Job brief: Principal Software Engineer

What JoRoute checked · Checked by JoRoute

• Listed on Roblox's own job board. JoRoute does not take listings from job ads or recruiters.
• First seen by JoRoute 2026-11-04 (4 days ago); last confirmed on the board 2026-11-08.
• The apply link opens careers.roblox.com, the address Roblox's board gives for this job.
• The same title for the same place was listed 1 other time on this board in the last 90 days: several openings, or a re-posted job.
• No layoff notices (WARN) under this name in the state files JoRoute reads.

What the listing says · Employer's own words, not checked

• Pay: $295,250 to $345,040 a year
• Job type: Not stated
• Where: San Mateo, CA, United States · San Mateo, CA
• Posted: 2026-06-23 · over 60 days ago

What the job asks · Employer's own words, not checked

Level: Lead / staff. The title says "Principal".

Must have

• 10+ years of experience building large-scale backend/distributed systems and shipping high-quality systems to production.
• 4+ years acting as a tech lead: setting direction, driving execution, and growing engineers at multiple levels

Main duties

• Serve as the hands-on tech lead for a group of engineers on the Safety Foundation team — setting technical direction, driving execution, and staying close to…
• Lead the design and implementation of a scalable, cost-efficient platform engineered for 10x traffic growth
• Drive the AI-first transformation of the safety platform: architecting agentic and ML-integrated workflows with the security, auditability, and reliability t…
• Build the developer experience layer that enables product teams across Roblox to integrate safety capabilities in hours, not months
• Partner closely with Trust & Safety ML, User Safety, Safety Operations, and product teams to translate platform needs into durable infrastructure

Lines copied from the posting, not rewritten. "Preferred" or "nice to have" items are not listed as must-haves.

How it compares · Compared by JoRoute from listings

• Typical listed pay for software engineer jobs in San Mateo, CA: $257k a year (148 listings, 2 employers). This listing is 25% higher.
• Across Roblox's 251 open listings, 42% of those with a posting date were first posted more than 60 days ago. How Roblox hires

What nobody outside the employer knows · Not known

• Whether the role is already filled or on hold: employers often leave listings up.
• How many people applied, and who reads the applications.
• Where in the published range an offer would land.

Ask before you apply

1. Is this role still open, and when do you hope to fill it?
2. How many people are you hiring for this role, and is it a new opening or a re-posted one?
3. Which of the listed places is this role based in?
4. What are the interview steps, and when should I expect to hear back?

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Next steps

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