Principal Software Engineer, AI Observability & Evals Platform

About UsAt LangChain, our mission is to make intelligent agents ubiquitous. We build the foundation for agent engineering in the real world, helping developers move from prototypes to production-ready AI agents that teams can rely on. We began as widely adopted open-source tools and have grown to also offer a platform for building, evaluating, deploying, and operating agents at scale.With $125M raised at Series B from IVP, Sequoia, Benchmark, CapitalG, and Sapphire Ventures, we’re at a stage where we’re continuing to develop new products, growth is accelerating, and all team members have meaningful impact on what we build and how we work together. LangChain is a place where your contributions can shape how this technology shows up in the real world.Today, our platform includes LangSmith (Observability, Evaluation, Deployment, Fleet, and Sandboxes), our open source frameworks (LangChain, LangGraph, and Deep Agents), and the newly launched LangSmith Engine for autonomous agent improvement. We have 100M+ monthly open source downloads, 6,000+ active LangSmith customers, and 5 of the Fortune 10 use LangSmith in production (+ 35% of the Fortune 500 overall), including teams at Klarna, Clay, Coinbase, Workday, Lyft, Cloudflare, Harvey, Rippling, Vanta, LinkedIn, Monday.com, Nvidia, and Bridgewater.About the TeamThe LangSmith team owns and builds LangChain's core platform for observability, evaluation, and production reliability of AI systems. From tracing and annotation to run rules, evaluations, and beyond, they own this end-to-end. If you want to help define what great AI observability looks like at production scale, this is where that work gets done.About the RoleWe're looking for a Principal/Lead level Software Engineer to join the LangSmith team and help drive the technical direction of the platform. You'll build across the full stack from backend services and APIs to frontend product surfaces, and you'll play a central role in shaping how we build: setting engineering standards, mentoring engineers across the team, and making architectural decisions that hold up as we scale. If you're energized by both hands-on engineering and the multiplier effect of leveling up those around you, this role is built for that.Location: This role can be based in our Boston, San Francisco, or NYC office. What You'll DoDrive Technical DirectionLead architectural decisions across our Go, Python, and TypeScript stack, ensuring systems are performant, maintainable, and built to scaleWork across the full stack, owning features end-to-end from backend services and APIs through to frontend product experiencesDrive tracing, monitoring, and evaluation workflows at scale, with a focus on reliability and query performance across high-volume dataHelp shape the product roadmap by partnering closely with product and design — not just executing on itRaise the Bar for the TeamSet engineering standards for the team: define patterns, lead code reviews, and establish the foundations others build onMentor and grow engineers at all levels through code review, design feedback, pairing, and ongoing technical guidanceDrive projects from ambiguity to delivery while maintaining high engineering standards and aggressive timelinesOwn Reliability and QualityTroubleshoot and resolve production issues with a root-cause mindset, and implement durable fixesEnsure system reliability through strong testing, monitoring, and alerting practicesCreate and maintain technical documentation, including system design docs and API referencesWhat You'll Bring10+ years of professional experience in backend or fullstack engineering on highly complex, production systemsStrong programming skills across multiple parts of the stack: backend (Python and/or Go) and frontend (TypeScript, React, or similar)Demonstrated experience making and owning architectural decisions, including tradeoffs around data systems, APIs, and service reliabilityExperience with high-throughput or mission-critical systems, and a proven ability to optimize for performance and reliabilityDepth in operationalizing technical work — you've taken systems from prototype to production and kept them running well at scaleDemonstrated track record of mentoring engineers and raising the technical quality of a team, not just the codebaseStrong communication skills and comfort operating cross-functionally with product, design, and engineering leadershipCustomer centricity and an ownership mentality — you care how the product lands, not just how the code readsYou exemplify our operating principlesNice to HaveExperience with database systems (Postgres, Redis, ClickHouse) and cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure)Familiarity with observability tooling, evaluation frameworks, or AI/LLM infrastructureSalary Range: $230,000 - $270,000Compensation Philosophy:We offer competitive compensation that includes base salary, variable compensation for relevant roles, meaningful equity, benefits, and perks. Actual compensation and offerings will vary based on role, level, and location. Team members in the EU, UK, and APAC receive locally competitive benefits aligned with regional norms and regulations.BenefitsBenefits include medical, dental, and vision coverage, flexible vacation, a 401(k) plan, meals on in-office days in the US and more.