19 open positions

First Principles Jobs with a Great Work-Life Balance

Browse 19+ first principles jobs at companies offering generous PTO and unlimited PTO—for a better work-life balance. 2 new this week. Hiring companies include Panthalassa, Helion, and Basis.

Schedules on this page

generous PTO 5
flexible hours 1
unlimited PTO 11
best places to work 1
generous parental leave 1

Updated October 1, 2026

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New this week: 12
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Senior Manager, AI Engineering

3mo

HackerOne · Remote · USA

62 · GoodUnlimited PTO$240k – $280k

Director, Paid Marketing (Subscriptions)

2mo

DuckDuckGo · Remote · USA

61 · GoodFlexible Hours$244k

Chief of Staff

Ben · Hybrid · London, UK

58 · GoodGenerous PTO

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Senior Software Engineer, Machine Learning (Safety)

19d

Discord · Hybrid · San Francisco, CA, USA

67 · GoodGenerous PTO$220k – $275k

Strategy

3mo

Aurelian · Onsite · Seattle, WA, USA

61 · GoodUnlimited PTO$150k – $250k

Manager, Fusion Test & Operations

2mo

Helion · Onsite · Everett, WA, USA

59 · GoodGenerous PTO$147k – $220k

Mechanical Engineer

2mo

Helion · Onsite · Everett, WA, USA

59 · GoodGenerous PTO$120k – $182k

Senior Mechanical Engineer

2mo

Helion · Onsite · Everett, WA, USA

59 · GoodGenerous PTO$182k – $214k

Head of Design

1mo

Mesh · Hybrid · San Francisco, CA, USA

57 · GoodUnlimited PTO$229k – $300k

Senior Hardware Engineer, Lidar

2mo

Latitude AI · Hybrid · Dearborn, MI +2 more

57 · GoodUnlimited PTO

Member of Technical Staff - Atlas FDE

2mo

Basis · Onsite · New York, NY, USA

56 · GoodUnlimited PTO$100k – $300k

Member of Technical Staff - Atlas

2mo

Basis · Onsite · New York, NY, USA

56 · GoodUnlimited PTO$100k – $300k

Member of Technical Staff

4mo

Basis · Onsite · New York, NY, USA

56 · GoodUnlimited PTO$100k – $300k

Product Manager, Research (Code)

2mo

Anthropic · Hybrid · San Francisco, CA, USA

55 · GoodGenerous Parental Leave$305k – $385k

Senior Thermal Engineer

2mo

Panthalassa · Onsite · Portland, OR, USA

54 · DecentUnlimited PTO

Senior Naval Architect

3mo

Panthalassa · Onsite · Portland, OR, USA

54 · DecentUnlimited PTO$185k – $235k

Naval Architect

3mo

Panthalassa · Onsite · Portland, OR, USA

54 · DecentUnlimited PTO$160k – $200k

Senior Structural Engineer

4mo

Panthalassa · Onsite · Portland, OR, USA

54 · DecentUnlimited PTO$150k – $250k

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Frequently asked questions

Everything you need to know about 4-day week jobs

Employers hiring for First Principles on this page include Panthalassa, Helion, and Basis. First Principles roles appear most frequently in engineering, data, and platform teams at companies that have adopted a reduced-hours schedule. Each listing indicates the seniority level and whether First Principles is a primary requirement or one of several preferred skills — expand any role above to see the full stack and responsibilities.

First Principles roles span the full seniority range — we list 19 open roles requiring First Principles across entry-level, mid-level, senior, lead, and staff/principal positions. Senior and above tend to dominate because employers offering reduced-hours schedules often lean toward experienced individual contributors who can deliver consistently in fewer hours. Filter by level in the sidebar to narrow the list above.

Lead with measurable outcomes over time spent — First Principles hiring managers at reduced-hours companies care about delivered value, not hours worked. Highlight projects where you shipped at a steady cadence, collaborated asynchronously, or reduced engineering toil through automation or tooling. Include concrete metrics (latency improvements, adoption numbers, cost reductions) rather than vague duty descriptions. Expand listings above to see the exact framing each employer uses in their job descriptions.

For the full-pay schedules here — 4-day weeks and 9-day fortnights — yes: you keep a full-time salary for a shorter week. Part-time and pro-rata roles instead scale pay to hours, and each listing makes the arrangement clear. First Principles roles in tech and data typically command premium rates at both reduced-hours and traditional employers; specific ranges depend on seniority, location, and sub-specialty (e.g. backend vs frontend, infra vs ML). Individual listings above show exact bands where the employer publishes them.

Depends on the role, but First Principles candidates who also demonstrate async communication, clean documentation, and cross-functional collaboration are typically strong fits for reduced-hours employers — those companies rely on written-first communication and high-context handoffs to operate on a compressed schedule. Technical-adjacent skills vary by stack. Browse the top skills shown in the sidebar to see which tags co-occur most often with First Principles on current listings.

Browse all 19 jobs