Principal Software Engineer

About Goose

Goose is building the operating system for multi-service pet care businesses — boarding, daycare, grooming, and training. Our platform streamlines operations, enhances the customer experience, and drives revenue growth. Headquartered in Chicago, we blend modern technology with industry know-how to serve an essential but historically underserved market.

As Goose builds the operational backbone for the next generation of pet care businesses, we’re launching a new platform focused on workforce coordination, task management, and operational tooling. This is a foundational engineering leadership role responsible for shaping a zero-to-one platform spanning operational systems, web and mobile experiences, AI-powered workflows, and scalable infrastructure that powers day-to-day business operations at scale.

• Lead the design, development, and architecture of a new operations platform focused on task management, workforce optimization, and operational tooling.
• Build the initial versions of core systems, workflows, and user experiences from the ground up.
• Define the foundational architecture, engineering standards, and technical direction for a new operational platform.
• Build reliable, well-tested, and maintainable software, including secure APIs, operational systems, web applications, and mobile product experiences.
• Design foundational systems and workflows supporting operational coordination, workforce management, and internal platform capabilities.
• Lead development and operational ownership of customer-facing web and mobile applications, along with the supporting platform infrastructure.
• Drive technical decisions around scalable mobile development patterns and rapid multi-platform deployment workflows.
• Lead integrations with external systems, operational tooling, and third-party platforms.
• Leverage AI-assisted engineering tools and workflows to improve development velocity, software quality, debugging, testing, documentation, and operational efficiency.
• Identify opportunities to incorporate AI-powered functionality and workflows into customer-facing and operational product experiences.
• Partner closely with product managers, operations, leadership, and engineering teams to shape product direction, operational workflows, technical strategy, and execution priorities.
• Establish core architectural patterns, operational frameworks, and engineering best practices from the earliest stages of the platform lifecycle.
• Identify and proactively address risks related to scalability, reliability, security, and long-term maintainability.
• Create and maintain clear technical and product documentation for the systems and experiences you own.
• Mentor and influence engineers across teams through technical leadership, system design guidance, and engineering best practices.

• A systems-minded engineer who enjoys building new products and platforms from zero to one.
• Comfortable operating in ambiguous environments and helping shape both product and technical direction.
• Passionate about building durable systems and scalable operational platforms.
• Able to balance rapid iteration with strong engineering fundamentals and long-term thinking.
• Comfortable influencing architecture and execution across multiple domains without relying solely on direct authority.

• 7+ years of professional experience building and scaling complex distributed systems.
• Experience leading development of new products or platforms from initial concept through production launch.
• Deep expertise designing and operating large-scale production systems and infrastructure.
• Experience developing, releasing, and maintaining production mobile applications using modern cross-platform or rapid deployment frameworks.
• Significant experience leading complex technical initiatives across multiple teams.
• Strong experience designing resilient APIs, service-oriented architectures, and operationally mature systems.
• Strong experience with Type Script, Node.js, React.js, SQL, and AWS-native infrastructure.
• Experience using AI-assisted development tools within engineering workflows.
• Experience incorporating AI-powered functionality or experiences…