Principal Engineer

Polar Squad Oy; Helsinki; On-site; EUR 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

Polar Squad Oy is a Helsinki-based, elite platform engineering consultancy seeking a Principal Engineer to guide our technical direction while remaining hands-on on client projects.

This role blends billable engineering with building teams and mentoring, shaping offerings from cloud and developer platforms to AI services, and driving growth through excellent client partnerships.

Qualifications

• Typically 10+ years in platform, cloud or infrastructure engineering.
• Deep hands-on expertise across public cloud (AWS/Azure/GCP), containers and Kubernetes.
• Proven ability to design scalable, resilient architectures aligned with business objectives.
• Credibility at both technical level and with client leadership; you can carry a room and still write the code.
• Experience mentoring and coaching, lifting the team around you.
• Comfort being visible externally through writing, communities or speaking.
• Possess history in leading or heading roles and internal developer platforms, AI platform exposure or cloud certifications.

Responsibilities

• Be a loud voice externally, building thought leadership through writing or speaking.
• Grow client accounts by turning projects into long-term partnerships.
• Contribute to our offering across cloud, developer platforms to AI platforms and managed services.
• Influence and steer learning and skills spread across the organization.
• Shape our technological direction with the team, especially as AI reshapes the field.
• Coach and mentor the squad to help people grow and perform at their best.

Skills

Platform engineering

Cloud architecture

Kubernetes

Terraform

Leadership

Mentoring

Client growth

Public speaking

Tools

Terraform

Pulumi

CDK

Bicep

Job description

Polar Squad is the platform engineering consultancy your teams and technology deserve. We build developer, infrastructure, cloud and AI environments that keep delivering, and we fix the foundation so software teams can focus on what matters. We're a small, elite team where people always come first. All business, no bull, but never dull. We're looking for a Principal Engineer to help lead where Polar Squad goes next. This is a hands-on senior role. Around half your time you're a billable, credible expert on client projects, writing code and solving hard problems side by side with the team. The other half you spend growing Polar Squad and, above all, its people. One thing up front: this is a picture of the range the role can cover, not a checklist. Nobody is all of these at once, a deep technical expert, a known thought leader, a natural mentor and a sharp account grower. We're looking for someone who is strong across several of these areas and genuinely wants to grow into the rest. You don’t need to tick every box.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

• Be a loud voice externally. You help build our thought leadership through writing, communities, or perhaps speaking at events, making platform engineering better known with our clients and beyond.
• Grow client accounts. You spot client needs, build trust, and grow engagements from single projects into long-term partnerships.
• Contribute to our offering. You help develop Polar Squad's services, from cloud and developer platforms to AI platforms and managed services, together with the team.
• Steer what we learn. You influence and steer, together with our experts, what we should be learning, and make sure new skills spread across the organization.
• Shape our technological direction. Together with our experts you help shape where our skills and technology choices are heading, especially as AI reshapes the field quickly.
• Coach and spar with the squad. You take our consultants under your wing to coach, mentor and spar with them, helping our people grow and get the best out of them, in the spirit of Polar Care.

GROWTH, PEOPLE AND LIFE AT POLAR SQUAD

We're committed to your growth: continuous learning, mentorship, and room to build your own path. We also believe a balanced life leads to better work and happier people. From rock climbing and game nights to cooking classes and book clubs, there's always something bringing us together as a team. Check out our Instagram to see life at Polar Squad and the people who make it special.

YOUR SKILLS AND ATTRIBUTES OF SUCCESS

• Typically 10+ years in platform, cloud or infrastructure engineering, including time in senior, lead or principal-level work.
• Deep, hands-on expertise across platform engineering: public cloud (AWS, Azure, GCP), infrastructure as code (Terraform, Pulumi, CDK, Bicep), containers and Kubernetes, CI/CD, and observability.
• Proven ability to design scalable, resilient and secure architectures that align with business objectives and industry standards.
• Credibility at both the technical level and with client leadership; you can carry a room and still write the code.
• A track record of growing people through mentoring and coaching, and lifting the team around you.
• Comfort being visible externally, whether through writing, communities or speaking.
• The ability to steer technical direction and turn learning into something that actually spreads across an organization.
• AND MAYBE YOU EVEN Have held a principal, staff, lead or head-of role before. Have built or run internal developer platforms (IDPs). Have AI platform experience: AIOps, DataOps, AI observability or cost optimization. Speak at events or publish regularly. Hold certifications from one or more clouds.

COMPENSATION

• We offer a competitive salary and benefits package matching a principal-level role.

Please note while applying: we can currently only hire talents within the EU, preferably located in Finland.

10+ years in platform, cloud or infrastructure engineering, including senior/lead/principal-level work