--- title: 'Principal Software Engineer at Gradial' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/principal-software-engineer-gradial-seattle-fff9tpc3w2ff' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-11' --- # Principal Software Engineer at Gradial - **Company:** Gradial - **Location:** Seattle, WA - **Posted:** 2026-07-29 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-11 - **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/gradial/jobs/4338069009 ## Job description Gradial is the marketing operations system of work that helps marketers and creatives move from idea to execution faster. Our platform orchestrates across martech stacks, workflows, and people to automate marketing execution, cutting execution time, so marketers focus on the work only humans can do: shaping brands, understanding customers, and creating the work that moves people. Backed by leading investors, we’re building software that adapts to the user, not the other way around. We move with urgency, operate with ownership, and solve hard problems from first principles. If you want to do ambitious work, take real responsibility, and help define the future of AI-native content operations, you’ll do your best work here. ## The Role Gradial is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to drive the architecture and technical vision behind AI-native systems that transform how creative teams build and update websites. As a foundational technical leader, you’ll push the boundaries of how LLMs can power real-world workflows and reimagine the intersection of language, software, and creativity. You’ll work closely with engineering, product, and design leaders to shape not just features, but the technical backbone and strategic direction of the company. This is a rare opportunity to set the blueprint for a fast-evolving product in a high-agency, low-ego environment committed to solving hard problems from first principles. ## What You'll Own - Define and drive the technical architecture for systems that convert natural language into intelligent, multi-step workflows using generative AI. - Lead the design, implementation, and scaling of LLM agents for real-time inference, dynamic prompting, memory management, and tool orchestration. - Set engineering standards and influence system design across the stack, with a focus on performance, reliability, and long-term extensibility. - Design learning systems that integrate customer feedback, usage data, and brand preferences to evolve autonomously over time. - Mentor senior engineers, fostering a culture of technical excellence, rapid iteration, and ownership. - Collaborate deeply with product and design leaders to rethink how interfaces and features dynamically adapt to user intent. - Champion best practices in testing, observability, deployment, and operational excellence to ensure system health at scale. - Own critical, ambiguous problem spaces from end to end, advocating for technical and product innovation. ## What We're Looking For - 8+ years of professional software engineering experience, including significant leadership of complex technical initiatives. - Deep expertise in distributed systems, algorithms, and scalable software design. - Proven track record architecting and shipping systems in fast-moving, high-ambiguity environments. - Hands-on experience with LLM integration, generative AI frameworks, or building AI-native applications. - Strong communication and cross-functional leadership skills, with the ability to influence technical and non-technical audiences. - High-agency, ownership-driven mindset with a passion for solving real-world problems at scale. - Background in technical fields such as computer science, mathematics, physics, or systems engineering. ## Nice to Have - Experience building or scaling AI agent architectures for production environments. - Prior experience in early-stage startups where you owned both strategy and execution. - Passion for designing systems that blend technical sophistication with elegant, intuitive user experiences. ## Compensation The salary range for this position is $160,000 – $250,000 annually. Final compensation will be determined based on factors such as experience, skills, and qualifications. ## What we offer - Performance-based annual bonus - Meaningful equity awards - Medical, dental & vision (fully covered for employees with 75% for dependents) - Fertility & family-planning support - 401k plan - Unlimited PTO - A beautiful Seattle office with a gym, sauna, and bike parking - Free lunch three days a week in our HQ - A front-row seat to building category-defining AI infrastructure You'll thrive here if you - Learn quickly, actively seek out new challenges, and regularly reconsider “how it’s always been done.” - Want to have real impact with zero bureaucracy. - Have an innate drive for being 1% better than the day before, building towards greatness. - Embrace AI as a core tool for problem-solving, innovation, and scale. - Show customer-obsession (internal or external), high ownership/accountability, and bias for action. - Communicate clearly, directly, with curiosity, and assuming good intentions. - Thrive in fast-paced, hyper-growth environments where building better > maintaining status quo. AI Literacy & Interviewing Tools As an AI-first company, we prioritize AI literacy as a core competency in our hiring decisions. We’re excited by candidates who thoughtfully apply AI tools in their work, but during interviews we’re focused on you. This is your opportunity to show how you think, communicate, and solve problems. Over-reliance on AI-generated responses during the interview process (especially when it obscures your own voice) will result in disqualification. We want to understand your unique perspective and how you approach challenges, both with and without AI. Gradial is dedicated to creating an environment where diverse perspectives are valued and all team members can grow. We offer competitive compensation, equity, flexible work hours, comprehensive benefits, and a collaborative culture focused on learning and impact. ## About Gradial ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Gradial provides an agentic marketing operations platform that automates campaign execution, content assembly, and brand governance for large enterprises. - **Entity Type**: Private (Series C, last funding $65M) - **Headquarters**: Seattle, Washington, United States - **Founded**: 2023 - **Founders**: Not publicly available ## Core Business - **Primary industry**: Enterprise marketing technology (MarTech) - **Target customers**: Large enterprises (B2B, B2C) – examples include T-Mobile, AWS, Prudential, Avalara - **Mission/purpose**: “Enable marketing at the speed of thought” – turning fragmented marketing execution into a governed operating system so enterprise teams can move from strategy to live work with speed, visibility, and control. ## Products & Services - **Gradial Platform**: An agentic operating system for marketing operations. Agents handle authoring, QA, tagging, assembly, and execution of campaigns (landing pages, PDPs, emails, etc.). Includes built-in brand compliance, accessibility checks, and governance. Supports personalization at scale and optimization. ## Market Standing - **Valuation**: Not publicly available - **Key Metric**: Latest funding round – $65M Series C (raised in 2026). Prior total funding reported as $53.4M (likely including earlier rounds). - **Notable Investors**: Madrona Venture Group, PruVen Capital, VMG Partners, Insight Partners, General Advance, and six others. - **Growth Signals**: Strong enterprise customer logos (T-Mobile, AWS, Prudential, Avalara); 24 open job postings across Engineering, Product, Revenue, and Delivery teams; named a leader in a competitive landscape including Braze, Zeta Global, and Jasper. ## Competitive Advantages - **Agentic execution layer** that automates high-volume, high-risk marketing work without requiring a full stack rebuild. - **Governance-first design** – brand compliance and accessibility checks run automatically on every execution. - **Trusted by top-tier enterprises** – AWS uses it as a “control tower”; T-Mobile modernized campaign launches; Prudential enables personalization at scale. - **Speed and scalability** – teams increase throughput without adding headcount. ## Strategic Focus - Scale adoption among large enterprises by deepening integrations and expanding agent capabilities for performance marketing, content updates, and asset management. - Continue building the “system of work” that makes marketing execution faster, cleaner, and more governable. ## Why Work Here - **Culture values**: Pragmatic AI, care for craft (quality and intentionality), end-to-end ownership, clarity under pressure, execution first, and systems that compound. - **Work model**: Hybrid (Seattle office at 2505 2nd Avenue) and remote roles available across the US. Many engineering roles are Seattle-based; some Forward Deployed and Sales roles are remote. - **Engineering culture**: Building “frontier systems for enterprise execution” – emphasis on product craft, applied AI, and solving complex workflow problems at scale. - **Team structure**: Small-but-growing company – 24 open roles span Applied AI, Platform, Infrastructure, Forward Deployed, and Product Design. Opportunity for high ownership and impact. - **Notable perks**: Not explicitly listed, but the focus on “clarity under pressure” and “compounding systems” suggests a structured, high-autonomy environment. ## Sources 1. [Gradial Website](https://www.gradial.com/) 2. [Gradial About Page](https://www.gradial.com/about) 3. [CBInsights Company Profile](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/gradial) 4. [Gradial Greenhouse Job Board](https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/gradial/jobs/4260900009) ## Other roles at Gradial - [Senior Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-software-engineer-gradial-seattle-6df5v6eec6ag) — Seattle, WA - [Product Engineer (UX/UI)](https://feeny.ai/job/product-engineer-ux-ui-gradial-seattle-r7cv4mzqzp92) — Seattle, WA - [Senior Forward Deployed Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-forward-deployed-engineer-gradial-seattle-m5b8whja0wkh) — Seattle, WA - [Forward Deployed Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/forward-deployed-engineer-gradial-seattle-sscjtwt2fdv4) — Seattle, WA - [Sales Enablement Specialist](https://feeny.ai/job/sales-enablement-specialist-gradial-seattle-dsraysbztf0s) — Seattle, WA - [RVP of Sales, EMEA](https://feeny.ai/job/rvp-of-sales-emea-gradial-emea-london-united-kingdom-j4g5r0trr69y) — EMEA / London, United Kingdom - [Head of Sales, Canada](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-sales-canada-gradial-canada-3e0dqwxf2mcz) — Canada - [Principal Software Engineer (Infra/Platform)](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-software-engineer-infra-platform-gradial-seattle-rattbmrp2962) — Seattle, WA - [Principal Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-software-engineer-hubspot-ireland-db5gres9wncg) — Ireland - [Principal Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-software-engineer-uipath-bucharest-8g9ge16gjaf9) — Bucharest, Romania