Principal Software Engineer

3 months ago

Auckland, New ZealandStaff+

Responsibilities

Act as technical lead for a small team of two Intermediate/Senior Software Engineers.
Design and implement robust systems for a long-lived, mission-critical production platform.
Own and manage the team backlog, including prioritization, sequencing, and stakeholder refinement.
Guide delivery planning, scope trade-offs, and execution for predictable outcomes.
Influence architecture, design, and implementation decisions through technical judgment.
Mentor engineers through code reviews, pairing, and day-to-day technical leadership.
Improve platform reliability, maintainability, and release confidence.
Investigate and resolve complex production issues and escalations.
Collaborate with US-based engineering partners and stakeholders on priorities, roadmap, and delivery.

Typically 8+ years of professional software engineering experience or equivalent demonstrated impact.
Strong experience with .NET in long-running production systems.
Intermediate working knowledge of Python.
Experience with Angular or similar frontend frameworks.
Comfort working in Linux and Ubuntu environments.
Proven ability to debug and resolve complex technical problems.
Experience influencing technical direction beyond individual features.
Experience contributing to planning, backlog management, or delivery coordination.
Experience leading or mentoring engineers without formal line management is preferred.
Experience shaping or owning team backlogs or delivery plans is preferred.
Background in logistics, supply chain, or other operationally complex domains is preferred.
Experience with distributed systems or evolving large platforms is preferred.
Experience with Rust or strong interest in using Rust is preferred.
Involvement in reliability, quality, or operational improvement initiatives is preferred.

The role is based in Auckland, New Zealand, with three days in the office and two days working from home.
Some flexibility in working hours is expected to support cross-time-zone collaboration with the US-based engineering group.
Occasional responsiveness during production escalations is part of the role, but it is not a constant on-call or support-heavy position.