, a distributed query engine for real-time context, 300+ connectors for seamless data integration, and a global policy and observability framework that enforces access, records intent, and enables replayable audits
• You’ll work on identifying and integrating the next generation of ADP capabilities as the agentic AI landscape evolves, translating emerging research and industry shifts into concrete engineering proposals and product bets
• You’ll partner closely across Engineering, with our Product and GTM teams, as well as directly with strategic customers to shape the product’s architecture and direction
• Track emerging research, frameworks, and industry developments in the agentic AI space, and translate the most relevant signals into concrete engineering proposals and product bets
• Identify, prototype, and deliver high-leverage emerging capabilities for ADP, in partnership with the broader team
• Define architectural patterns for new ADP capabilities, ensuring they integrate cleanly with the existing runtime, policy, and observability layers
• Engage directly with strategic customers and the field to stress-test new capabilities against real enterprise deployment scenarios
• Serve as a technical ambassador for ADP externally, publishing research, writing engineering blog posts, and speaking at conferences to establish Redpanda’s credibility at the frontier of agentic infrastructure
• Participate in on-call and help drive down operational toil, improving system observability and self-healing capabilities over time

Benefits

• Remote first: We’re a remote-first company that puts humans first. We advocate for working wherever you’re most productive
• Comprehensive healthcare: We’ve got you covered with a mix of plans ranging from fully-paid medical, dental and vision, to premium coverage
• 401(k) matching: Our 401(k) plans let you save for your future. And for our US and UK employees — we match
• Unlimited PTO: Take time to relax and recharge. Option to select region-specific holidays. Our vacation policy puts you in control
• Home office & education reimbursement: $1,000 to gear-up your home office, $50 towards each wifi bill, $500 to invest in your learning and development annually
• Redpanda swag: Hands down the coolest swag in our industry! Your family will steal it. Guaranteed- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills. Able to lead without authority across engineering teams and engage credibly with technical customers and external audiences
• Self-directed, strong written communicator, comfortable collaborating asynchronously in GitHub, Slack, and Google Docs
• Fluency with AI-assisted development at the level of agentic orchestration, i.e. composing multi-agent coding workflows with subagents to dramatically accelerate research and prototyping
• 10+ years of software engineering experience, with a demonstrated track record of leading the design and delivery of complex, large-scale distributed systems
• Understanding of streaming data systems, messaging infrastructure, or data plane/control plane architectures, experience with Apache Kafka or Redpanda is a plus
• Experience building or contributing to emerging areas of agentic AI infrastructure, e.g. eval frameworks, orchestration layers, context management, AI gateways, or similar
• Experience designing and operating systems that enforce access control, policy, and auditability at scale
• Deep expertise in at least one systems language (Go preferred) and comfort working across the stack
• Prior experience in an early-stage or growth-stage startup, especially in a category-defining product area
• Experience with Kubernetes and cloud-native infrastructure across AWS, GCP, or Azure
• Experience running Kafka/Redpanda and/or Postgres at scale
• Background in security, identity, or data governance systems relevant to enterprise environments
• Experience with protocol buffers, protoreflect and codegen
• Familiarity with AI safety, alignment, or responsible AI research as it applies to autonomous systems in enterprise environments