---
title: 'Principal Software Engineer, Product at Pika'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/principal-software-engineer-product-pika-palo-alto-5mj1z1a3yqdf'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-23'
---

# Principal Software Engineer, Product at Pika

- **Company:** Pika
- **Location:** Palo Alto, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-09-15
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-23
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/pika/772cd189-caa1-41bc-a0a0-0bb67ef7b3a6

## Job description

## About Pika

At Pika, we’re building the next generation of AI creative tools to empower human creativity. Our mission is to make video creation seamless, intuitive, and accessible to everyone, leveraging the power of advanced AI. We believe that AI should amplify creative expression—enabling everyone to create, collaborate, and communicate across media. Our team includes engineers, artists, and product thinkers, all passionate about building tools that unlock new creative possibilities.

Pika has raised significant funding and is backed by leading investors, with a collaborative culture based in Palo Alto, CA. We prefer hybrid in-office, sharing ideas and launching products together.

## About the Role

We’re seeking a Principal Product Engineer to lead the technical vision, architecture, and roadmap for user-facing systems at Pika. In this high-impact, senior leadership role, you’ll guide the engineering direction for features that serve millions of creative users—from intuitive UIs and collaboration tools to real-time interactions and advanced generative AI experiences.

You’ll work closely with product, design, and engineering leadership to deliver features that are robust, scalable, and delightful to use. You’ll influence both the immediate user experience and long-term product vision, taking ideas from strategic conception to launch and ongoing iteration.

## What You’ll Do

- Own and define the architecture and technical strategy for Pika’s web and multi-platform products
- Spearhead the development of real-time collaboration capabilities, messaging, and live multi-user interactions
- Drive product features from ideation through scoping, development, launch, and continuous improvement
- Integrate complex generative AI workflows (LLMs, models, agentic tools) into creative tooling
- Partner deeply with product and design leaders to deliver groundbreaking, accessible creative workflows
- Champion technical excellence through high standards, architecture reviews, mentorship, and proposals
- Oversee and improve cross-service metrics, tracing, and observability for critical product features

## What We’re Looking For

- 8+ years of professional software engineering experience, with substantial time in senior/principal engineering and product-focused roles
- Distinguished track record leading the design, execution, and scaling of high-impact web or mobile products (React, TypeScript, Node.js, Go, or similar)
- Demonstrated strategy and execution in building robust, user-centric features for creative applications
- Comprehensive expertise in systems design: distributed systems, scalable APIs, and cloud infrastructure (AWS/GCP)
- Experience working across the stack, including ML/AI infrastructure (Python, GPU-backed workflows) as required
- Exceptional product intuition and a strategic mindset—driven by deep understanding of user and business needs
- Excellent communication and leadership skills; able to influence across disciplines and build consensus
- Strong sense of ownership and passion for delivering delightful creative experiences at scale

## Nice to Have

- Experience building or integrating generative AI, agentic workflows, or ML inference platforms (Python/PyTorch)
- Creative background (design, art, architecture, or similar)
- Expertise in media-rich and real-time collaboration applications
- Startup experience and proven ability to thrive in fast-paced, ambiguous environments

## Our Stack

React, TypeScript, Python, Go, Postgres, Redis, Docker, Kubernetes, AWS/GCP

## What We Offer

- Competitive salary in the AI industry
- Significant equity in a rapidly growing startup shaping the future of AI and creativity
- Comprehensive health benefits, monthly stipends, and company retreats
- Supportive, collaborative office culture—we’re building and launching together

## About Pika

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Pika is an AI-native creative platform that enables users to generate, edit, and transform videos—and now "birth" persistent AI agents—from text, images, and voice.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series B)
- **Headquarters**: Palo Alto, California, United States (also has an office in Mountain View, CA)
- **Founded**: 2023
- **Founders**: Demi Guo (CEO), Chenlin Meng (CTO)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Generative AI / AI Video & Agent Platform
- **Target customers**: B2C (creators, social media users, marketers) and B2B (developers via Pika API and MCP)
- **Mission or purpose**: To make video creation accessible to everyone, and now to give everyone a "creative partner" AI agent

## Products & Services
- **Pika Video App**: The core product—an AI video generator that turns text prompts, images, and videos into new clips. Supports styles (3D animation, anime, cartoon, cinematic) and effects like "squish it, melt it, cake-ify it."
- **Pika Agent**: A persistent, portable AI agent that users "birth" and own. Multi-modal (text, voice, image, video) and lives across platforms. Users can train it to have personality, memory, and voice—essentially a creative co-pilot.
- **AI Trendmaker**: A feature that lets users hop on viral video trends with just a selfie and a sound.
- **Pika API**: Hosted API for developers to integrate Pika's video generation capabilities into their own apps and workflows.
- **Pika MCP**: Model Context Protocol for connecting agents to external tools and data.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed (estimated at ~$470M post-money based on Series B terms)
- **Total Funding**: $135M across 4 rounds
  - Pre-Seed (Jan 2023): $15M led by Nat Friedman & Daniel Gross
  - Seed (May 2023): Amount undisclosed
  - Series A (Nov 2023): $35M led by Lightspeed Venture Partners
  - Series B (Jun 2024): $80M led by Spark Capital
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Spark Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Nat Friedman, Daniel Gross
- **Growth Signals**:
  - Headcount grew 27.4% YoY to 59 employees
  - Monthly website visits: ~1.87M (global rank #25,677)
  - Talent sourced from top AI labs (TikTok, Jane Street, Runway, Kling AI, Snap Inc.)
  - 1 active job posting (Head of Engineering) as of mid-2026
  - Launched Pika Agent and Pika API in 2025-2026, expanding beyond video generation into agentic AI

## Competitive Advantages
- **"Birth and own" agent model**: Pika is pioneering the concept of a user-owned, persistent AI agent that evolves with the user—different from one-off chatbot interactions.
- **Multi-modal creative platform**: Combines video generation, agent capabilities, and trend tools in one ecosystem.
- **Strong early traction and talent density**: Raised $135M quickly from top-tier investors; alumni from TikTok, Runway, Jane Street, and other elite tech firms.
- **Small, high-leverage team**: ~59 people operating globally with a "small, dynamic team" culture that values efficiency and ambition.

## Strategic Focus
- **Agent-first future**: Pika is shifting from "just a video tool" to an agent platform where users create and own their AI creative partner.
- **Platform expansion**: Opening up via API and MCP to integrate with external apps and workflows.
- **Global reach**: Operating in 19 countries with a distributed (but Palo Alto-centric) team.
- **Continued R&D in generative video**: Improving realism, style variety, and real-time generation.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Pika describes itself as "small, dynamic" and values "efficiency, collaboration, and creativity." They seek "intellect, work ethic, and ambition."
- **Remote/Hybrid**: Not explicitly stated, but the team is distributed across 19 countries (with the US hub in Palo Alto/Mountain View). Likely hybrid or flexible.
- **Notable perks**: The careers page emphasizes "career growth in a culture that fosters both individual and collective development." They also champion an inclusive culture.
- **Engineering culture**: Tech stack includes Python, TypeScript, Kubernetes, TensorFlow, React, and more. The team has strong representation from top AI labs and trading firms. The open role is Head of Engineering, suggesting they need a senior leader to scale.
- **Impact**: You'd be building the infrastructure for a new category of "owned AI agents" and state-of-the-art video generation—working on cutting-edge generative AI.

## Sources
1. [pika.art](https://pika.art/) – Official website
2. [pika.art/careers](https://pika.art/careers) – Careers page
3. [LinkedIn (Pika Labs)](https://www.linkedin.com/company/pika-labs) – Company data, headcount, funding, talent
4. [Craft.co](https://craft.co/pika-art) – Company summary, locations, sectors
5. [Apple App Store](https://apps.apple.com/pl/app/pika-ai-self-agent/id6758411447) – Pika Agent app details

## Other roles at Pika

- [Data Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/data-engineer-pika-palo-alto-z74nah1052dn) — Palo Alto, CA
- [Growth Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/growth-engineer-pika-palo-alto-ve2g8v53yde2) — Palo Alto, CA
- [Head of Engineer, Product](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-engineer-product-pika-palo-alto-nze1qewm24g3) — Palo Alto, CA
- [Senior/Staff Software Engineer, Product](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-staff-software-engineer-product-pika-palo-alto-0m6ceye0wm3c) — Palo Alto, CA
- [Head of Finance](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-finance-pika-palo-alto-amgp22pfthqa) — Palo Alto, CA
- [Head of Sales](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-sales-pika-palo-alto-2vyc6rx4jzs7) — Palo Alto, CA
- [Research Intern (BS/MS/PhD)](https://feeny.ai/job/research-intern-bs-ms-phd-pika-palo-alto-rgvx54yph1n5) — Palo Alto, CA
- [Product Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/product-manager-pika-palo-alto-ghy7tmfjf3t6) — Palo Alto, CA
- [Head of Growth](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-growth-pika-palo-alto-wkvx79nkgnhn) — Palo Alto, CA
- [Research Scientist, Data](https://feeny.ai/job/research-scientist-data-pika-palo-alto-qbm0kc8mhbnz) — Palo Alto, CA