Principal Engineer - Product Development

Phenom; Hyderabad; On-site; INR 4,000,000 - 7,000,000; Full time

Job summary

Phenom is hiring a Principal Engineer to serve as a technical authority for our AI-driven talent experience platform. You will own the architectural roadmap, ensure scalability, and mentor senior engineers while guiding cross-functional teams toward engineering excellence.

You will lead complex design discussions, tackle ambiguous problems, and drive platform innovation across enterprise SaaS products, cloud-native microservices, and data frameworks.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of hands-on software engineering experience in product development.
• 4+ years in a Principal/Architect role with impact across teams.
• Master-level proficiency in designing, building, and benchmarking large-scale distributed systems.
• Strong backend development experience in Java or equivalent enterprise languages.
• Proven experience building and scaling cloud-native, microservices architectures on AWS or Azure.
• Deep expertise with distributed data systems and NoSQL databases.
• Exceptional system design skills with a data-driven mindset for performance, security and scalability.
• Excellent written and verbal communication with ability to influence technical direction.

Responsibilities

• Own the long-term technical roadmap, architecture and design specs for enterprise SaaS products.
• Design secure, fault-tolerant, large-scale distributed systems powering the platform.
• Lead architecture discussions and establish patterns for microservices and data processing.

Skills

Distributed systems design

Backend engineering (Java)

Cloud-native architectures

Leadership & mentoring

Technical strategy & roadmaps

Education

Bachelor's or Master's in Computer Science/IT

Tools

AWS

Azure

MongoDB/NoSQL

Job description

Job Description

Job Requirements

About Phenom

Phenom is an Applied AI company transforming how people discover and choose work. Our Intelligent Talent Experience platform helps global enterprises attract, engage, hire, and develop talent through AI-driven automation and deeply personalized experiences.

Our mission is to help a billion people find the right work.

Phenom powers talent experiences for some of the world's largest organizations, enabling them to deliver intelligent interactions for candidates, employees, recruiters, and hiring managers across the entire talent lifecycle. Our platform processes millions of talent interactions globally, combining artificial intelligence, large-scale data platforms, and modern cloud infrastructure to drive better hiring outcomes.

Our engineering teams build AI-native enterprise SaaS products at scale, solving complex challenges in distributed systems, large-scale data processing, personalization, and automation.

Role Overview

We are looking for a Principal Engineer to serve as a premier technical authority and visionary within Phenom’s AI-driven talent experience platform.

In this role, you will bridge the gap between high-level product strategy and deep technical execution. You will own the technical roadmap, architectural integrity, and scalability of core platform capabilities used by global enterprise customers. As a hands‑on technical leader, you will solve highly complex, ambiguous problems while mentoring senior engineering talent and driving engineering excellence across cross‑functional teams.

What You’ll Do

Architect Scalable Systems & AI Infrastructures

• Own the long‑term technical roadmap, architecture, and design specifications for complex enterprise SaaS products, subsystems, and product families.
• Design and build highly secure, fault‑tolerant, and large‑scale distributed systems that power our platform infrastructure.
• Lead architecture discussions, guide microservices‑based cloud‑native designs, and establish patterns for complex data processing.

Lead Engineering & Technical Execution

• Drive end‑to‑end technical execution of high‑impact engineering initiatives, transforming vague product requirements into scalable technical realities.
• Drive rigorous engineering best practices in code quality, comprehensive system testing, deep observability, and long‑term system reliability.
• Tackle and resolve the platform's most complex, ambiguous technical problems, performing root‑cause investigations on critical architectural bottlenecks.

Influence Platform Innovation & Strategy

• Contribute directly to platform‑wide architecture, core technical frameworks, and company‑wide engineering strategy.
• Identify opportunities to abstract complexities into reusable services, creating technical leverage across multiple engineering product lines.
• Keep Phenom at the forefront of technology by investigating novel engineering methodologies, prototyping AI capabilities, and evaluating data frameworks.

Technical Mentorship & Collaboration

• Actively coach, mentor, and elevate senior and staff engineers, fostering a culture of continuous technical growth and psychological safety.
• Partner closely with Product Management, Technical Program Management, and cross‑functional engineering leaders to deliver impactful capabilities.
• Act as a technical liaison, translating complex systems constraints into clear, actionable updates for non‑technical stakeholders and executive leadership.

What We’re Looking For

• 12+ years of hands‑on software engineering experience within product development organizations.
• 4+ years operating in a Principal, Architect, or high‑level Staff Engineer capacity with visible impact across multiple teams or platforms.
• Master‑level proficiency in designing, building, and benchmarking large‑scale distributed systems.
• Strong backend development experience in Java or similar enterprise‑grade languages.
• Proven experience building and scaling cloud‑native, microservices‑based architectures on AWS or Azure.
• Deep expertise working with distributed data systems and NoSQL databases such as MongoDB or similar.
• Exceptional system design skills with a data‑driven mindset toward performance, security, and scalability targets.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with a proven track record of influencing technical direction without direct authority.
• Experience collaborating with cross‑functional teams in fast‑paced, high‑growth AI or enterprise SaaS environments.

Education

• A bachelor's or master's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related technical field is required.

Requirements