Principal Software Engineer, GO & Rust (Engine)

Responsibilities

We are representing a client in the enterprise software space who needs an exceptional Principal Software Engineer to lead platform architecture and engine development. This is a hands-on technical role requiring deep expertise in building secure, scalable systems with Go and Rust.

You will own critical architectural decisions affecting performance, security, reliability, and modularity across the platform:

• Architecture & Design: Design microservices and platform features from concept to production. Create technical specifications for complex system components and develop proof-of-concepts in Golang. Architect secure, fault-tolerant systems with automated failover, circuit breakers, and end-to-end encryption. Analyze existing architecture and plan gradual replacement of legacy components with clear migration strategies.
• Architectural Governance & Collaboration: Review and approve engineering team designs with detailed feedback. Lead architecture review sessions and facilitate technical decision-making. Partner with Product Managers, Dev Leads, Security, SRE and Infrastructure teams to establish platform-wide standards. Lead threat modeling exercises and mentor engineers on architectural best practices.
• Documentation & Planning: Write comprehensive technical documentation including ADRs, design documents, runbooks, and API specifications. Create visual system diagrams and research technical solutions. Design zero-downtime migration strategies and define acceptance criteria for architectural changes.

What We're Looking For

Required:

• 8+ years building scalable distributed systems, with 3+ years in System/Platform Architect roles
• Proven experience architecting both large microservice environments (100+ services) and monolithic applications
• Strong hands-on Golang coding skills - must write production-quality code
• Communication & Data: Protocol Buffers, gRPC, WebSockets, Kafka event streaming, PostgreSQL (partitioning, replication, HA)
• Security & Authentication: OAuth 2.0/OIDC, JWT, mTLS, data encryption, public key cryptography, zero-trust architecture
• Infrastructure & Operations: Kubernetes, Docker, CI/CD pipelines, Infrastructure as Code (Terraform), distributed systems patterns (Saga, circuit breakers, retries)
• Experience with systems handling millions of requests/events per day
• Exceptional technical writing and communication abilities for diverse audiences
• Experience planning phased implementations and leading complex cross-team projects
• Proven track record with feature flags, gradual rollouts, and zero-downtime deployments
• Experience with AI-assisted workflows, particularly in system analysis and hunting for inconsistencies

Nice to Have:

• Additional languages: Rust, Ruby, Python, Java, C++, Kotlin-multiplatform
• Advanced Security: Key Management Systems (HSM, AWS KMS), Secrets Management (Vault)
• Extended Infrastructure: Service mesh (Istio, Linkerd), NoSQL databases, Redis clustering, stream processing (Flink, Spark)
• Cloud & Compliance: AWS/GCP/Azure expertise, PCI-DSS, HIPAA, SOC2
• Open source contributions, conference speaking, technical writing

How We Work With You

When you apply through Get A Job.ai, our talent team will screen your background and technical fit for this Principal Software Engineer role. If we identify a strong match, we will submit your profile to our client for consideration. You'll work directly with our recruiters throughout the process - please do not contact the client directly.

This position is based in Berlin, Frankfurt, or Munich and represents an opportunity to shape critical platform architecture at a well-established enterprise software organization.

Pay

Compensation details will be discussed during the screening process with our recruiting team.

Equal Opportunity: Get A Job.ai is committed to inclusive hiring practices and welcomes applications from all qualified candidates regardless of background.