Principal Production Engineer
$160.2k - $425k/yr+ Annual bonus + Stock + Sales incentives (role-dependent)
Expert
Bachelor's, Master's, PhD, Associate's
Remote in USA
Remote
DevOps & InfrastructureSite Reliability Engineering
About the job
Requirements
- At least 11 years of experience in software engineering, computer science, or a related technical discipline, with proven experience maintaining and delivering production software coding in a listed language; alternatively, an Associate’s degree in a listed field and at least 10 years of such experience, a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related field and at least 9 years, a Master’s degree in a listed field and at least 7 years, a Doctorate in a listed field and at least 5 years, or equivalent experience.
- Experience designing, operating, and debugging large-scale distributed systems, with a proven ability to drive improvements in high availability, automation, observability, and overall system reliability.
- Strong software engineering experience in one or more modern programming languages such as Go, Rust, C++, Java, Python, or C#.
- Experience with Linux, networking fundamentals, and systems performance.
- Ability to influence technical direction across teams without direct authority.
Responsibilities
- Embed with engineering teams to improve the reliability, scalability, and operability of GitHub's production systems.
- Own complex production problems end-to-end, from debugging live incidents to designing long-term engineering solutions.
- Design, build, and operate software and infrastructure that improves how GitHub runs in production.
- Partner with product and infrastructure teams to improve observability, capacity planning, performance, resiliency, and operational readiness.
- Write and review production-quality code, automate operational workflows, and eliminate repetitive manual work.
- Participate in incident response and help drive learning through incident reviews and follow-up engineering investments.
- Influence technical direction across teams by establishing engineering practices that improve operational excellence at scale.
- Mentor engineers and help build Production Engineering as a technical discipline within GitHub.
Desired Qualifications
- Experience operating services at scale.
- Experience with Kubernetes, cloud infrastructure, service networking, databases, or distributed storage systems.
- Experience leading incident response and driving operational improvements across organizations.
- Experience using AI-assisted development tools to improve engineering productivity and software quality.
- Experience building engineering practices that improve reliability, operational excellence, or developer productivity across multiple teams.
About the company
GitHub runs a code hosting and collaboration platform for developers and software teams, from public open source projects to private business applications. Teams store projects in repositories, propose changes through pull requests, and review code before merging it into a shared version. GitHub Actions automates tests and deployments, while Copilot assists with writing code and Advanced Security checks for vulnerabilities and exposed credentials. The company earns revenue from paid team and enterprise subscriptions, AI coding plans, security add-ons, and usage of its development tools. Founded in 2008 and headquartered in San Francisco, GitHub is a subsidiary of Microsoft.
Company Size
5,001-10,000
Company Stage
Acquired
Total Funding
$350M
Headquarters
San Francisco, California
Founded
2008
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Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- Enterprise relationships run deep: GitHub reports developers from 90% of Fortune 100 companies using its platform.
- Remote work supports location flexibility: GitHub describes a remote-first culture with home-office resources.
- New parents receive substantial leave: GitHub lists five months of paid family leave, with benefits varying by country.
What critics are saying
- Copilot leaves verification to users: GitHub requires reviewing generated code for accuracy and security.
- Demand outruns infrastructure: GitHub's August 2026 capacity failure disrupted multiple services for seven hours and 47 minutes.
- On-call engineers face extended response work: GitHub's August 2026 Copilot status incident lasted over ten hours.
What makes GitHub unique
- Developer distribution is unusually broad: GitHub reports more than 225 million developers on its platform.
- Maintainers get funding beside their code: GitHub Sponsors routes financial support directly through project pages.
- GitHub preserves software beyond online hosting: its Arctic vault uses film designed to last 1,000 years.
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Benefits
- A diverse and inclusive workplace - At GitHub, we think that a diverse company is a strong company, and we work hard to foster a supportive and welcoming workplace. Learn more about our commitment to diversity.
- Work happier - Build amazing things with a balance of autonomy and collaborative teamwork. Set your own work schedule and make use of a flexible PTO plan when you need to recharge.
- Lead from any location - GitHub is a remote-first company with offices located throughout the US, Europe, and Asia. Whether you live near an office or not, GitHub believes you can do your best work wherever you are. If you work remotely, you will receive a stipend to outfit your home office and receive reoccurring reimbursement refreshes.
- Put your health and family first - You'll enjoy 100% coverage of health insurance premiums across our medical, dental, and vision plan offerings, including coverage for dependents. We also offer five months of paid family leave to all new parents with the option to use it all at once or throughout the baby's first year.
- Find your zen - GitHub provides a monthly wellness stipend designed to cover anything from gym memberships, massage, meditation apps, or any other wellness related expenses.
- Invest in your future - At GitHub, you'll have a stake in the future success of our platform with equity grants. For full-time employees, we offer competitive 401k planning with a 50% company match up to the IRS 402(g) annual limit.
- Keep growing - Learn how you learn best. From books to conferences, you'll get a yearly budget for your individual learning and development goals.
- Give back to your community - We believe in sharing our time, resources, and products to contribute to positive social impact. GitHub matches charitable donations up to $15,000 per calendar year. And for each hour (up to 40 hours) of volunteering per year, you will receive $20 to donate to an organization of your choice.