<h2><span>Role Description</span></h2> <div><span>We’re looking for a Principal Software Engineer to shape the future of Dropbox through bold new ideas and technical leadership. You’ll help define the vision, architecture, and execution for our most forward-looking products — building the foundation for what comes next at Dropbox.</span></div> <div> </div> <div><span>This role sits at the heart of innovation, blending hands-on engineering with strategic thinking. You’ll explore new product spaces, prototype ideas that don’t yet have a home, and guide how we integrate new technologies — whether we build them or bring them in. Along the way, you’ll help foster a strong, collaborative engineering culture and partner closely with product, design, and strategy to turn high-potential ideas into real impact.</span></div> <h2><span>Responsibilities</span></h2> <ul> <li><span>Build and foster a strong engineering culture focused on excellence, velocity, and innovation</span></li> <li><span>Define the architecture and integration strategy for new initiatives, including both internally developed and acquired products</span></li> <li><span>Conduct technical due diligence on potential M&amp;A targets to assess scalability, quality, and strategic fit</span></li> <li><span>Rapidly prototype new product ideas and validate emerging opportunities that fall outside existing teams</span></li> <li><span>Partner cross-functionally with product, design, and strategy teams to translate vision into technical execution</span></li> <li><span>Maintain a high technical bar and guide the team through complex architectural decisions</span></li> <li><span>Contribute to shaping Dropbox’s long-term innovation roadmap through technical insight and experimentation</span></li> </ul> <h2><span>Requirements</span></h2> <ul> <li><span>10+ years of full-stack engineering experience, including 3+ years in a technical leadership role</span></li> <li><span>Proven success operating at both startup and enterprise scale—building early MVPs and scaling to millions of users</span></li> <li><span>Deep understanding of product architecture evolution and trade-offs between speed and scalability</span></li> <li><span>Experience with technical diligence and evaluating software systems for integration or acquisition</span></li> <li><span>Some experience in engineering management preferred</span></li> <li><span>Strong bias toward experimentation and comfort navigating high-ambiguity problem spaces</span></li> </ul> <h2>Preferred Qualifications</h2> <ul> <li><span>Experience leading 0→1 product development or founding early-stage startup teams</span></li> <li><span>Demonstrated success incubating and scaling new technologies or products within a larger organization</span></li> <li><span>Strong background in distributed systems design, data-intensive applications, or cloud infrastructure</span></li> <li><span>Familiarity with modern AI/ML technologies, developer platforms, or productivity tools</span></li> </ul> <h2><span>Compensation</span></h2><div><div><div><p><span>US Zone 1</span></p> <p><span>This role is not available in Zone 1</span></p></div><div>US Zone 2</div><div><span>$248,600</span><span>—</span><span>$336,400 USD</span></div></div><div><div>US Zone 3</div><div><span>$221,000</span><span>—</span><span>$299,000 USD</span></div></div></div>

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