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 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.