Principal Software Engineer, Developer Acceleration (Release Engineering)

About the Team

HubSpot's Developer Acceleration team supports over 2,000 engineers by enabling efficient building, testing, and deployment at scale. The release engineering division manages the entire software delivery pipeline—from pull requests through to production—and oversees hundreds of thousands of builds daily, with tens of thousands of QA deployments.

This team is pioneering the integration of agentic AI technologies into release engineering. Innovations include AI-powered QA agents that evaluate deployments, systems capable of assessing risks, detecting anomalies, and autonomously making decisions within the delivery pipeline. The team maintains and advances foundational systems critical to engineering operations, such as build infrastructures, test orchestration methods, deployment pipelines, and tools supporting incident management and production stability. This group focuses on innovation rather than merely maintaining legacy systems, redefining software shipping methodologies at large scale and exploring possibilities opened by embedding intelligent agents.

The Role

We seek a Principal Software Engineer to shape the future of release engineering at the convergence of large-scale distributed systems and agentic AI. The role involves hands-on leadership and the opportunity to work on novel infrastructure challenges associated with AI integration in software delivery, operating at an unprecedented scale.

Responsibilities include defining the architectural direction of build, test, and deployment systems, creating AI-driven QA tools to improve continuous delivery confidence, and reimagining testing infrastructure in the context of non-deterministic software behavior. The role also involves driving a roadmap towards extreme deployment velocity—targeting more than 500 deployments per minute—while aligning efforts with organizational needs and collaborating across teams to elevate platform standards.

Key Duties

• Lead the technical vision for HubSpot’s release engineering platform focusing on build, test, and deployment systems.
• Make architectural decisions regarding pipeline design, test infrastructure, and developer experience enhancements.
• Write production-quality code regularly and guide complex projects from conception to implementation.
• Develop AI-powered QA solutions to reduce deployment risks in continuous integration and delivery contexts.
• Transform ambiguous technical challenges into scalable, streamlined systems.
• Challenge and modernize legacy assumptions about build and deployment systems.
• Boost delivery throughput and remove bottlenecks across the release process.
• Collaborate broadly with engineering leaders and teams to steer technical strategy and enforce high architectural standards.
• Mentor peers and contribute to system design reviews to amplify the impact of engineering efforts.

Candidate Profile

• Extensive expertise in building and evolving large-scale distributed systems especially related to CI/CD, build infrastructure, or backend platforms.
• Strong architectural judgment emphasizing simplicity, clarity, and sustainable platform design, while minimizing unnecessary complexity.
• Experience working at hyperscale or with platform providers.
• Proven ability to lead significant, cross-team initiatives affecting entire organizations or companies.
• Hands-on engineering approach—actively involved in code, debugging, and shipping systems.
• Capacity to quickly understand unfamiliar technical domains and guide teams to sound long-term architectural decisions.

Compensation and Benefits

The anticipated total annual cash compensation ranges between $266,200 and $425,900 (USD), which includes base salary, commissions if relevant, and annual bonuses under applicable plans. Eligible roles may receive restricted stock units under equity programs. Individual compensation is based on relevant skills, experience, and qualifications.

HubSpot prioritizes transparency and fairness in compensation, and also offers a comprehensive benefits program to support employee growth and wellbeing.

Additional Information

• This role requires attending an in-person onboarding session at a regional HubSpot office despite remote work arrangements and participation in occasional in-person events to foster team connections.
• HubSpot is committed to equal opportunity and accommodations, encouraging applicants with disabilities to request necessary support during the recruitment process.
• Applicants in certain regions such as Massachusetts, Germany, and India are subject to specific legal notices and company policies on equal employment.

About HubSpot

HubSpot is an AI-enhanced customer platform delivering integrated marketing, sales, and service software. Its connected systems enable business growth focused on customer success. HubSpot's culture emphasizes speed, customer obsession, and collaborative success, underpinning a globally recognized work environment.