Principal Software Engineer

Whether you're binge-watching a series on Netflix, planning vacations from your phone, or reading news online, you've likely used Apollo's technology this week. Apollo powers some of the largest GraphQL platforms globally, serving diverse users at companies like Netflix, Expedia, Peloton, DoorDash, The New York Times, and many more.

We're not looking to rest on our laurels—we're aiming to transform how software is built. Apollo is creating technology that empowers all software teams to build amazing user experiences across any number of clients, without dealing with complicated API endpoints. We believe diverse perspectives drive innovation, and we want you to be part of our journey.

As a Principal Engineer at Apollo, you'll be a technical leader who helps shape our engineering culture, directly advising senior & exec leadership across products and systems that power GraphOS. Your work will influence company-wide priorities, delivering technical innovations that translate directly into customer value and business impact. 

Today, GraphQL is emerging as the next generation API orchestration technology unifying data access across various sources. Our GraphOS platform helps API developers worldwide build and operate their data access layers at scale. In this role, you’ll partner directly with Product and Engineering leadership to develop strategy, design solutions, and elevate our engineering teams through meaningful impact and results.

User Impact

• Create solutions that deliver direct impact for customers and drive business growth
• Contribute to company-level objectives related to GraphOS adoption and success
• Balance current technical requirements with long-term architectural vision
• Use data to evaluate effectiveness and drive continuous improvement

Strategic Technical Leadership

• Propose ideas that create business value through technical insight and vision in the GraphQL ecosystem
• Develop resilient, scalable systems and optimize existing components of GraphOS, including the Core Router and Apollo Federation
• Lead and participate in technical forums to elevate design and architecture practices across Apollo
• Apply your expertise of GraphQL or distributed systems architecture to solve complex, high-impact problems
• Create high-quality technical documents that exemplify excellence for the engineering organization
• Guide strategic architectural decisions that enable innovative, adaptable solutions to meet a broad range of customer needs
• Identify areas of opportunity for the engineering and product organizations along with catalyzing the initial effort

Delivery & Execution

• Ensure operational excellence and resilience across GraphOS systems in support of company-wide goals 
• Develop technical plans and documentation that enable teams to deliver on Apollo's roadmap
• Combine high-level technical planning with hands-on problem-solving
• Collaborate with engineering management to build GraphOS components that are maintainable, performant, and secure
• Transform complex concepts into achievable deliverables that address customer needs
• Balance customer needs with community interests in open source projects
• Participate in an on-call rotation as necessary

Collaboration & Influence

• Serve as a key technical partner to stakeholders, including product and customer success, aligning engineering efforts with user and business priorities
• Drive alignment across functions by clearly communicating technical context, tradeoffs, and priorities
• Represent Apollo through various channels including customer conversations and community engagement
• Engage with thought leaders in the GraphQL and API platform ecosystem
• Support the growth of the team by helping to identify, interview, and recruit top engineering talent

Core Skills & Experience:

• Experience designing, building, and operating high scale distributed systems
• Background in API design, platforms, or frameworks
• Strong product and customer mindset, with a track record of moving fast, iterating, and delivering meaningful impact
• Ability to make technical decisions with considerations for long-term impact
• Success in collaborating across teams and building solid technical strategy
• Sound judgment in balancing technical debt, innovation, and business priorities
• Effective communication skills with various audiences including executives, customers, and engineers

Valued, But Not Required:

• Demonstrated ability to mentor & elevate senior+ engineers, and shape the influence of technical leaders across the org
• Familiarity with GraphQL, Federation architecture or API gateway technologies
• Understanding of software development lifecycle models and their application to source-available products

Apollo is the worldwide leader of GraphQL innovation. Companies like Netflix, Expedia, Peloton, DoorDash, The New York Times, and PayPal are just a small sample of Apollo's customers. Our open-source product has millions of downloads every week. Gartner estimates that by 2025, 50% of companies will be using GraphQL, and we're the clear market leader.

Compensation: In addition to the salary range, we also provide equity and benefits. Our salary ranges are determined by role, level, and country.

Benefits: Apollo offers all US-based employees a choice of 3 Anthem Blue Cross medical plans. California residents can also choose from 2 Kaiser plans. Dental is provided by Delta Dental and vision by VSP.

Location: This is a remote position that can be done from anywhere in the US or Canada.

Equal Opportunity: Apollo is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace dedicated to pursuing and hiring a talented and diverse workforce.

Privacy: California residents applying for positions at Apollo can see our privacy policy here.

Apollo is an E-Verify employer and will provide the federal government with your Form I-9 information to confirm that you are authorized to work in the U.S. For more information please visit E-Verify.