Staff/Principal Backend Engineer

Role Overview

As a Staff/Principal Backend Engineer at Ajaib, you serve as one of the company's highest technical leaders, driving the architecture and technical direction of our core platforms and services. You will work across multiple engineering teams to solve complex technical challenges, establish engineering standards, and ensure our systems remain scalable, reliable, secure, and performant as we continue to grow.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive the long-term technical architecture and engineering direction across multiple teams.
• Lead the design, development, and evolution of highly scalable, fault-tolerant, and secure distributed systems.
• Review critical system designs and provide architectural guidance for high-impact engineering initiatives.
• Drive engineering excellence by establishing best practices in software design, system reliability, observability, security, and performance optimization.
• Partner with Engineering Managers and technical leaders to solve complex cross-team engineering challenges.
• Mentor senior engineers and help grow technical capabilities across the engineering organization.
• Identify technical risks, evaluate trade-offs, and drive strategic technology decisions aligned with business goals.
• Lead technical investigations, root cause analysis, and continuous improvements for large-scale production systems.
• Collaborate with Product, Platform, Infrastructure, Security, and Business teams to deliver reliable and scalable solutions.
• Stay hands-on with implementation when necessary, particularly for critical architectural components and complex technical problems.

Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science or equivalent practical experience.
• Experience: Extensive professional software engineering experience, including a proven track record of building large-scale distributed systems and leading technical architecture across multiple engineering domains.
• Languages: Highly proficient in Java, Go, or other modern backend programming languages.
• System Design & Architecture: Strong expertise in microservices, event-driven architectures, cloud-native application design, reliability engineering, observability, and performance optimization.
• Data & Messaging: Deep practical experience with messaging systems (Kafka), caching layers (Redis), and relational/NoSQL databases with query tuning and optimization.
• Infrastructure: Experience designing and operating applications on modern cloud platforms (GCP, AWS) and hybrid infrastructures.
• Mindset & Domain: Strong background in fintech or high-scale, highly regulated environments; exceptional communication skills to influence technical decisions without direct authority.

Benefits

• Performance Bonus
• Private Insurance
• Paid Time Off
• Learning & Development
• Hybrid Work Arrangement
• Career Growth
• Employee Perks
• Collaborative & High-Ownership Culture