Principal Software Engineer

Job Overview:

We are seeking an experienced Principal Software Engineer to join a global fintech organization specializing in cross-border payments technology. This is a senior individual contributor role for a hands‑on technical leader who will drive complex engineering initiatives, influence technical strategy across teams, and help modernize large‑scale payment platforms. The ideal candidate combines strong full‑stack engineering expertise with system design experience, cloud technologies, and AI‑assisted software development practices.

What Will You Do:

• Lead the engineering approach for complex, high-impact, and ambiguous technical initiatives across the full technology stack.
• Define and drive technical standards, architecture decisions, and engineering best practices across multiple teams.
• Serve as a technical leader and mentor, elevating engineering capabilities through design reviews, technical guidance, and knowledge sharing.
• Remain hands‑on by contributing production‑grade code for business‑critical systems and services.
• Collaborate closely with Product, Design, Compliance, and Engineering stakeholders to translate business objectives into scalable technical solutions.
• Drive modernization initiatives, including migration from legacy platforms to modern architectures and cloud‑native solutions.
• Champion the adoption of AI‑powered development tools and establish best practices for integrating AI throughout the software development lifecycle.
• Contribute to system architecture, platform scalability, performance optimization, and operational excellence.

What Makes You a Good Fit:

• Minimum 8 years of experience building and delivering production‑grade software applications end‑to‑end.
• Strong frontend development experience using modern frameworks such as Vue.js, React, or similar technologies.
• Strong backend development experience, preferably with C#/.NET; candidates with expertise in Java, Kotlin, Go, or other object‑oriented languages are also encouraged to apply.
• Solid understanding of frontend engineering fundamentals, including responsive design, accessibility, performance optimization, and internationalization.
• Strong knowledge of SQL and relational database systems.
• Deep expertise in software architecture, system design, microservices, service‑oriented architecture, and event‑driven systems.
• Demonstrated experience leading complex, cross‑functional technical initiatives as an individual contributor.
• Proven ability to mentor and develop engineers through technical leadership rather than direct people management.
• Extensive hands‑on experience using AI‑assisted development tools such as GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Claude Code, or similar platforms.
• Strong experience with AWS cloud services and modern deployment practices, including CI/CD pipelines and services such as SQS, DynamoDB, S3, ECS, and Lambda.
• Experience working within payments, financial services, foreign exchange, or other regulated industries.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.

Nice To Have:

• Experience leading large‑scale platform modernization or migration initiatives.
• Experience establishing engineering standards and technical strategies across multiple teams.
• Experience with caching technologies such as Redis or Memcached.
• Familiarity with project management and collaboration tools such as Jira and Confluence.
• Experience leveraging AI tools for automated testing and software quality assurance.

What We Offer:

• Competitive remuneration package with annual salary reviews.
• Paid birthday leave.
• Additional annual leave entitlement based on years of service (up to 5 extra days).
• Employer KiwiSaver contributions on top of base salary.
• Comprehensive healthcare coverage.
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP) at discounted rates.
• Paid volunteering day to support a charity of your choice.
• Complimentary office refreshments, including fruit, snacks, beverages, and coffee.
• Access to mental health and wellbeing support resources.
• Opportunity to work with a global fintech organization on innovative payment technologies.

Working Arrangement:

• Hybrid working arrangement.
• Out stationed candidates must be willing to travel to the Christchurch office as required for company meetings, collaboration sessions, and events.
• Opportunity to collaborate with global engineering teams across multiple regions.