ABOUT THE JOB
We are seeking Principal Engineer to play a critical role in transforming Nabserv from a base container image provider into a fully governed, self‑maintaining platform framework.
This role is for engineers who think and act like platform owners — people who care deeply about system hygiene, long‑term sustainability, and eliminating technical and operational debt rather than normalising it. You will lead the design and evolution of Nabserv as a standardised microservice and API framework, with a strong focus on:
- Automated OS and dependency patching
- Built‑in security and compliance
- Consistent patterns and guardrails
- Operational excellence by default
You will work across teams to ensure Nabserv enables fast, safe delivery without sacrificing stability, maintainability, or security.
WHAT YOU WILL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR
Platform Ownership & Evolution
- Act as a technical owner of the Nabserv platform, responsible for its design integrity, hygiene, and long‑term health.
- Lead the transformation of Nabserv into a framework with strong conventions, opinionated defaults, and minimal misconfiguration risk.
- Establish and enforce platform standards, patterns, and guardrails for microservices and APIs.
Automation & Hygiene First Engineering
- Design and implement auto‑patching mechanisms for base images, dependencies, and platform components.
- Eliminate manual and error‑prone operational practices through automation‑first design.
- Drive initiatives that proactively reduce operational risk, toil, and maintenance overhead.
Intolerance for Technical & Operational Debt
- Actively identify, challenge, and remediate technical and operational debt.
- Set expectations across teams that known broken or risky states are not acceptable.
- Balance delivery speed with sustainability — ensuring short‑term decisions do not create long‑term platform risks.
Architecture & Integration Leadership
- Design and govern resource‑oriented APIs aligned to business capabilities.
- Guide teams on REST, event‑driven, and asynchronous integration patterns.
- Contribute to advanced platform initiatives such as:
- Microservice consolidation
- GraphQL platforms (Supergraph / Subgraph)
- Cohesive service ecosystems aligned to domain boundaries
Engineering Excellence & Mentorship
- Set a high bar for code quality, documentation, test coverage, and operational readiness.
- Mentor engineers develop platform thinking, not just service delivery skills.
- Promote best practices in CI/CD, DevOps, and production readiness.
WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR
Must‑Have Experience & Mindset
- Proven experience as a Senior or Lead Engineer in complex, enterprise environments (5+ years).
- Strong platform ownership mindset — you feel accountable for what happens after code is deployed.
- Demonstrated low tolerance for messy systems, recurring incidents, and manual fixes.
- Deep experience designing and operating microservices and API platforms at scale.
- Strong background in automated CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure hygiene, and operational tooling.
- Hands‑on experience with cloud platforms (AWS or Azure) and containerised environments.
- Ability to design systems that are secure, patchable, observable, and maintainable by default.
- Strong English communication skills in a global engineering environment
Technical Strengths
- Proficiency in Java or other modern languages (Python, NodeJS, etc.)
- Strong Computer Science fundamentals with a focus on scalable, maintainable systems.
- Experience with:
- RESTful API design
- Cloud‑native architectures
- CI/CD automation
- Testing strategies (unit, integration, system)
- Troubleshooting distributed systems
WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE IN THIS ROLE
- Nabserv evolves into a clear, opinionated framework, not a base container image provider.
- Platform upgrades and patches are automated, predictable, and low‑risk.
- Engineers consume the platform with confidence and consistency.
- Technical and operational debt trends down over time, not up.
- Teams move faster because the platform is clean, safe, and well‑owned — not despite it.
