Tom Smykowski is a Principal Software Engineer based in Poland, available for remote collaboration with teams across the EU, UK, and North America. With nearly two decades of experience in product delivery, he is the ideal hire for founders, CTOs, and executives seeking a hands-on technical leader who can take ownership from discovery and architecture through to production. His background combines deep engineering expertise with UX and product thinking, making him uniquely suited to roles that require bridging technical execution with business outcomes.
What a Principal Software Engineer Brings to Your Team
The role of a Principal Software Engineer transcends senior-level coding. It encompasses system-wide architectural vision, cross-functional technical leadership, and a direct influence on product strategy. A principal engineer is responsible for setting technical direction, making high-stakes decisions on technology selection, and ensuring the long-term health and scalability of the codebase. They act as a force multiplier, mentoring senior engineers and establishing patterns that elevate the entire team's output.
In a remote context, this leadership becomes even more critical. A principal engineer must excel at asynchronous communication, documenting architectural decisions clearly, and fostering a culture of technical excellence across distributed teams. Tom's experience working with international teams for clients like DeLaval, Croissant, and Printify demonstrates his proficiency in this environment. He provides the strategic technical guidance needed to align engineering efforts with business goals, whether modernizing a legacy stack, scaling a SaaS platform, or pioneering AI-native development workflows.
Hiring a principal-level engineer is an investment in your product's foundational integrity and future velocity. It's a decision that pays dividends in reduced technical debt, more efficient team processes, and a robust, adaptable system capable of supporting growth. For companies looking to build or scale a significant digital product, this role is often the cornerstone of engineering success.
Proven Impact Across Industries and Platforms
Tom's career is defined by delivering tangible impact at scale for a diverse range of organizations. As a Staff Software Engineer at Croissant, a workplace platform, he worked in a direct partnership with the CEO and CTO on compliance and collaboration features, a role requiring deep product and technical alignment. At Printify, he led initiatives on the design system and rebrand ahead of the Printful merger, work that directly supported a platform serving over 10 million merchants and approximately 60 frontend engineers.
His entrepreneurial experience as the founder of Websoul further underscores his principal-level capabilities. He built a marketing automation and fintech SaaS from the ground up, scaling it to serve over 32,000 businesses. This involved full-stack development with Vue.js, TypeScript, and Supabase, and complex data grid implementations with AG Grid. Earlier in his career, he led frontend development at Fream, an industrial SaaS, focusing on design systems, map-based interfaces, and conversion-optimized UX. This breadth of experience, from enterprise clients like GE Healthcare and Unilever to high-growth startups and public sector work for entities like the Polish Tourism Organisation, provides a unique perspective on solving complex technical challenges across different domains.
This track record is not just about coding, it's about delivering business value through technology. Whether it's enabling millions of merchants, automating processes for thousands of businesses, or ensuring critical industrial and healthcare software is reliable and user-friendly, Tom's work has consistently driven measurable outcomes.
Technical Leadership in a Remote-First Model
Effective remote technical leadership requires a deliberate approach to communication, documentation, and process. A Principal Software Engineer must be a pillar of clarity and consistency for a distributed team. Tom's approach is rooted in strong asynchronous practices, comprehensive technical writing, and a focus on developer experience (DevEx). He is adept at using tools and establishing rituals that keep teams aligned across time zones, whether collaborating with EU, UK, or US East Coast teams from his base in Poland.
His skills in this area are multifaceted. He is an experienced technical writer and author, capable of producing clear architectural decision records (ADRs), API documentation, and internal guides that become a single source of truth. He also actively engages in public speaking, workshops, and mentoring, which translates into an ability to upskill teams and communicate complex concepts effectively in a remote setting. This is crucial for implementing new paradigms like AI-assisted software development lifecycle (SDLC) or modernizing a frontend framework across a distributed engineering organization.
The goal is to build systems and processes that are resilient to distance. This includes implementing robust CI/CD pipelines, advocating for comprehensive test automation, and fostering a culture of code review and knowledge sharing. By prioritizing these elements, a principal engineer ensures that the team remains productive, cohesive, and innovative, regardless of physical location. Tom's remote work with international teams on compliance-heavy projects (Croissant) and large-scale design systems (Printify) proves his capability to lead technically in this model.
Full-Stack Expertise and Modern Tech Stack
While leadership is paramount, a Principal Software Engineer must also possess deep, hands-on technical expertise. Tom's proficiency spans the full stack, with a particular focus on modern frontend ecosystems and scalable backend architecture. His primary technologies include Vue.js and TypeScript for building robust, maintainable frontend applications, complemented by extensive experience with Supabase for backend services and AG Grid for handling complex enterprise data presentations.
His work is characterized by a strong emphasis on design systems, accessibility, and API design. Building the design system for Printify required creating reusable, documented components that could be adopted consistently by dozens of engineers, a task that demands both technical precision and an understanding of developer ergonomics. Furthermore, his experience extends to integrating AI tools and workflows into the development process, exploring AI coding agents and AI-native SDLC practices to boost team productivity and product capabilities.
This technical depth allows him to make informed architectural decisions, conduct meaningful code and architecture audits, and provide credible mentorship to senior engineers. He can dive into the details of a performance bottleneck, design a scalable data model, or evaluate the trade-offs of a new technology, ensuring that leadership decisions are grounded in practical engineering reality.
AI Integration and Future-Proofing Your Product
Incorporating artificial intelligence is no longer a futuristic concept but a present-day competitive necessity. A Principal Software Engineer today must have a strategy for AI. Tom brings focused expertise in AI integration, from practical implementation of AI coding agents like GitHub Copilot and Cursor to improve developer velocity, to strategic advisory on building AI-native features into products. He understands how to leverage large language models (LLMs) to create new user experiences or automate complex internal processes.
His consulting offerings include AI Software Factory setup, which involves creating the tooling, workflows, and quality gates for an AI-augmented development process. This goes beyond individual tool adoption to transform how an entire engineering team builds software. He also provides corporate AI training and workshops for engineering teams, executives, and founders, helping organizations understand and harness AI capabilities safely and effectively.
For a product team, this means having a leader who can navigate the rapidly evolving AI landscape, separate hype from practical value, and implement solutions that are maintainable and ethical. Whether the goal is to add intelligent features to an existing SaaS, build an AI-powered product from scratch, or simply supercharge your engineering team's efficiency with AI tools, Tom's principal-level engineering perspective ensures these initiatives are technically sound and aligned with long-term product goals.
When This Is a Good Fit
Engaging Tom as your Principal Software Engineer is an excellent fit if you are a founder, CTO, or head of engineering at a product-driven company. This is especially true if you are building or scaling a SaaS platform, modernizing a complex frontend codebase (particularly in Angular or React ecosystems), or seeking to integrate AI meaningfully into your product or development workflows. It is ideal for teams that value ownership, strategic technical insight, and a collaborative partnership between engineering and product leadership.