Principal Software Engineer - Zalando Payments

About the role

This role is for a Principal Software Engineer within Zalando Payments, reporting directly to a Director. The position extends beyond a single team, focusing on providing hands-on technical leadership across the entire department. Responsibilities include defining the architecture for systems built in this area and collaborating with Product and Engineering Management to align technology with business objectives.

A key aspect of this position is driving project delivery through an "agent-augmented delivery" concept. This involves shaping how engineering teams integrate autonomous agents into the software development lifecycle. The successful candidate will take direct ownership of implementation, ensuring robust, high-quality solutions throughout the project lifecycle.

Success in this role means owning technical design and delivery for significant departmental projects, making substantial code contributions, and proactively improving systems and processes. It also involves coaching and mentoring other engineers, acting as a Talent Champion, and collaborating with other Principal Engineers to influence company-wide technical strategy and engineering culture.

The listed salary range for this position is between $140,000 and $210,000 USD.

Skills that matter here

• end-to-end ownership: The role requires taking full responsibility for mission-critical engineering initiatives, from design to delivery.
• Customer focus: Problem-solving approaches should be driven by customer needs, especially for large-scale, customer-facing products.
• agentic systems, AI-driven SDLC, or autonomous agent integration: Experience in these areas is crucial for leading the integration of AI-assisted workflows into the development process.
• Proactive technical leader: The ideal candidate will quickly understand new domains and guide others through complex technical challenges.
• Exceptional leadership and communication skills: These skills are necessary for inspiring teams and influencing both technical and non-technical stakeholders at all levels.
• company-wide strategy: The role involves contributing to and shaping organizational technical strategy.

Who this role suits

• A person who thrives on taking full accountability for complex technical projects.
• Someone who enjoys mentoring and coaching engineers while actively contributing to code.
• An individual who is adept at translating business objectives into concrete software solutions.
• A leader who can influence technical strategy and standards across an organization.

From the employer

• 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.

• Comfortable taking end-to-end ownership of mission-critical engineering initiatives and building a deep understanding of departmental domains quickly.
• Customer focus drives your problem solving approach. Your deep understanding of engineering excellence required in building customer-facing products at scale enables you to guide delivery, unblock projects through hands-on work.
• Experience in agentic systems, AI-driven SDLC, or autonomous agent integration within engineering organizations.
• Proactive technical leader who builds deep understanding of new domains quickly and brings others along. Embrace end-to-end ownership and have guided teams through mission-critical engineering initiatives, creating clarity and enabling others to do their best work.
• Exceptional leadership and communication skills, with clear proof points for inspiring teams and influencing technical and non-technical stakeholders at all levels.
• Shaped and contributed to company-wide strategy and led teams through the aligned.