Principal Engineer, Generative & Agentic AI

Company: Zip
Location: San Diego
Posted on: December 31, 2025

Job Description:

ZIP is entering a new chapter—one where software is no longer static, reactive, or manually tuned. We’re reimagining our platform with Generative AI and Agentic systems at its core, enabling autonomous, adaptive capabilities across our products and operations.To lead this charge, we’re hiring our first Principal Engineer for Generative and Agentic AI. This isn’t a support role. It’s a foundational seat on the team and a key member of our in-house innovation group. If you’ve spent your career at the frontier of AI, this is your opportunity to build from the ground up in a greenfield environment with enterprise-grade ambition. You’ll collaborate across engineering, product, design, and applied research to transform emerging agentic AI patterns into resilient, production-grade systems. This isn’t about chasing trends, we’re focused on delivering intelligent, self-improving solutions that drive real outcomes. If you’re energized by the opportunity to help define the future of autonomous, AI-native software, we’d love to connect. Interesting problems you’ll get to solve • Design and build intelligent, autonomous systems that directly enhance the customer experience, enabling AI-powered interactions, personalized repayment journeys, intelligent support agents, and the foundation for a new generation of AI-first products in a dynamic, regulated fintech environment. • Prototype quickly, scale deliberately, evaluating emerging frameworks and models, running experiments, and hardening the most promising approaches for production deployment in real-world financial systems. • Collaborate across engineering, product, design, compliance, and applied research to identify high-impact use cases and deliver intelligent systems that are resilient, secure, and deeply aligned with user needs. • Architect the AI foundation, selecting and integrating the right mix of LLMs, orchestration frameworks, vector databases, memory strategies, and tooling to give our agentic systems both intelligence and structure. • Champion and evangelize AI-powered engineering, establish and uphold best practices across performance, observability, scalability, and responsible AI, ensuring that everything we build operates with trust, regulatory compliance, and enterprise-grade reliability at scale. • Mentor and inspire engineers, cultivating a culture of technical depth, curiosity, and bold innovation as we grow ZIP’s AI capabilities from team-level efforts to a core pillar of our platform strategy. • Build fast and learn faster, operating with urgency, deploying frequently, and using real feedback from customers and stakeholders to iterate and improve continuously. • Stay at the frontier of agentic AI, tracking new developments across academia and industry, and selectively introducing promising techniques that align with our mission to deliver intelligent, adaptive, and customer-centric fintech experiences. What you’ll bring to the team Minimum Qualifications • BS and MS in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field; PhD in AI, ML, or a related domain strongly preferred. • 15 years of software engineering experience, with 5 years of focused, hands-on work with Large Language Models (LLMs), Agentic AI, and generative AI systems. • Demonstrated success leading the design, development, and deployment of production-grade AI/ML systems, including large-scale inference, context management, and continuous learning. Technical Expertise • Deep expertise in backend systems and distributed architecture; Python required; additional fluency in languages such as C#, C++, Go, or Rust are a plus. • Extensive experience with agent frameworks, memory/contextual planning systems, and orchestration of long-running, stateful agents • Strong command of cloud-native development, microservices, and MLOps pipelines (e.g., with Azure, GCP, AWS). • Architect-level skill in breaking down complex, emergent problems into scalable, modular, and maintainable systems. • Applied experience integrating RLHF, embedding models, RAG (retrieval-augmented generation), and vector databases into modern applications. Leadership and Influence • Exceptional ability to mentor, influence, and align cross-functional engineering teams without formal authority. • Strong collaborator across product, design, data science, and security; experience in regulated domains (e.g., fintech, healthcare) is a plus. • High emotional intelligence and low-ego leadership style; comfortable driving alignment in ambiguous and high-stakes environments. • Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain complex technical topics to executive stakeholders and non-technical teams. Mindset and Impact • You are a builder at heart, driven by intellectual curiosity and a desire to push boundaries in how machines learn and operate. • You care deeply about system resilience, ethical AI, data privacy, and customer trust. • You thrive in early-stage initiatives, and are energized by ambiguity, iteration, and bold goals. • Clear communicator and thoughtful builder—able to mentor, align, and influence without ego • High intellectual curiosity, ownership mindset, and a passion for building systems that learn, adapt, and improve What you’ll get in return Zip is a place where you’ll get out what you put in. The newness of our sector means we need to move at pace and embrace change, and our promise to you when you join the team is that you’ll feel empowered and trusted to make big things happen quickly. We want you to feel welcome and as though you have the support to be yourself, and care for yourself at work. Because it’s important to us that you make the most of the opportunities you’ll get to grow your skills and your career, and be surrounded by smart, friendly people and leaders that have your back. We think these are just some of the best things about being a Zipster. We will also offer you: • Flexible working culture • Incentive programs • 20 days PTO every year • Generous paid parental leave • Leading family support policies • Company-sponsored 401k match • Learning and wellness subscription stipend • Beautiful Union Square office with a casual dress code • Industry-leading, employer-sponsored insurance for you and your dependents, with several 100% Zip-covered choices available

Keywords: Zip, Perris , Principal Engineer, Generative & Agentic AI, IT / Software / Systems , San Diego, California