Principal Engineer

Who we are

SeekWell is the parent company of 1-800 Contacts, Luna, and The Framery. Our goal is to make it simpler, easier, and more accessible for people to get the vision care they need. We maintain the legendary, award-winning culture 1-800 Contacts started almost 30 years ago and continue to develop innovative, pioneering products and businesses that make consumers cheer and optometrists squirm. We’re owned by KKR – one of the world’s largest and most successful private equity investment companies. We’ve built an excellent company and changed an industry by putting the customer first, always. The best is yet to come!

Why you want this job

AI is changing how software gets built—and we’re leaning in. This role is a chance to shape how SeekWell engineers use AI day to day, and how we evolve as an organization, so teams can move faster, ship with confidence, and keep quality high as we scale.

You’ll own the enablement strategy, the standards, and the guardrails that turn experimentation into real leverage across the SDLC. You’ll also help define how AI is adopted and scaled across engineering—balancing speed, quality, and long-term sustainability. If you enjoy translating emerging tech into practical patterns, influencing senior engineers and leaders, and measuring outcomes—not hype—you’ll have a huge platform to make a lasting impact here.

What you’ll do

• Define AI Strategy: Define and drive the enterprise AI roadmap across engineering—identifying high-impact opportunities, prioritizing investments, and guiding where and how AI should (and shouldn’t) be used.
• Scale GenAI Literacy: Design and scale enablement frameworks—playbooks, patterns, and hands-on learning paths—that drive meaningful, sustained adoption of AI-assisted development.
• Drive AI Integration Standards: Lead the strategy for implementing protocols (such as Model Context Protocol) and patterns (agents, internal tooling) that standardize how AI systems interact with internal data and engineering tools.
• Build AI Guardrails & Governance: Establish the technical standards, governance models, and risk frameworks needed to ensure AI is secure, compliant, and maintainable—while still enabling teams to move quickly.
• Modernize the SDLC: Systematically identify and integrate AI-driven optimizations across the software development lifecycle—from ideation and coding to testing, deployment, and monitoring.
• Drive Organizational Change: Partner with engineering leadership to evolve how teams work—shifting toward AI-native development practices and overcoming cultural or technical barriers to adoption.

What you'll need

• 10–15+ years of engineering experience, with a demonstrated ability to drive technical direction and influence outcomes across multiple teams or organizations
• Strategic technical leadership: Proven track record driving large-scale technical and cultural change without direct hierarchical authority
• Hands-on GenAI expertise: Deep experience with LLMs, RAG, MCP, and the evolving ecosystem of AI developer tools (e.g., Cursor, GitHub Copilot, agents)
• Protocols and integration: Experience designing or adopting standards that connect AI systems to internal data, tools, and production environments
• Developer experience and automation: Background in DevOps, platform engineering, or developer productivity at scale
• Enterprise perspective: Experience operating in mid-to-large scale organizations, with an understanding of how to scale new technologies across teams, systems, and workflows
• Hybrid work flexibility: Ability to work on-site in Draper, UT on a regular basis (typically 1-2 days per week), with increased in-person presence during the first 90 days to support onboarding and relationship building

How you’ll spend your time

• Curate the AI Ecosystem: Evaluate, select, and standardize the enterprise AI toolset and platform strategy—balancing innovation, cost, and long-term scalability.
• Mentor Talent: Guide Staff and Principal engineers on AI best practices, helping them navigate the transition to AI-native development.
• Advise Leadership: Partner with Engineering, Product, Security, and Legal leaders to identify, prioritize, and execute on high-impact AI opportunities.
• Measure Impact: Define and evolve metrics for AI adoption—balancing developer velocity, delivery outcomes, system quality, risk, and long-term maintainability.

As needed, you’ll

• Strategic consulting: Support teams tackling complex AI integration challenges or architectural hurdles.
• Tooling leadership: Lead cross-functional efforts to evaluate and pilot emerging AI technologies, vendors, and protocols.
• Unblock team velocity: Partner with teams to address cultural and technical friction slowing AI adoption.
• Prototype solutions: Occasionally build or prototype AI workflows (e.g., agents, orchestration) to validate approaches and unblock teams
• Architect integration patterns: Provide guidance on building MCP servers, agents, and AI-powered workflows that connect to internal systems and data.
• Drive governance alignment: Work with Security and Legal to evolve AI policies, data usage standards, and risk mitigation strategies.
• Share internal wins: Curate and scale success patterns from early adopters to accelerate adoption across the organization.
• Audit AI effectiveness: Conduct deep-dive reviews of workflows to identify opportunities for AI-driven improvements and capability gaps.

You’ll be a great fit if you enjoy

• Influence at scale: You know how to move an organization forward by building alignment and setting a clear technical north star.
• The big picture: You prefer shaping systems, strategy, and direction over focusing on a single codebase.
• Driving change: You’re comfortable leading organizational and cultural shifts—not just technical implementations.
• Continuous evolution: You’re energized by the pace of AI and enjoy refining strategy in a rapidly changing landscape.
• Balancing speed and responsibility: You push teams forward while thoughtfully managing risk, governance, and long-term sustainability.
• Empowering others: You measure success by how much more effective the teams around you become.

Perks

• Free eye exams for your entire family
• Deep discounts on lenses, glasses, and other services
• Amazing healthcare coverage
• 401(k) match
• Flexible PTO
• Tuition reimbursement program
• In-house restaurant with highly discounted meals (Steak dinner under $6)
• Free snacks, ice cream, and drinks every day
• Full onsite gym

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.

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