Principal Software Engineer

We are seeking an experienced Principal Software Engineer/Tech Lead /Solution Architect to join our organisation and help shape the design and delivery of mission-critical, large-scale platforms across the payments, transit, and intelligent automation domains. In this role, you will combine deep hands-on engineering expertise with architectural vision and strong technical leadership. You will set the technical direction for complex, mentor development team and champion the adoption of modern architectures including cloud-native microservices, event-driven systems, and AI and Agentic AI solutions — spanning both traditional and AI-augmented test automation. This is a high-impact opportunity for a senior engineer who has previously led architecture for systems operating at national infrastructure scale, and who is motivated to continue pushing the boundaries of what modern software can deliver. Technical Leadership & Architecture • Lead the end-to-end solution architecture for large-scale, mission-critical platforms, including Automated Fare Collection (AFC), QR and mobile ticketing, ERP, and enterprise mobility systems, with integrations across major payment providers such as Stripe, Mastercard Payment Gateway Services (MPGS), and RuPay. • Define and continuously evolve target-state architectures, with a focus on scalability, high availability, security, and cost efficiency. • Drive the modernisation of legacy monolithic applications into microservices-based, cloud-native architectures. • Establish and uphold architectural standards, design patterns, and engineering best practices across teams. • Lead the adoption of AI-driven test automation and modern quality engineering practices. Hands-on Delivery • Provide technical leadership to backend, mobile, and test automation teams in delivering production-ready MVPs within aggressive timelines. • Own integration design with national-level systems, including national identity providers, transport authorities, payment switches, and high-value payment gateways. • Participate actively in code reviews, technical design discussions, and the resolution of complex production issues. AI & Innovation • Champion the adoption of Artificial Intelligence and Agentic AI within the engineering organisation. • Design and prototype AI-driven SDLC tools to improve productivity in areas such as test automation, code generation, and requirements analysis. • Identify business use cases where AI can compress delivery timelines and deliver measurable, sustainable outcomes. People Leadership • Mentor, coach, and develop engineers across multiple geographies and seniority levels. • Engage with senior stakeholders, customers, and partners to translate business needs into clear, executable technical roadmaps. • Balance architectural governance with hands-on delivery and talent development. Required Qualification • Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, or a related discipline. A Master’s degree (e.g., M.Tech in Software Engineering) is highly preferred. • A minimum of 10 years of professional software engineering experience, including at least 3 years as a Tech Lead or Solution Architect. • A proven track record of architecting and delivering systems at national or international scale — in transit, payments, identity, or large enterprise platforms. • Strong expertise in cloud-native architecture (AWS, Azure, or GCP), container orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes), and microservices design. • Deep proficiency in one or more modern backend stacks (e.g., Java / Spring Boot, .NET, Node.js, Go), with working familiarity across mobile platforms. • Hands-on experience with payment systems, AFC or ticketing platforms, or comparable high-throughput transactional environments. • Experience integrating with national digital infrastructure (Transport authority APIs, Payment switches) is a strong advantage.