Principal Software Engineer, Motion
$560-965k
OTE
$300-375k
BASE
+ Offers Equity + Offers Bonus: $0 - $150,000
More information about location
AI-driven work management platform
Open for applications
AI-driven work management platform
21-100 employees
Open for applications
$560-965k
OTE
$300-375k
BASE
+ Offers Equity + Offers Bonus: $0 - $150,000
More information about location
21-100 employees
Company mission
We want to enable a team of 10 to do what a team of 1,000 can do today. Motion is building the first end-to-end agentic work suite for everyday businesses.
Role
Who you are
- You are ambitious and always looking for ways to improve. For most engineers, this role will give you the most responsibilities you’ve ever had, while holding you to higher standards than other companies you’ve worked at. Don’t rest on your past achievements — expect to work your hardest and do the best work of your career at Motion. You will receive lots of coaching and feedback that you should seek to grow from
- You can take ownership of projects and lead them to completion while dealing with ambiguity and finding the right balance between speed and quality. You don’t need every detail and edge case spelled out for you because you can figure out the goals of the project and fill in the blanks
- You are a fast learner and can quickly familiarize yourself with a complex product and code base. You aren’t afraid to tackle any part of the stack or learn a new unfamiliar technology. You are comfortable with the fact that working in a startup means working around tech debt
- You have a strong understanding of how you can create the most impact, and don’t get lost in the weeds in details that don’t matter. You’re excited to work on whatever solves the biggest customer problems, not just the coolest technical challenges
- You can collaborate effectively with other talented engineers and work well in an environment where the best ideas win. The median engineer at Motion has 9 years experience. You should expect your ideas to get challenged and to learn a lot from your coworkers
- We prefer candidates who are familiar with the Javascript ecosystem and can hit the ground running when they join us. We don’t expect you to know all of our technologies, but enough of them to pick up the rest quickly. Our tech stack: Typescript, Node.js, React, React Query, Nest.js, Postgres, Temporal
What the job involves
- Motion is hiring an experienced software engineer who can make key technical decisions and implement large software projects to help Motion scale the next 2 orders of magnitude. The role may be frontend, backend, or full-stack, whichever suits your background
- We work hard to ensure Motion’s engineering team is one of the highest talent-density teams in the world. We have accomplished in weeks or months what it would take larger teams years to do.
- There are many initiatives on our product roadmap we know will make Motion deliver orders of magnitude more value to customers. As an engineer on our team, you will work on Motion's highest impact projects and have ownership over major parts of the product code
Our take
Today's fast-paced digital world can make time management feel overwhelming, leading many smartphones to be filled with applications for to-do lists, calendars, and project management tools. The fragmented nature of these apps makes them time-consuming and frustrating to navigate, ultimately making them unsuitable for usage within professional workforces.
Motion provides an all-in-one AI-driven time management platform for businesses, facilitating the automation of daily task planning, task prioritization, and long-term scheduling. The AI technology also automates frustrating maintenance tasks normally associated with productivity apps such as the rescheduling of unfinished work, adding exceptions for weekends or time off, and recognizing when a user is falling behind on their schedule.
Whilst businesses have a plethora of productivity platforms at their disposal, Motion has been smart to apply AI to its software to reduce the amount of time users must spend manually using it. Through this approach, the company aims to bring the benefits of time-management platforms without their pitfalls, ultimately helping to keep workers on track and minimize missed deadlines, without requiring constant manual planning time.
Freddie
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
Glassdoor (4)
Trustpilot (4)
Company
Funding (last 2 of 4 rounds)
Sep 2025
$38m
SERIES C
May 2023
$14m
EARLY VC
Total funding: $65.1m
Company benefits
- Motion offers a competitive salary and equity compensation, health insurance, and paid time off.
Company values
- Take ownership and be accountable - We can rely on each member of the team to get their work done. When we say we'll do something - we get it done without anyone checking in on us
- Straightforward communication - We communicate in a direct manner. If there is something you disagree with or are unhappy about, let the team know. We don’t tolerate passive-aggressiveness or company politics
- Disagree and commit - We can disagree and commit. Not all of our ideas will be implemented, and sometimes the group will decide to do something one of us disagrees with. Even if we disagree with the decision, we commit to getting it done
- Raw hours make a difference - Working too many hours doesn't guarantee success; but not working hard enough will guarantee failure. We expect everyone to put in their sincere best effort, but we generally don't expect you to work late evenings or on weekends
- Take risks - We are not afraid of taking risks. We should not over-index on failures. A lot of features we build and strategies we try will fail - that is expected
- Operational excellence and attention to detail - We are a small team with a user base and revenue that are exploding. Every mistake we make has a direct revenue impact
- Making tradeoffs - We often have to sacrifice quality for speed to validate new ideas. It is important to know the balance between the two and to find good tradeoffs
- Be versatile and open to new ideas - We are an early-stage startup. Our product, roadmap, strategy, and goals constantly change. We should not be scared of a rapidly changing work environment
- Look for opportunities to grow - We are looking for team members who aren't just checking off tasks, but are thinking about how to push the business forward and increase their impact. We want you to look for new opportunities that we aren't taking advantage of, and go for it!
Company HQ
San Francisco, CA
Articles
Leadership
Harry Qi
(CEO and Co-founder)Ethan Yu
(COO and Co-founder)Omid Rooholfada
(Co-founder)Chander Ramesh
(CTO & Co-Founder)Salary benchmarks
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Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Motion
- Motion is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace where everyone is treated with respect and given equal opportunities. We do not discriminate based on gender identity, race, ancestry, disability, religion, sexual orientation, pregnancy status, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We welcome and encourage all qualified candidates to apply for our job openings.
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