As a Principal Software Engineer, you own and drive technical design creation for mid-to-large scale projects, factoring in scale, reliability, and architectural constraints. You are a proactive member of the Principal Engineering Community, leveraging insights from across Zalando to set technical direction and raise the bar for engineering excellence within your department
WHAT WE’D LOVE YOU TO DO (AND LOVE DOING)
Own technical design and end-to-end delivery of departmental projects. Drive the creation of robust technical designs for mid-to-large scale initiatives and maintain direct ownership of the implementation phase, taking an active, hands-on part in the development bearing sometimes full responsibility for implementation and delivery of robust, high-quality solutions across the entire project lifecycle
Partner with leadership to drive hands-on product solutions. Act as the primary technical point of contact for Product and Engineering Management, translating departmental objectives into concrete, deliverable software solutions through active participation in the development lifecycle
Execute through high-impact, hands-on engineering. Tackle the toughest engineering problems via significant code contributions, prototyping, and deep-dive troubleshooting to de-risk complex product features and maintain codebase mastery
Lead "agent-augmented delivery" through practical implementation, ensuring the successful integration of autonomous agents and AI-assisted workflows directly into our engineering teams' daily delivery cycles
Strengthen departmental expertise through coaching and paired delivery. Onboard and mentor engineers by working alongside them on critical paths, acting as a Talent Champion while ensuring technical excellence in shared codebases
Drive operational excellence through active systems improvement. Proactively lead improvements in systems and processes, moving beyond reviews to implement enhancements that bolster production readiness and architectural scalability
Drive cross-departmental and organizational initiatives: Collaborate with other Principal Engineers and leadership to shape technical strategy, standards, and engineering culture at the organizational level