BambooHR - Principal Architect, AI-Native Developer Experience

• Agents now write, review, test, and ship code alongside engineers. As Principal Architect for AI-Native Developer Experience, you will lead the architecture for how BambooHR engineers and agents build software together, from the tools and context agents rely on to the pipelines that validate their work. We are looking for someone who is endlessly curious, stays at the forefront of AI and software technology, and knows when to think a problem through and when to settle it with a working prototype. This is a hands-on role on an award-winning product, with a team that lives our Bamboo Values, at a company that believes you should have a life outside of work. • Set the direction. Define the technical vision, reference architecture, and incremental roadmap for AI-native development, and document key decisions in ADRs. • Set the direction. • Experiment and prove it out. Track emerging models, agents, and developer tools, run time-boxed experiments and proofs of concept, and turn what works into supported patterns while retiring what does not. • Experiment and prove it out. • Establish and champion agentic engineering practices. Define how engineers work with coding agents (spec-driven development, context engineering, review of agent-generated code), build a shared library of skills, tools, and MCP servers, and evangelize these practices across engineering through demos, playbooks, and communities of practice. • Establish and champion agentic engineering practices. • Automate the SDLC with agents. Architect agentic workflows from triage through implementation, review, testing, and remediation, with autonomy levels and human-in-the-loop guardrails set by risk and backed by evals. • Automate the SDLC with agents. • Build the knowledge layers. Give agents and engineers accurate, current context through engineering and product knowledge layers: code intelligence, service catalogs, architecture records, domain models, and business rules. • Build the knowledge layers. • Make domains agent-ready. Define the standard for agent-ready domains (clear boundaries, documented APIs, agent-callable tools, fast tests, ephemeral environments) and help teams close the gaps. • Make domains agent-ready. • Reimagine CI/CD for the AI era. Redesign the pipeline for the volume of agent-authored changes, with intelligent test selection, merge queues, automated quality and security gates, and progressive delivery. • Reimagine CI/CD for the AI era. • Rethink the core developer experience. Modernize development environments, onboarding, documentation, and the internal developer portal so they serve engineers and agents alike, and measure developer experience and productivity to guide where we invest. • Bachelor’s degree in computer science or a related field, or equivalent experience • At least 10 years of software engineering experience, with at least 7 in software architecture or staff-plus technical leadership • Daily, hands-on use of AI coding agents, and a track record of turning that into practices or tools other engineers adopt • Experience building production LLM systems, including tool calling, agent orchestration, context engineering, RAG, and evals • Deep experience designing CI/CD, build systems, and developer platforms at scale • Strong SaaS architecture fundamentals and fluency in our stack (PHP, React, MySQL) • Working knowledge of the OWASP Top 10 (including for LLM Applications) and supply chain security • A record of influencing architects and senior engineers without direct authority • Sound judgment in ambiguous problem spaces and exceptional communication, including the ability to give and receive direct feedback • What Will Make Us REALLY Love You • You have built agent tooling, MCP servers, or open-source developer tools • You have led AI adoption or productivity change across a large engineering organization • You have built systems handling sensitive data in regulated SaaS (HR, payroll, SOC 2)