Principal Engineer, Agent Platform

About Gap Inc.

At Gap Inc., we create culture as much as we create clothes. Our ambition is to become a high-performing house of iconic American brands that shape culture.

Our portfolio—Old Navy, Gap, Banana Republic, and Athleta—each brings a distinct point of view to how we show up in the world and serve our customers.

Old Navy democratizes style with quality and value for all. Gap champions originality through essential pieces that celebrate individuality. Banana Republic is rooted in a spirit of discovery, creating modern pieces inspired by craftsmanship and travel. Athleta champions the Power of She through confidence, strength, and movement.

We’re driven by a shared purpose: to bridge gaps—between people, perspectives, and possibilities—to create a better world.

We’re building a team that performs at a high level—people who think boldly, take ownership, and turn ideas into impact. If you’re ready to learn fast and help shape what’s next, you’ll fit right in.

About the role

We are building the enterprise AI agent platform that teams across the company will use to create, deploy, govern, and operate AI-powered solutions at scale. As a Principal Engineer, you will help define the technical foundation for agent development across the organization, building the services, frameworks, and guardrails that make AI agents secure, reliable, observable, and easy to adopt. This is a hands-on engineering role focused on architecture, software design, and platform development. You will work across AI, distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, security, and governance to deliver a platform that enables product and engineering teams to move quickly while meeting enterprise standards for security, compliance, and operational excellence.

What you'll do

• Design and build core platform services that enable enterprise AI agent development and operations

• Define the architecture, engineering patterns, and technical standards for the AI agent platform

• Develop and maintain a centralized model gateway for routing, governance, resiliency, and cost management

• Build agent runtime capabilities that support long-running workflows, orchestration, and human-in-the-loop processes

• Design secure identity, authorization, and policy enforcement mechanisms for agents and tools

• Establish platform capabilities for context management, memory, retrieval, and data isolation

• Create testing, evaluation, and release frameworks that ensure agent quality, safety, and performance

• Implement observability, auditability, and operational tooling for monitoring and troubleshooting agent behavior

• Partner with Security, Data Governance, and Cloud Infrastructure teams to define platform controls and guardrails

• Mentor engineers, influence technical direction, and raise engineering standards across multiple teams

• Who you are

• Extensive experience building and operating large-scale distributed systems in production

• Strong software engineering background with expert-level Python development skills

• Hands-on experience delivering production LLM, generative AI, or agent-based solutions

• Deep understanding of agent architectures, orchestration patterns, and enterprise AI platforms

• Experienced with retrieval systems, embeddings, vector search, and context management strategies

• Knowledgeable in AI evaluation, testing methodologies, and quality assurance for non-deterministic systems

• Proficient with Google Cloud services including Vertex AI, Gemini, GKE, Cloud Run, BigQuery, and Pub/Sub

• Experienced with cloud security, workload identity, OAuth, policy-as-code, and secure-by-design architectures

• Strong understanding of distributed system reliability patterns, including resiliency, retries, observability, and fault tolerance

• Proven ability to influence technical direction, drive adoption of architectural standards, and lead through expertise rather than authority

• Salary Range: 209700.00 - 272600.00

• Employee pay will vary based on factors such as qualifications, experience, skill level, competencies and work location. We will meet minimum wage or minimum of the pay range (whichever is higher) based on city, county and state requirements.

• Benefits at Gap Inc.

• Merchandise discount for our brands: 50% off regular-priced merchandise at Old Navy, Gap, Banana Republic and Athleta, and 30% off at Outlet for all employees.

• One of the most competitive Paid Time Off plans in the industry.

• Employees can take up to five “on the clock” hours each month to volunteer at a charity of their choice.

• Extensive 401(k) plan with company matching for contributions up to four percent of an employee’s base pay.

• Employee stock purchase plan.

• Medical, dental, vision and life insurance.

• See more of the benefits we offer.

• Gap Inc. is an equal-opportunity employer and is committed to providing a workplace free from harassment and discrimination. We are committed to recruiting, hiring, training and promoting qualified people of all backgrounds, and make all employment decisions without regard to any protected status. We have received numerous awards for our long-held commitment to equality and will continue to foster a diverse and inclusive environment of belonging. In 2022, we were recognized by Forbes as one of the World's Best Employers and one of the Best Employers for Diversity.

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• San Francisco, home to our brands and people

• San Francisco has always been a hub for artistry and innovation—and for 55 years, it has inspired Gap Inc. as the home of our brands and people. Creativity is woven into our legacy, and we’re proud to continue supporting the local community that fuels it.

• Through our partnership with Nest and the Makers United SF program, we’re working to bridge opportunity gaps for local creatives, giving them a platform to showcase their work and thrive. With the right support and visibility, today’s makers could become the next generation of influential talent.

• Championing pathways to growth

• At Gap Inc., we believe everyone deserves the opportunity to build a brighter future, and we're proud to be recognized as an Employer of Choice by American Opportunity Index.

• As one of the largest employers of entry-level talent, we recognize the barriers underrepresented communities face. We're committed to bridging the opportunity gap by providing access to better jobs and creating pathways for growth, empowering our employees to contribute to our legacy—impacting not just retail and fashion, but also shaping culture.

• A day in the life with Zac Posen

• Step inside a day in the life at Gap Inc. HQ with Vogue and our Creative Director, Zac Posen. This behind-the-scenes gives a peak into a day at 2 Folsom including design meetings, creative reviews, and a stop in San Francisco's iconic Chinatown. Get a glimpse at the creativity, collaboration, and culture of our house of iconic American brands. Learn more

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