Principal Software Engineer

About GitHub

GitHub is the world’s leading platform for agentic software development — powered by Copilot to build, scale, and deliver secure software. Over 180 million developers, including more than 90% of the Fortune 100 companies, use GitHub to collaborate, and more than 77,000 organisations have adopted GitHub Copilot.

Locations

In this role you can work from Remote, Germany

Overview

GitHub's Core UX organization owns the frontend platform behind GitHub.com: the architecture, tooling, and standards that let hundreds of engineers ship UI that is fast, accessible, consistent, and reliable. We're looking for a Principal Software Engineer to set technical direction across that platform and raise the ceiling on what the frontend can do for millions of developers.

 

This is a systems role, not a single-team role. You'll work across the concerns that overlap in frontend at scale: performance, accessibility, UX consistency, and availability. Much of the work is evolving a large, actively developed codebase rather than starting from scratch, so success depends as much on migration strategy and cross-team alignment as on architecture. You'll shape paved paths that many teams adopt, not one-off solutions that rely on heroics.

 

You'll partner closely with other Principal and Staff engineers, Engineering Managers, and Product and Design leadership to decide where the platform goes next and to drive that direction to real, shipped outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Own the technical direction for GitHub's web UI platform across performance, accessibility, consistency, and availability, balancing long-term architecture with hands-on execution.
• Drive large cross-team initiatives and migrations, sequencing the work so the platform moves forward without disrupting active product development.
• Establish patterns, standards, and paved paths for frontend development that lower cognitive load and scale across many teams.
• Produce architecture and design proposals, evaluate tradeoffs honestly, and build alignment across engineering, product, and design.
• Mentor and raise the bar for engineers at every level through design review, code review, and pairing.
• Represent frontend platform priorities to leadership, securing the support and resourcing needed to deliver.

What Success Looks Like in the First 6 Months

• You've built a deep working understanding of GitHub's frontend systems, infrastructure, and their backend dependencies, and you're using it to make informed, high-leverage decisions.
• You're leading at least one platform-wide initiative that measurably improves performance, availability, frontend infrastructure, or developer velocity.
• Teams are adopting the patterns and paved paths you've shaped, with less need for direct hand-holding.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• 11+ years experience in Software Engineering, Computer Science, or related technical discipline with proven experience maintaining and delivering production software coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Go, Ruby, Rust, or Python
• OR Associate's Degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Math, Physics, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field AND 10+ years experience in Software Engineering, Computer Science, or related technical discipline with proven experience maintaining and delivering production software coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Go, Ruby, Rust, or Python
• OR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related field AND 9+ years experience in Software Engineering, Computer Science, or related technical discipline with proven experience maintaining and delivering production software coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Go, Ruby, Rust, or Python
• OR Master's Degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Math, Physics, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field AND 7+ years experience in Software Engineering, Computer Science, or related technical discipline with proven experience maintaining and delivering production software coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Go, Ruby, Rust, or Python
• OR Doctorate in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Math, Physics, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field AND 5+ years experience in Software Engineering, Computer Science, or related technical discipline with proven experience maintaining and delivering production software coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Go, Ruby, Rust, or Python
• OR equivalent experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Deep knowledge of React or Angular internals and server-side rendering, with experience modernizing frontend systems in large, multi-team codebases.
• Track record of improving web performance (Core Web Vitals, interaction latency, bundle size) through systematic, data-driven work.
• Experience leading cross-team frontend migrations and rollouts, managing sequencing, deprecation, and incremental adoption across many engineers.
• Strong command of web platform and accessibility fundamentals (browser APIs, a11y standards, TypeScript, JavaScript, CSS) and how they interact with framework-level abstractions.
• Experience building design systems, shared component libraries, or paved-path tooling that many teams adopt.

GitHub values

• Customer-obsessed
• Ship to learn
• Growth mindset
• Own the outcome
• Better together
• Diverse and inclusive

Manager fundamentals

• Model
• Coach
• Care

Leadership principles

• Create clarity
• Generate energy
• Deliver success

Who We Are

GitHub is the world’s leading AI-powered developer platform with 150 million developers and counting. We’re also home to the biggest open-source community on earth (and 99% of the world’s software has open-source code in its DNA). Many of the apps and programs you use every day are built on GitHub.
Our teams are dreamers, doers, and pioneers, leading the way in AI, driving humanitarian efforts around the globe, and even sending open source to Mars (and beyond!). At GitHub, our goal is to create the space you need to do your best work. We’re remote-first and offer competitive pay, generous learning and growth opportunities, and excellent benefits to support you, wherever you are—because we know that people flourish when they can work on their own terms.
Join us, and let’s change the world, together.

Equal Employment Opportunity

GitHub is made up of people from a wide variety of backgrounds and lifestyles. We embrace diversity and invite applications from people of all walks of life. We don't discriminate against employees or applicants based on gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, race, religion, age, national origin, citizenship, disability, pregnancy status, veteran status, or any other differences. Also, if you have a disability, please let us know if there's any way we can make the interview process better for you; we're happy to accommodate!