Principal Engineer

Department: Engineering

Location: San Francisco

Compensation: $250K – $280K • Offers Equity

Employment Type: FullTime

About Abby Care

Making family care possible. At Abby Care, we are tackling one of the most important and unsolved challenges of our time: family caregiving.

Over 50 million Americans are family caregivers for loved ones without pay, tools, or support. Our mission is clear and ambitious: to train and employ family caregivers so they can get paid for the care they already provide at home.

Abby Care is building a tech-powered, family-first care platform to efficiently deliver care, improve health outcomes, and provide the best-in-class experience nationwide.

We are rapidly expanding our mission and looking for passionate team members to join. Abby Care has partnered with leading insurance plans, healthcare providers, and community organizations. We’re supported by top, mission-driven VCs to empower families throughout the country.

The Role

At Abby Care our work is at the true intersection of technology and healthcare delivery, and we’re intentionally building AI-powered technology that impacts how our caregivers deliver care, and how our teams support that care on the back end. We have a team of skilled, mission-driven technologists across Engineering, Product, Design and Data who are driving this work, owning our product end to end - from concept to execution, to iteration.

We’re looking for a Principal Engineer to define and lead the technical direction of Abby Care’s platform. You will report to the VP, Head of Engineering. This is a full-time opportunity based in San Francisco, CA (4 days in-person).

This is a company-level technical leadership role. You will identify the highest-leverage problems, define the architecture and roadmap to solve them, and drive execution across teams. Your work will directly shape how Abby Care scales its platform, delivers care, and applies AI to real-world workflows.

You will operate as a builder-leader, setting direction, mentoring the team, and going deep on critical technical challenges when needed. If the opportunity to have true impact at scale in an organization with an established product/market fit is exciting, in an environment where we encourage you to push the boundaries of what is possible with AI, we’d love to hear from you!

Key Responsibilities

• Define and drive technical direction: set the long-term architecture and roadmap across platform, data, and AI systems, ensuring scalability, reliability, and extensibility

• Own high-impact initiatives end-to-end: identify and lead critical technical bets that can materially change the company’s trajectory

• Build foundational systems that power the business: design and evolve core platforms such as:

  • System of Record for lifecycle and workflow management

  • Knowledge and data layers that enable automation and intelligence

  • Scalable infrastructure for AI-driven workflows

• Drive frontier innovation: stay close to emerging technologies (e.g., AI agents, automation systems, modern data architectures) and apply them pragmatically to create leverage

• Elevate engineering standards: set a high bar for system design, reliability, and execution; influence architecture decisions across teams

• Mentor and grow the team: coach engineers and tech leads, review designs, and raise the overall technical bar of the organization

• Partner cross-functionally: work closely with Product, Analytics, and Ops to ensure systems reflect real-world workflows and business needs

• Stay hands-on where it matters: dive deep into architecture and critical systems to unblock and accelerate progress

The Requirements

• 10+ years of experience building and scaling complex systems

• Proven track record of owning architecture for large-scale, mission-critical platforms

• Strong experience in:

  • Distributed systems and backend architecture

  • Data modeling and system design for complex, real-world workflows

  • Designing systems with strong reliability, consistency, and auditability requirements

• Demonstrated ability to drive technical direction across teams and influence at the org level

• Experience mentoring senior engineers and leading through influence

• Strong judgment: able to balance long-term architecture with fast-paced execution

Preferred

• Experience building foundational platforms (e.g., systems of record, workflow engines, data platforms)

• Experience working with or building AI/ML-powered systems in production

• Familiarity with knowledge representation systems (e.g., knowledge graphs, ontologies)

• Experience in healthcare or other regulated, operations-heavy environments

• Experience in zero-to-one or early scaling environments

Benefits:

• Competitive compensation packages that reflect the value you bring. We reward our team for the impact of their work – full-time employees are eligible for an annual company performance bonus.

• Comprehensive health coverage that works for you. Choose from high-quality medical dental and vision options, including a $0 deductible PPO and a company-funded HSA, alongside employer-paid life and disability insurance.

• Generous paid time off. We provide policies that allow you to recharge along with 10 paid company holidays.

• Financial savings benefits to support your future. We support your financial well-being with HSA contributions, optional FSA and commuter benefits, and full coverage of all 401(k) account fees (employer match not currently offered).

• Paid parental leave to support your growing family. We provide paid leave, so you can focus on bonding and adjusting to life as your family grows.

We are an equal opportunity employer and welcome applicants from all backgrounds, consistent with applicable laws. Employment is contingent upon successful completion of a background check, satisfactory references, and any required documentation.

Why Join Abby Care

• Own the highest-leverage technical problems in the company

• Build foundational systems that power a real-world, AI-native platform

• Work at the intersection of healthcare, systems, and AI

• Partner directly with leadership to shape company trajectory

• Join a mission-driven, fast-growing team backed by top investors

Our Values

1. Families First
   Redefining healthcare starts with how we treat the parents and children we serve. We go above and beyond for every family, building strong, lasting relationships. We continually ask ourselves, “Would we want this for our own families?”

2. Urgency with Precision
   Millions of families are waiting for care, and they cannot wait, therefore this is not your typical 9 to 5 job. We match their urgency with our own, delivering exceptional care without compromise. Here, speed and excellence go hand in hand.

3. Relentlessly Resourceful
   As an ambitious startup, we adapt quickly and make the most of limited time and resources. We solve challenges with creativity to deliver results without unnecessary complexity.

4. Purpose with Positivity
   We take our mission seriously while never losing sight of the people behind the work. Respect, kindness, memes, and coffee make us stronger as a team and better for the families we serve.

5. Driven to Redefine What’s Possible
   We are here to make healthcare better, which means asking hard questions, challenging outdated systems, and finding smarter, more compassionate ways to deliver care.