Principal Engineer (Platform)

TL;DR

Principal Engineer (Platform): Designing and evolving foundational systems for an AI-powered ad tech platform with an accent on scalability, reliability, and distributed systems. Focus on architecting next-gen data products, optimizing large-scale databases, and enabling AI agent interaction with internal systems.

Location: Hybrid in Helsinki, Finland

Company

Smartly is an AI-powered advertising technology company that transforms ad experiences for brands and their consumers through a comprehensive advertising platform.

What you will do

• Define how AI agents can safely and effectively interact with the platform, data, and internal systems.
• Shape the technical vision and architecture of the automation platform to enable reliable operation at scale.
• Partner with teams to define the architecture for combining multiple large-scale datasets into a unified data foundation.
• Evolve the architecture and operational model of the largest databases, including sharding and replication strategies.
• Lead complex cross-team projects that advance the long-term technical vision and platform architecture.
• Mentor engineers, conduct design reviews, and drive high standards for technical quality and operational excellence.

Requirements

• 3+ years of experience as a Staff, Principal, or Lead Engineer driving technical strategy across multiple teams.
• Proven track record of leading multi-quarter technical initiatives spanning 3+ engineering teams with measurable impact.
• 5+ years of experience operating production systems where relational database architecture, scalability, and 99.9%+ availability were critical.
• Strong understanding of distributed systems, including consistency, availability, partition tolerance, and sharding.
• Demonstrated success in influencing technical direction without direct managerial authority.
• Ability to communicate complex technical topics clearly to various stakeholders.

Nice to have

• Experience with analytical databases such as ClickHouse, BigQuery, or Snowflake.
• Strong knowledge of infrastructure and cloud platforms.
• Experience designing systems that expose capabilities and data to AI agents or autonomous systems.
• Experience leading reliability, observability, or performance engineering initiatives.

Culture & Benefits

• Inclusive global culture with a team representing 60+ nationalities.
• Flexible hybrid work model with the option to work abroad for up to 30 days annually.
• Comprehensive rewards including equity options and performance-based rewards.
• Focus on wellbeing with healthcare packages and mental health services.
• Commitment to work-life balance through paid holidays and family leave.