Founded in 1992 in Dover, NH, Planet Fitness is one of the largest and fastest-growing franchisors and operators of fitness centers in the United States by number of members and locations. We have over 2,700+ stores in 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Canada, Panama, Mexico, Spain, and Australia. 90% of Planet Fitness stores are owned and operated by independent franchisees.

At Planet Fitness, our unique mission has always been to enhance people’s lives by providing a high-quality fitness experience in a welcoming, non-intimidating environment. And we’re proud of the amazing Planet Fitness team that supports our clubs and team members. They are comprised of dynamic, dedicated, and talented individuals who represent our values of integrity, transparency, passion, respect, and excellence (while having fun!) in everything they do.

Joining the PF family means being part of a company that cares about bettering the health and wellbeing of our communities. It means being a part of a supportive, engaging workforce with an inclusive culture that values diversity and creates an environment where everyone can feel they belong. It means encouraging professional growth and development. It means making true, lasting connections with your co-workers with celebrations, team building activities and engaging corporate events! It means creating a positive impact in our local communities through our Judgement Free Generation® philanthropic initiative. It means being part of a brand that you can be proud of!

For the past 30 years, we’ve helped millions of people in their fitness journey and revolutionized the industry along the way. And we’re just getting started!

The Principal Engineer will lead and oversee the architecture, design, development, and delivery activities of a cross-functional engineering team. Through strong hands-on technical contributions and cross-team leadership and coordination, the Principal Engineer will instill technical excellence across key strategic initiatives. The Principal Engineer will partner closely with Product and Design counterparts to identify innovative solutions to user and business challenges using leading technology and delivery practices. They will also work closely with Data, Security, Infrastructure, and Operations teams using our technology delivery methodology and our ways of working.

As a member of a growing team, you'll also play a role in shaping and defining the team's culture. You'll get the benefits of a fast-paced environment in an environment where teamwork, culture, and collaboration are paramount.

This is a hybrid role based out of our Hampton, NH office.

Technical Leadership

• Defines the technical architecture of a platform or product, aligning it with the technical architecture for the enterprise.
• Serves as a trusted technical advisor and decision-maker for architectural and design decisions.
• Provides hands-on mentorship and guidance to the engineering team, fostering skill growth and innovation.
• Champions best practices in system design, development, testing, and deployment, including AI-powered engineering capabilities.

Cross-Functional Discovery & Collaboration

• Partners with Product and Design to rapidly explore solutions that amaze users and drive business outcomes.
• Works across engineering, infrastructure, data, and security teams to align methodologies, platforms, and delivery practices.
• Launches new capabilities rapidly, while managing risk continuously from inception through operations
• Develops and executes delivery plans that take advantage of cutting-edge technologies to deliver solutions that exceed expectations.
• Anticipates and mitigates risks early in the development cycle, ensuring scalable and resilient solutions.
• Advocates for customer-centric design thinking while balancing technical feasibility and business priorities.

High-Quality Development & Delivery

• Maintains strong hands-on involvement in their team’s work, providing technical expertise and oversight on architecture, implementation, testing, and operations.
• Establishes pragmatic, repeatable approaches for writing, validating, and shipping high-quality software, empowering your team to excel in an agile, outcome-oriented environment.
• Partners with others to bring AI to development and delivery, establishing new patterns of engagement across cross-functional teams.
• Drives adoption of modern engineering practices, including CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, observability, and cloud-native patterns.

Team & Culture Building

• Mentors and grows the next generation of technical leaders within the organization.
• Promotes a culture of continuous learning, experimentation, and technical excellence.
• Serves as a role model for engineering values, instilling ownership, craftsmanship, and pride in delivery.

• Bachelor's degree in a related field (Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Management Information Systems, etc.). Master's degree a plus.
• 8+ years of software engineering experience and 2+ years of experience leading and supporting a cross-functional delivery team.
• Breadth and depth of experience in the architecture, development, and implementation of software products and systems. This includes a proven track record of leading a cross-functional delivery team through everyday project tasks and collaborating across multiple functional and technical teams to deliver an outcome.
• Deep hands-on experience using modern programming languages (Java, TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, Go, etc.) and libraries (Spring Boot, React / Remix, Vue, Gin) suitable for full-stack application development. Experience with CI/CD pipeline development and AI-powered engineering tooling is a strong plus.
• Knowledge and practical experience with cloud architecture on platforms such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure, or Google Cloud Platform (GCP). You should be skilled in designing and building scalable, reliable, and secure cloud-native solutions. Experience using Generative AI (GenAI) user-facing software products or applications is also highly desirable.
• A background in relational database design, non-relational database design, and enterprise integration patterns. Should have a practical understanding of RESTful service design and be skilled in designing and building synchronous and asynchronous interfaces.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to tackle ambiguous problems and make data-driven decisions.
• Strong attention to detail, efficient, and organized with an ability to establish priorities and objectives
• Excellent presentation and communication skills along with the ability to communicate effectively across all levels of the organization
• Able to establish and maintain effective, collaborative work relationships with diverse individuals, internally and externally
• Dedicated learner with a natural curiosity for consistent growth
• Exhibits comfort, ease, and flexibility working in an extremely fast-paced ever-changing, deadline-driven environment
• Cooperative team player with an upbeat, positive, “can-do” attitude!

Planet Fitness cares about you and your well-being. We offer a comprehensive benefits package to eligible employees which includes the core medical, dental, vision, life and disability as well as supplemental accident, hospital and critical illness coverage options. In addition, we are proud to offer eligible employees a generous time off program (including volunteer time), childcare reimbursement, paid parental leave, pet care reimbursement, tuition reimbursement, free Black Card membership, learning and development programs and a whole host of engagement activities. We offer a 401(k) Plan with safe harbor employer matching and an employee stock purchase plan. This role is also eligible to participate in an annual corporate bonus incentive program based on company financial and personal performance.

Note to Applicants: We have been made aware of an increasing number of hiring fraud schemes across numerous platforms. Planet Fitness never requires advance payments of any kind for computer equipment or any other purpose at the start of employment. Any request for you to provide payment information during the application process is part of a fraud scheme. Further, we recommend that you do not provide sensitive personal information (SSN, DOB, driver’s license number) as part of the initial application process.