Principal Engineer, AI innovation

Today, we live in a world where everything has become convenient. Now you can get a ride anywhere, buy anything, and get an answer to your question with just a couple clicks on your phone. Convenience isn’t a luxury, it’s an expectation.

So why not renting? It’s still a chore to get utilities set up, buy renters insurance, get air filters changed, handle pest control, and more.

That’s why we’ve built the world’s first Resident Experience Platform that makes resident onboarding, resident services, and ancillary revenue effortless for property managers.

We’re passionate about turning friction into triple win experiences for residents, investors, and managers. That way renting can be easy and rewarding for everyone.

And now you can join us. Apply today to join 200+ passionate, creative people who strive to make a difference each day so residents, property managers, and investors all win.

About the Role

Join our team as a Principal Engineer driving AI innovation initiatives across Second Nature's business. Reporting to the VP of Engineering, the Principal Engineer will play a pivotal role in architecting and implementing our AI-driven solutions, working cross functionally with the product, design, and business teams to deliver impactful technical outcomes. This role is central to building scalable, production-ready AI technologies that drive business value.

About you:
Technical innovator: You excel at architecting robust solutions and identifying the right technologies to solve complex problems even in the face of ambiguity. You balance innovation with practicality, creating sustainable solutions from concept to production.
 

Systems thinker: You thrive in designing scalable systems and can break down complex technical challenges into manageable components.
 

Engineering leader: You're skilled at mentoring other engineers, establishing best practices, and driving technical excellence across teams.
 

Solution-oriented mindset: You are passionate about building high-quality software with AI that solves real business problems and delivers tangible value.
 

Technical executor: You can successfully translate requirements into working solutions and deliver reliable systems through rigorous engineering practices.

Opportunities

• Build and deploy AI systems that improve product activation rates by 25% through automated failure detection and resolution.
• Architect scalable solutions to reduce customer onboarding time from weeks to days.
• Develop intelligent automation systems to streamline fulfillment processes and reduce error rates.
• Create innovative technical solutions to enable new revenue streams for Property Manager customers.
• Engineer AI-powered support systems to improve customer satisfaction metrics by 20%.

Key responsibilities

• Design and implement scalable AI infrastructure and systems
• Establish technical standards and best practices for AI development
• Define technical architecture that enables AI integration across key business functions
• Ensure high-quality, maintainable code through proper engineering practices
• Partner with product, design, and business teams to deliver robust technical solutions
• Implement monitoring and metrics to ensure system reliability and performance

More About You

• 6+ years of experience in software engineering; startup experience a plus
• Experience building, deploying and managing production AI solutions
• Familiarity with prompting strategies for Large Language Models (LLMs)
• Knowledgeable of chunking, in-context learning vector databases and RAG strategies in AI products. Or be able to very quickly come up to speed on them. 
• Passionate about software engineering and the pursuit of continually bettering yourself, the systems you work on and the people around you.
• Deep experience with one or more programming languages such as python, Typescript, Rust, Java, etc 
• Strong background in software architecture and system design. Familiarity with design patterns, domain driven design, integration patterns and clearly communicating your ideas and designs with visual diagrams strongly preferred.
• Experience leading technical initiatives in fast-paced environments with rapid iteration
• Experience building UI products
• Experience developing prototypes and/or reviewing UI flows in collaboration with the design team that could benefit from AI enrichment. Data visualization experience a plus.

Our Core Values

• Pirate Ship; not a cruise ship. Bias towards action.
• Massive Growth takes massive growth. We embrace challenges to increase our impact.
• Grow the Pie. We focus on results so our customers & their customers win. Triple Win!
• Purple Heart. We put the team before ourselves.
• Extreme Ownership. See something? Say something; right the ship to get us back on course.
• Be a moment maker. We aim to shatter the status quo.

REMOTE WORK STATEMENT

This position is a remote-first, work-from-home position. Second Nature is committed to creating a culture and workplace where remote work fosters collaboration and connections and is a vital part of our company story and success. To be successful in a remote work role at Second Nature, you must:

• Be available during your scheduled working hours and give your full attention to the completion of your Second Nature job 
• Have a quiet, professional, distraction-free environment in which to complete your work
• Have access to your own reliable high-speed internet connection
• Attend our bi-annual in-person company meetings (Second Nature will reimburse the cost of your business travel per company guidelines)
   

WHY SECOND NATURE?

• Health First: Medical, Dental, Vision, & Life Insurance; 401K Plan
• Location: Work Remotely from anywhere in the US
• Flexibility: Open PTO and sick days
• The Product: Beyond the awards and 5-star reviews… our clients and customers love what they can do with a fully managed RBP
• Diverse, Inclusive Culture: We embrace employees from all backgrounds with openness and respect 
• Training: A supportive team to help you grow your career and unlock your full potential
• Growth: The opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a fast-growing startup that’s designing and developing an exciting category
   

Second Nature is an Equal Opportunity Employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any kind. We take action to ensure equal employment opportunities for all candidates and employees and to provide employees with a workplace free of discrimination and harassment. Our hiring decisions are based on business needs, job requirements, and individual qualifications, without regard to race, color, religion or belief, family or parental status, or any other status protected by federal and/or state law.

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