Principal Software Engineer, Creator Platform

Location: Bellevue, India | Los Angeles, Canada | New York, United States | Palo Alto, Canada | San Francisco, Canada | Seattle, India

Department: Engineering

Employment Type: Full time

About Snap Inc

Snap Inc is a technology company. We believe the camera presents the greatest opportunity to improve the way people live and communicate. Snap contributes to human progress by empowering people to express themselves, live in the moment, learn about the world, and have fun together.

About the Role

Snap Inc is a camera company that believes the camera—and AR—represent the greatest opportunity to improve the way people live and communicate. We contribute to human progress by empowering Snapchatters to express themselves authentically, live in the moment with fun AR Lenses, learn about the world through creative content, and connect joyfully. Our core products—Snapchat, Lens Studio for AR creation, and Spectacles AR glasses—reach hundreds of millions daily. The Ads Creator Platform team builds the infrastructure powering advertisers and creators to craft innovative, camera-first campaigns that blend seamlessly with Snapchat's playful, ephemeral culture. We're seeking a Principal Software Engineer to lead this charge, infusing AR innovation and creative scalability into every feature. As a Principal Software Engineer, you'll design and implement scalable systems for our advertiser experiences and creator ads platform, pioneering next-gen infrastructure that handles explosive growth while prioritizing performance and advertiser ROI. You'll innovate advertiser flows and creator marketplace products by analyzing trends, Snapchatters' behaviors, and needs—envisioning AR-enhanced tools like real-time Lens integrations for dynamic ad creation. Collaborating with product, design, data science, and engineering teams, you'll deliver impactful solutions that amplify creativity, from short-term launches to long-term AR research, all while upholding our high standards for availability, operational excellence, cost efficiency, and privacy. You'll mentor engineers, fostering technical excellence in a fast-moving environment where camera tech and AR drive fun, human connections. With deep expertise in scaling platforms, distributed systems, and ads domains, you'll solve ambiguous challenges proactively, learning cutting-edge tech to keep Snap ahead. Join our 'default together' culture—working in-office 4+ days/week—to accelerate innovation through vibrant collaboration. Snap is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity, offering competitive pay (Zone A: $276,000-$414,000 base; equity eligible), comprehensive benefits, and a creative community that has your back.

What You'll Do

• Design and implement systems that support advertiser experiences and creator ads platform at Snap, leveraging camera technology and AR innovations
• Lead the vision and strategy for next-generation infrastructure, focusing on scalability, performance, and driving advertiser value in a creative, AR-powered ecosystem
• Innovate and conceptualize new advertiser flows and creator marketplace products, incorporating market trends, user behavior, Snapchatters' creative expressions, and advertiser needs
• Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams, including product management, design, data science, and other engineering teams, to deliver cohesive solutions that enhance AR creativity
• Advocate for and apply a high bar for availability, scalability, operational excellence, and cost management in systems serving hundreds of millions of users
• Mentor and guide other engineers, fostering a culture of technical excellence, continuous learning, and innovative camera/AR problem-solving
• Drive the integration of AR features like Lens Studio into creator platforms to empower authentic, real-time content creation
• Optimize platforms for seamless camera-first experiences, ensuring low-latency AR effects and visual storytelling for creators and advertisers
• Proactively identify and resolve ambiguous problems in high-scale environments, prioritizing privacy and user fun
• Contribute to Snap's 'default together' culture by working in-office 4+ days per week to accelerate AR innovation through dynamic collaboration

Minimum Qualifications

• 10+ years of post-Bachelor’s software development experience; or a Master’s degree in a technical field + 9+ years of post-grad software development experience; or a PhD in a related technical field + 6+ years of post-grad software development experience
• 2+ years of experience with technical leadership or acting as the domain-expert to a technical organization
• Experience in technical leadership/ownership and setting technical direction for engineering projects
• Experience architecting, designing, and developing distributed systems
• Ads domain experience
• Proven track record of operating highly-available systems at scale
• Deep expertise in building and scaling advertiser or creator platforms or similar systems

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with cross-platform development
• Ability to promote product excellence and collaboration, driving a portfolio of concurrent engineering projects, from short-term critical feature launches to long-term research initiatives
• Ability to create a compelling vision for the future, communicate clearly, and have a collaborative leadership approach

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• Excellent programming and software design skills
• Debugging and performance analysis expertise
• Test design proficiency
• Distributed systems architecture
• Scalability engineering at massive scale
• High-availability systems operations
• Ads platform development
• Creator marketplace systems
• Technical leadership and vision-setting
• Cross-functional collaboration
• Mentorship and team guidance
• Proactive learning of new technologies
• Ambiguous problem-solving
• AR and camera technology integration
• Privacy-focused engineering
• User behavior analysis for product innovation

Our Benefits

• Paid parental leave
• Comprehensive medical coverage
• Emotional and mental health support programs
• Compensation packages that let you share in Snap’s long-term success
• Equity in the form of RSUs
• Support for disabilities or special needs requiring accommodation
• Focus on well-being aligned with Snap's global community values
• Opportunities to work on camera, AR, and creative tech reaching hundreds of millions

Compensation

$276,000-$414,000 annually

This position is eligible for equity in the form of RSUs.

"Default Together" Policy: At Snap Inc, we practice a "default together" approach and expect team members to work in an office 4+ days per week.

Snap is proud to be an equal opportunity employer.