Principal Engineer - AI Tools

About the Role

At Uber, Developer productivity is a cornerstone of our innovation engine – productive developers will deliver more features faster to our world-wide end users. We are seeking a world-class Principal Engineer (Director-equivalent) to lead the next frontier of software development by pioneering a new generation of AI-powered developer tools. This is one of our most senior individual contributor roles, designed for a technical visionary who will act as a force multiplier for thousands of engineers across the company.

You will be the key architect of our strategy to embed intelligence into every stage of the developer lifecycle—from ideation and documentation to coding, testing, deployment, and observability. Your work will directly accelerate developer velocity, elevate our standards for software quality, and unlock new business opportunities by enabling the rapid integration of agentic AI into our products.

This role carries executive-level visibility and the autonomy to solve our most complex engineering challenges. If you are a recognized expert in developer platforms and are passionate about leveraging AI to redefine engineering efficiency at a global scale, we want to hear from you.

What You'll Do

• Define the Vision: Architect and drive the long-term technical vision and roadmap for AI-powered developer tools and infrastructure at Uber.
• Evaluate and Execute on new solutions: Lead the design and implementation of novel systems that leverage Large Language Models (LLMs), static/dynamic analysis, and machine learning to create a world-class, intelligent developer experience.
• Drive Company-Wide Impact: You are a builder, so you won’t just stop at ideation. You’ll make sure the solutions you build concretely and measurably deliver, and show step-change improvements in key engineering metrics, including code velocity, review cycle time, test effectiveness, incident reduction, and overall feature launches.
• Lead Strategic Initiatives: Spearhead complex, cross-functional projects that require influencing and aligning multiple engineering organizations and their leadership.
• Enable New Business Verticals: Build the foundational platforms and tools that allow product teams to rapidly prototype, build, and scale new agentic AI features for our customers.
• Be the Technical Authority: Serve as the ultimate subject matter expert on developer productivity and AI-driven tooling, providing technical guidance and mentorship to senior engineers across the organization. You’ll bring your expertise from industry trends into our fast paced and evolving ecosystem.
• Innovate at Scale: Solve sophisticated technical challenges inherent in a distributed system that supports tens of thousands of microservices and mobile developers.

Basic Qualifications

• BS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science or a related technical field, or equivalent experience.
• 15+ years of relevant software engineering experience, with a proven track record of technical leadership and innovation.
• Demonstrated experience defining and leading large-scale, cross-organizational technical initiatives from concept to completion.
• Recognized expertise in developer platforms, infrastructure, CI/CD, and software development lifecycle tooling.
• Hands-on experience applying AI/ML/GenAI to solve complex software engineering problems.
• Experience influencing and aligning senior leadership (Director, VP level) on technical strategy and roadmaps.

Preferred Qualifications

• Deep expertise in leveraging Large Language Models (LLMs) and other generative AI techniques to build intelligent developer tools.
• A strong background in compilers, code analysis (static/dynamic), or building large-scale distributed systems.
• Experience building and scaling platforms that serve thousands of engineers in a complex, polyglot environment (Go, Java, Python, Swift, Kotlin).
• A history of significant contributions to the open-source community, publications in top-tier conferences, or patents in relevant fields.
• Expertise with modern build systems (e.g., Bazel, Buck) and container orchestration technologies (e.g., Kubernetes).

About the Team

Our organization’s mission is to enable Uber developers to build high-quality software consistently and without frustration. By joining us, you will be at the epicenter of Uber's engineering culture, with a unique opportunity to shape its future.

For San Francisco, CA-based roles: The base salary range for this role is USD$302,000 per year - USD$336,000 per year.

For Seattle, WA-based roles: The base salary range for this role is USD$302,000 per year - USD$336,000 per year.

For Sunnyvale, CA-based roles: The base salary range for this role is USD$302,000 per year - USD$336,000 per year.

For all US locations, you will be eligible to participate in Uber's bonus program, and may be offered an equity award & other types of comp. All full-time employees are eligible to participate in a 401(k) plan. You will also be eligible for various benefits. More details can be found at the following link https://jobs.uber.com/en/benefits.

Uber's mission is to reimagine the way the world moves for the better. Here, bold ideas create real-world impact, challenges drive growth, and speed fuels progress. What moves us, moves the world - let's move it forward, together.

Uber is proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religion, national origin, disability, protected Veteran status, age, or any other characteristic protected by law. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know by completing this form.

Offices continue to be central to collaboration and Uber’s cultural identity. Unless formally approved to work fully remotely, Uber expects employees to spend at least half of their work time in their assigned office. For certain roles, such as those based at green-light hubs, employees are expected to be in-office for 100% of their time. Please speak with your recruiter to better understand in-office expectations for this role.