Lululemon

who we are

lululemon is an innovative performance apparel company for yoga, running, training, and other athletic pursuits. Setting the bar in technical fabrics and functional design, we create transformational products and experiences that support people in moving, growing, connecting, and being well. We owe our success to our innovative product, emphasis on stores, commitment to our people, and the incredible connections we make in every community we're in. As a company, we focus on creating positive change to build a healthier, thriving future. In particular, that includes creating an equitable, inclusive and growth-focused environment for our people.

about this team

The Senior Principal Engineer is a hands-on, technically elite leader responsible for shaping and advancing the engineering and architectural excellence across lululemon’s technology ecosystem. Operating at the intersection of strategy and execution, this role partners closely with the technology senior leadership team and cross-functional business leaders to accelerate the company’s transformation through technology, data, and AI. This role is based out of Seattle and will report directly into the Chief AI & Technology Officer.

This leader is both an architect and a builder—a role-model developer capable of writing production-grade code, designing globally distributed systems, and driving enterprise-scale architecture modernization. They bring deep technical expertise in at least one of the following areas: distributed computing, cloud infrastructure, systems architecture, or database technologies, complemented by a sophisticated understanding of ML engineering and MLOps.

core responsibilities

The mandate of the Senior Principal Engineer is to elevate lululemon’s engineering culture and technical depth by setting architectural standards, improving development velocity, and de-risking large-scale programs. This role drives end-to-end excellence—from conceptual design and systems thinking to implementation and operational resilience—while mentoring principal engineers and influencing technology directions across the company.

The Senior Principal Engineer ensures that every engineering investment advances our strategic goals in customer experience, operational scalability, and innovation readiness.

• Serve as a technical authority across multiple business domains, guiding architecture, design, and implementation for mission-critical systems.
• Lead by example as a hands-on technologist, actively contributing to code reviews, prototyping, and complex debugging across diverse technology stacks.
• Architect highly distributed, multi-region, and fault-tolerant systems optimized for scalability, latency, and reliability.
• Partner with AI/ML, Data Engineering, and Platform Engineering teams to design and operationalize robust ML pipelines, model-serving platforms, and federated data systems.
• Drive modernization of legacy architectures, introducing cloud-native, event-driven, and containerized patterns to improve performance and reduce technical debt.
• Establish rigorous software development lifecycle (SDLC) practices, including CI/CD, automated testing, observability, and secure coding standards.
• Drive root cause analysis and postmortems for complex production incidents, ensuring learnings translate into systemic improvements.
• Influence business-critical programs by identifying technical risks early, creating mitigation strategies, and improving time-to-value.
• Collaborate with domain architects to align solutions with enterprise reference architecture and ensure consistent governance across teams.
• Serve as a coach and mentor to Principal Engineers and high-potential technical leaders, building a pipeline of engineering excellence.
• Champion a culture of craftsmanship, performance, and curiosity, ensuring the engineering community remains focused on innovation and impact.

qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
• 15+ years of progressive experience in software engineering, with at least 5 years in architecture or senior technical leadership.
• Deep expertise in at least one of the following:
  • Distributed computing (microservices, streaming architectures, consensus algorithms, fault tolerance)
  • Cloud infrastructure (AWS, Azure, or GCP at multi-region scale)
  • System architecture (large-scale, low-latency, service-oriented design)
  • Database technologies (relational, NoSQL, vector, time-series systems)
• Strong familiarity with MLOps and ML Engineering, including model lifecycle management, data versioning, and reproducibility.
• Hands-on proficiency in one or more languages such as Python, Java, Go, or C#, with ability to set coding standards for the org.
• Experience leading cross-functional technical programs across product, data, AI, and infrastructure domains.
• Proven success driving outcomes in complex environments—accelerating delivery speed, improving quality, and reducing risk.
• Exceptional communication skills, with the ability to engage executives and engineers alike on architectural and strategic tradeoffs.

Ideal Candidate Profile

• A builder at heart who can operate with both depth and breadth—comfortable reviewing kernel-level performance one day and presenting cloud strategy to executives the next.
• A trusted partner to engineering and business leaders, capable of translating strategic priorities into executable technical roadmaps.
• A technical evangelist who embodies humility, mentorship, and precision in problem solving.
• A guardian of quality and reliability, passionate about creating systems that scale elegantly and operate flawlessly.

must haves

• Acknowledge the presence of choice in every moment and take personal responsibility for your life.
• Possess an entrepreneurial spirit and continuously innovate to achieve great results. 
• Communicate with honesty and kindness and create the space for others to do the same. 
• Lead with courage, knowing the possibility of greatness is bigger than the fear of failure. 
• Foster connection by putting people first and building trusting relationships. 
• Integrate fun and joy as a way of being and working, aka doesn’t take yourself too seriously. 

additional notes
Immigration support is potentially available for this role.

compensation and benefits package 

lululemon’s compensation offerings are grounded in a pay-for-performance philosophy that recognizes exceptional individual and team performance. The typical hiring range for this position is from $206,200-$270,600 annually; the base pay offered is based on market location and may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and internal equity. As part of our total rewards offering, permanent employees in this position may be eligible for our competitive annual bonus program and equity offerings, subject to program eligibility requirements.  

At lululemon, investing in our people is a top priority. We believe that when life works, work works. We strive to be the place where inclusive leaders come to develop and enable all to be well. Recognizing our teams for their performance and dedication, other components of our total rewards offerings include support of career development, wellbeing, and personal growth:

• Extended health and dental benefits, and mental health plans 
• Paid time off 
• Savings and retirement plan matching 
• Generous employee discount 
• Fitness & yoga classes 
• Parenthood top-up 
• Extensive catalog of development course offerings 
• People networks, mentorship programs, and leadership series (to name a few) 

Note: The incentive programs, benefits, and perks have certain eligibility requirements. The Company reserves the right to alter these incentive programs, benefits, and perks in whole or in part at any time without advance notice.

 
workplace arrangement

In-person collaboration and connection is important to our culture. Work is performed onsite, minimum 4 days per week.