Principal Engineering Manager, Core Platform & AI Systems

About Highspot
Highspot is pioneering the category that is fundamentally changing the way companies increase sales productivity. On a mission to transform the way millions of people work with sales enablement, Highspot is committed to building breakthrough software with a spark of magic. We believe a great place to work is about more than the work – it’s about what the company stands for, and how it authentically represents its values in the real world. To this end, we have put intentional focus on creating equitable workspaces for each of our employees. Our goal is to create a culture where everyone feels a deep sense of belonging and is empowered to be an agent of change, with the ability to transform themselves, their workplace, and their world.

About the Role
We are looking for a Principal Engineering Manager, Core Platform & AI Systems to lead one of the most critical engineering groups at Highspot. This team is responsible for building and scaling the core foundational systems that power the Highspot SaaS platform, including our storage systems, job orchestration frameworks, and AI/ML infrastructure.

As a Principal Engineering Manager, you will play a key role in driving Highspot’s long-term technology vision and platform strategy, while also ensuring day-to-day operational excellence. You will lead a team of highly skilled engineers, provide technical direction, collaborate across product and infrastructure organizations, and ensure that our core platform can meet the growing scale and intelligence needs of our customers.

What You'll Do:
• Lead and grow the Core Platform & AI Systems team
• Drive the technical roadmap for the platform, ensuring scalability, performance, availability, and cost-efficiency.
• Partner closely with product engineering teams to deliver platform capabilities that unlock business features while simplifying the developer experience.
• Collaborate with Data Science, ML, and AI teams to provide robust ML Ops and AI infrastructure that enables rapid experimentation and production-grade AI deployments.
• Own platform-wide reliability and operational health, continuously investing in observability, incident management, and system resilience.
• Contribute to architectural decisions that shape the long-term direction of Highspot’s SaaS platform.
• Attract, retain, and develop top engineering talent, building a high-performing and inclusive team culture.
• Communicate effectively with senior leadership, providing visibility into roadmap progress, technical trade-offs, and organizational needs.

Your Background:
• 10+ years of software engineering experience with 4+ years in engineering leadership roles.
• Experience managing senior/principal engineers, ideally across multiple functional areas.
• Strong technical background in cloud-native distributed systems, platform engineering, or AI/ML infrastructure.
• Proven track record of scaling SaaS platforms and leading teams responsible for mission-critical backend systems.
• Experience working closely with cross-functional teams such as Product, Infrastructure, AI/ML, and Security.
• Deep understanding of reliability, operational excellence, and cost optimization in cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP).
• Excellent communication, collaboration, and executive stakeholder management skills.
• Passion for developing people and building strong, healthy engineering teams.

Nice to Have:
• Experience with modern ML Ops platforms and serving frameworks.
• Experience in developer platforms or internal tooling teams.
• Experience in high-scale SaaS environments with large enterprise customer bases.

Why Highspot:
• A fast-growing SaaS company with market leadership and world-class customers.
• An opportunity to shape the core technology foundation for Highspot’s next stage of growth.
• A highly collaborative and supportive leadership team that values technical excellence and strong management.
• Competitive compensation, benefits, and career growth opportunities.

Base salary range: $208,000 - $313,000 USD
Employees may also be eligible for bonuses, stock options, and other forms of compensation.
The above represents total expected compensation for this role. Actual compensation will depend on various job-related factors, including, but not limited to, location, experience, and job qualifications.
Highspot also offers the following employee benefits for this position:
-Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, disability, and life benefits
-Health Savings Account (HSA) with employer contribution
-401(k) Matching with immediate vesting on employer match
-Flexible PTO
-8 paid holidays and 5 paid days for Annual Holiday Week
-Quarterly Recharge Fridays (paid days off for mental health recharge)
-18 weeks paid parental leave
-Access to Coaches and Therapists through Modern Health
-2 volunteer days per year
-Commuting benefits

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Equal Opportunity Statement
We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of age, ancestry, citizenship, color, ethnicity, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or invisible disability status, political affiliation, veteran status, race, religion, or sexual orientation.

Did you read the requirements as a checklist and not tick every box? Don't rule yourself out! If this role resonates with you, hit the ‘apply’ button.