Software Development Engineer 3

Job Description

Senior Software Development Engineer 3 (SDE 3)

Customer Applications Squad

Location: Dubai, UAE | Function: Engineering | Type: Full-Time | Experience: 7–10 years

ABOUT THE ROLE

We are building one of the region's most ambitious e-commerce platforms: high-traffic, multi-region, and engineered for scale. As a Backend Engineer at Lulu, you will own critical systems that millions of customers depend on every day, from product discovery through to delivery.

You define how systems are built, not just what gets built. You own multi-quarter, multi-team goals, drive technical strategy, and set the standard for engineering excellence within and beyond your team.

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ABOUT THE SQUAD

The Customer Applications squad owns the systems that shape how customers interact with Lulu after signing up. From identity and authentication to account management, order tracking, and refunds — we build the services that earn and maintain customer trust. Our work directly impacts retention, satisfaction, and lifetime value.

Core services: Identity Services, Your Account, Order Tracking, Refunds

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WHAT YOU'LL WORK ON

• Design and build Identity Services including authentication, authorization, session management, and SSO integrations using OAuth 2.0 and JWT
• Develop and maintain account management APIs covering profile updates, preferences, address book, and communication settings
• Build real-time order tracking services that aggregate status updates from warehouse, transport, and delivery systems into a unified customer view
• Architect the refunds platform handling return eligibility, refund calculations, payment reversals, and wallet credits across multiple payment methods
• Implement secure, performant APIs that protect customer PII while enabling personalized experiences
• Drive cross-team coordination to ensure order lifecycle events flow seamlessly from checkout through delivery to post-order support
• Maintain strong observability with structured logging, customer journey tracing, and alerting on degraded experiences

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WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR

Scope & Impact

• Own and deliver multi-quarter, multi-team product or platform goals, defining technical solutions that level up the entire team
• Make independent technical decisions in the face of open-ended requirements, with a deep understanding of business context and customer needs
• Drive cross-team or cross-discipline initiatives, optimizing beyond your immediate team for broader organizational impact

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Technical Craft

• Design the software and systems in your area of ownership, ensuring they meet their design objectives and align with longer-term business needs
• Handle complex software modules that are logically dense — whether from business, idempotence, robustness, or scalability requirements
• Simplify code and infrastructure, prioritizing tasks that measurably reduce maintenance and migration costs
• Preemptively identify and resolve technical risks before they jeopardize projects; resolve cross-team dependencies early
• Debug and reproduce non-deterministic bugs and system issues that would normally escape less experienced engineers
• Champion an AI-first engineering culture — actively adopt and advocate for AI tools and assistants to maximize productivity, accelerate delivery, and multiply your team's impact

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Leadership & Strategy

• Define the technical roadmap for complex projects, provide leadership for those executing on it, and generate excitement for the team's strategy
• Set and hold the bar for quality and best practices via code and design reviews
• Act as a Culture Leader — partner with your manager to set the cultural tone, foster psychological safety, and champion inclusive practices
• Coach and mentor teammates, offering direct and actionable feedback delivered with empathy to help others grow into the next level
• Represent Lulu's mission, strategy, and technical challenges to candidates in a compelling way

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MUST-HAVE QUALIFICATIONS

• These are non-negotiable. We need engineers who can hit the ground running with our stack and ways of working.
• Strong proficiency in at least one backend language: Python, Java, or Node.js, with deep understanding of language internals and performance characteristics
• Proven track record of designing, building, and operating microservices architectures at scale in production
• Deep experience with cloud platforms (GCP, AWS, or Azure) including architecture decisions, cost optimization, and multi-region deployments
• Expert-level knowledge of containerization (Docker) and orchestration (Kubernetes) in production environments
• Strong experience with CI/CD pipelines, deployment strategies (blue-green, canary), and automated quality gates
• Advanced database skills: query optimization, sharding strategies, replication, and data modeling for high-throughput systems
• Extensive experience with event-driven architectures and message brokers (Kafka, SQS/SNS, Pub/Sub) at scale
• Deep understanding of caching layers (Redis, Memcached, CDN) and their role in system performance and reliability
• Strong grasp of API security, OAuth 2.0, JWT, API gateway patterns, and WAF configurations
• Domain experience in e-commerce, retail, logistics, supply chain, or similar high-traffic consumer platforms — you understand the business domain, not just the technology

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NICE-TO-HAVE QUALIFICATIONS

These will set you apart and accelerate your impact, but aren't required on day one.

• Experience leading technical design reviews and architectural decision records (ADRs) for cross-team systems
• Track record of driving large-scale migrations, platform re-architecture, or system decomposition projects
• Hands-on experience with observability at scale: custom metrics, distributed tracing, SLO/SLI frameworks, and incident management
• Experience with infrastructure-as-code (Terraform, Pulumi) and platform engineering practices
• Background in high-stakes transactional systems: payment processing, order management, or warehouse/logistics platforms
• Public contributions: conference talks, technical blog posts, open-source maintainership

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TECH STACK

Languages :Python (Django), Node.js, Java

Architecture :Microservices, distributed systems, API-first

Databases :PostgreSQL, MySQL

Caching :Redis, Memcached, CDN (CloudFront, Fastly, Akamai), CloudGCP (GKE, BigQuery, Cloud Run), Azure, AWS

Messaging :Kafka, AWS SQS/SNS, Google Pub/Sub, RabbitMQ

Containers :Docker, Kubernetes

CI/CD :Jenkins, GitHub Actions

Observability :New Relic, ELK Stack, PagerDuty

Security :JWT, OAuth 2.0, API Gateway, WAF

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OUR VALUES

At Lulu, our values aren't wall decorations — they guide how we work, hire, and grow.

Be Customer Obsessed — Every decision in service of the customer's success.

Speak & Act Courageously — Challenge the status quo, take calculated risks, and advocate for new ideas.

Take Extreme Ownership — Nothing is someone else's problem. Uphold excellence and accountability.

Learn Voraciously — Growth mindset, curiosity, and continuous improvement.

Move with Focus & Urgency — Identify the highest-impact work and move fast.

Win as One Team — Celebrate wins, lend a hand, and invest in each other's growth.

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