Principal Software Engineer

Virta Ltd; Helsingin seutukunta; Hybrid; EUR 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Virta Ltd. is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to shape the company-wide technical vision and drive scalable architecture across 36+ countries and 600,000+ charging points.

This role has no people management but positions you at the apex of technical contribution, partnering with executives to define multi-year technology roadmaps. You will lead standards, architecture coherence, and transformational initiatives, while mentoring senior engineers and advancing AI engineering strategy in a

Qualifications

• Track record of defining enterprise-wide architectural strategies.
• Experience influencing business outcomes through technical leadership and strategic initiatives.
• Ability to establish company-wide engineering standards and practices adopted across teams.
• Strong strategic thinking aligning technical vision with business strategy.
• Experience mentoring senior and staff engineers across domains.
• Experience defining incident response, observability, or deployment standards at scale.
• Excellent written and verbal English communication.
• Willingness to work onsite regularly in hybrid Finland environments.

Responsibilities

• Define technical vision by collaborating with executives to build multi-year roadmaps.
• Drive company-wide standards for engineering practices and architectural principles.
• Ensure architectural coherence across services and platforms with unified design principles.
• Lead transformational initiatives through proofs-of-concept and pilots.
• Shape AI engineering strategy within the development lifecycle.
• Mentor technical leaders to grow next-generation engineering leadership.
• Elevate engineering culture by adopting cutting-edge technologies and learning.
• Represent Virta externally at conferences and partnerships when relevant.

Job description

Are you ready to define the technical future of Europe's fastest-growing EV charging platform? We're looking for a Principal Software Engineer to shape Virta's technical vision, drive company-wide engineering standards, and ensure our architecture scales across 36+ countries and 600,000+ charging points. This is the apex of individual technical contribution at Virta — a role where your decisions materially impact the success of the business.

About Us

Virta is Europe's fastest-growing electric vehicle charging platform, operating in 36+ countries with 600,000+ charging stations. Headquartered in Helsinki, with offices in Berlin, Stockholm, Paris, Singapore, and Bucharest, we're shaping the future of e-mobility with a talented, multinational team. Virta is among the rare 65 companies that made the FT 1000 list four consecutive times.

The Role

As Principal Software Engineer, you'll operate with wide decision-making latitude on strategic technical initiatives affecting the entire organization. You'll partner directly with executive leadership to forge multi-year technology roadmaps, ensure architectural coherence across all domains, and champion the innovations that keep Virta ahead of the industry. This isn't a role where you manage people — it's a role where you shape how an entire engineering organization builds software.

What You'll Do

• Define technical vision: Collaborate with executives to build multi-year roadmaps integrating research, emerging technologies, and market shifts.
• Drive company-wide standards: Establish engineering practices, coding philosophies, and architectural principles adopted across all teams.
• Ensure architectural coherence: Make sure disparate services, platforms, and technologies work together through unified design principles and best practices.
• Lead transformational initiatives: Pioneer proof-of-concept and pilot projects that open new business avenues or redefine how we operate.
• Shape AI engineering strategy: Define how AI tools fit into our development lifecycle - what to build vs. buy, and how to maintain engineering excellence as AI transforms the practice.
• Mentor technical leaders: Coach staff and senior engineers across domains, developing the next generation of technical leadership at Virta.
• Elevate engineering culture: Drive adoption of cutting-edge technologies and practices through strategic evaluation, mentorship programs, and organizational learning.
• Represent Virta externally: Where relevant, participate in industry conferences, standards bodies, and strategic technology partnerships.

What We're Looking For

• Deep, broad technical expertise with a track record of defining enterprise-wide architectural strategies — think major platform migrations, technology transformations, or building systems that scale across markets.
• Demonstrated ability to materially impact business outcomes through technical leadership and strategic initiatives.
• Experience establishing company-wide engineering standards and practices that teams actually adopt and benefit from.
• Strong strategic thinking — you can align technical vision with business strategy and communicate it clearly to both engineers and executives.
• A track record of mentoring senior and staff-level engineers across multiple domains.
• Experience defining incident response practices, observability strategies, or infrastructure and deployment standards at organizational scale.
• Ability to anticipate industry trends and translate them into actionable technical strategy.
• Excellent communication skills in English.
• Willingness to work onsite on a regular basis (hybrid working)
• Residency and working rights in Finland

Nice to Have

• Experience in the EV charging, energy, mobility, or IoT sectors
• Background in distributed systems operating across multiple geographies and regulatory environments
• History of external thought leadership — conference talks, publications, open source contributions, or standards body participation
• Experience shaping organizational AI strategy and navigating the transformation AI brings to engineering teams

Why Join Us

• Shape the future of e-mobility at a company with real scale and momentum across 36+ countries.
• Wide decision-making latitude — this role carries genuine authority over technical direction.
• Executive partnership — work directly with leadership on strategy, not just execution.
• International, passionate team spread across Helsinki, Berlin, Stockholm, Paris, Singapore, and Bucharest.
• Hybrid work with autonomy and flexibility.
• Impact you can measure — your work will materially affect how hundreds of thousands of charging points serve millions of users.

Ready to define what's next?