Principal Engineer (LATAM)

See something that should exist? Build it. See a better way? Do it. At Terrific, every role directly impacts how we grow from product to revenue to customer experience. We’re building the next generation of social commerce through live shopping powered by real-time data and AI. And we believe customer data should belong to the brands who earn it — not third-party platforms. Principal Engineer Terrific • LATAM • Contract, Remote About Terrific Terrific Live is a social commerce platform that helps retailers and eCommerce brands grow revenue through live, interactive, social-native shopping experiences on their own websites. Our platform connects audiences and shop presenters in real time — streaming to global brands, retailers, and media groups across Latin America, Europe, and Israel — and turns live moments into measurable sales. We’re hiring a Principal Engineer to set the technical direction of the platform, raise the engineering bar, and help us scale a 24/7, high-availability, AI-powered product to the next order of magnitude. The Role The Principal Engineer is our most senior individual contributor - a force-multiplier across the entire engineering organization. You’ll own architecture and technical strategy for Terrific’s platform end-to-end: real-time live video commerce, AI/ML-driven personalization, commerce integrations, data infrastructure, and everything in between. You’ll stay deeply hands-on — writing code, reviewing designs, and shipping critical systems — while also shaping how the team builds: standards, patterns, performance, and reliability. You’ll partner closely with the R&D managers, Product manager, and Design on the hardest, highest-leverage problems. What You’ll Do Technical Leadership Own the end-to-end architecture of the Terrific platform across backend, frontend, data, AI, and real-time systems. Drive engineering standards - code quality, testing, observability, security, and operational excellence - and raise the bar across the team. Mentor engineers; grow the technical depth of the organization. Design and implement new services and features end-to-end, from database to UI, with high performance and responsiveness. Build rapid prototype features A to Z. Tackle the highest-risk, highest-impact problems personally - live video reliability, real-time engagement, commerce integrations, and AI-powered experiences. Evolve our stack thoughtfully: React, Angular, Node.js, TypeScript, GCP, Firebase, Firestore, Cloud Functions, BigQuery, and Pub/Sub. Architect for global, 24/7 live operation — uptime, latency, cost, and graceful degradation during peak live events. Build for B2B2C scale: systems that serve enterprise customers (brands, retailers, broadcasters) and their consumer audiences across multiple regions and languages. Partner with Product and Data on experimentation infrastructure so every meaningful change can be A/B tested and measured. Partner with Product and Design from concept through launch, taking full ownership in a fast-paced, collaborative environment. Represent engineering with strategic customers and partners on deep technical topics; translate customer reality into architectural decisions. Make the whole team better - through design reviews, technical writing, mentorship, and hiring. What We’re Looking For 10+ years of hands-on software engineering experience, with a track record of leading at staff/principal level at high-scale products(!). Expert-level Node.js and TypeScript; strong frontend experience in React and/or Angular (both a significant plus). Deep experience designing and operating distributed, real-time systems in production, 24/7, under load. Strong data engineering instincts: SQL/NoSQL, event-driven architectures, and analytical stores (BigQuery or equivalent). Hands-on experience building or shipping AI/ML-powered features in production - personalization, recommendations, search, or generative AI. Experience on GCP (Firebase, Cloud Functions, Firestore, Realtime Database, Pub/Sub) is a strong advantage. Experience with commerce platforms such as Shopify or WooCommerce, and/or live video/streaming infrastructure, is a plus. Excellent judgment on trade-offs between scope, speed, performance, and UX; strong product intuition. Clear, calm communicator: writes well, pushes back thoughtfully, and makes the people around them more effective. Why Terrific Principal-level ownership of the platform that defines live, shoppable media. Real, global scale — top brands, retailers, and broadcasters, running 24/7 across LatAm, Europe, and Israel. A modern stack (Node.js, TypeScript, React, Angular, GCP, Firebase, BigQuery, Pub/Sub) with the autonomy to evolve it. A tight, senior team where product, design, data, and engineering ship together