Principal Engineer

Ambition; Kuala Lumpur; On-site; MYR 250,000 - 390,000; Full time

Job summary

Ambition in Kuala Lumpur seeks a Principal Engineer to lead as the most senior individual contributor across a multi-pod product environment. This permanent role places you in a high-autonomy position with meaningful technical ownership and direct influence on how a fast-moving engineering organisation builds, scales, and delivers.

You will mentor Tech Leads and Staff Engineers, set architecture standards, lead cross-pod initiatives, address systemic risks, and contribute to hiring.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience, with TypeScript or a comparable web stack.
• Experience directing technical strategy across critical systems and multiple teams.
• Strong command of microservices and event-driven architecture with async messaging, idempotency, and dead-letter handling.
• Data modelling across RDBMS and NoSQL environments with solid API design fundamentals.
• Hands-on observability experience with OpenTelemetry and APM tooling.
• Knowledge of AuthN/AuthZ, least-privilege IAM, and secrets management.
• Prior Azure exposure is a distinct advantage.

Responsibilities

• Establish and champion architecture standards, engineering best practices, and design principles.
• Lead multi-pod technical initiatives where direction is still forming and pace is high.
• Proactively identify and address systemic risks across distributed, near-real-time systems.
• Mentor Tech Leads and Staff Engineers, building lasting technical capability across teams.
• Lead cross-stream architecture and design reviews within cloud, enterprise, and security guidelines.
• Support technical hiring and participate in cross-functional engineering discussions.

Skills

TypeScript

Web stack

Microservices

API design

Data modelling

Observability

AuthN/AuthZ

Azure

Leadership

Tools

OpenTelemetry

Dynatrace

Grafana

Job description

Where Deep Technical Expertise Meets Real Engineering Influence

Our client is searching for a Principal Engineer to take the lead as the most senior individual contributor across a multi-pod product environment. Based in Kuala Lumpur, this is a permanent opportunity for an engineer who is as passionate about elevating others as they are about solving hard technical problems.

Why Apply?

This is the kind of role most engineers aspire to - significant autonomy, meaningful technical ownership, and a direct hand in shaping how a fast-moving engineering organisation thinks, builds, and scales. You'll work at the edge of complexity, where ambiguity is the norm and your judgement genuinely matters.

The Role

Operating as the senior-most technical voice across a growing product stream, you'll lead from the front across the entire delivery lifecycle.

• Establish and champion architecture standards, engineering best practices, and design principles
• Lead multi-pod technical initiatives where direction is still forming and pace is high
• Proactively identify and address systemic risks across distributed, near-real-time systems
• Mentor Tech Leads and Staff Engineers, building lasting technical capability across teams
• Lead cross-stream architecture and design reviews within cloud, enterprise, and security guidelines
• Support technical hiring and participate in cross-functional engineering discussions

What We're Looking For

An engineer whose reputation is built on technical rigour, sound judgement, and the ability to bring others along.

• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience, with TypeScript or a comparable web stack
• Demonstrated experience directing technical strategy across critical systems and multiple teams
• Strong command of microservices and event-driven architecture - async messaging, idempotency, and dead-letter handling
• Confident data modelling across RDBMS and NoSQL environments, with solid API design fundamentals
• Hands-on observability experience with OpenTelemetry and APM tooling (Dynatrace, Grafana, or similar)
• Working knowledge of AuthN/AuthZ, least-privilege IAM, and secrets management
• Prior Azure exposure is a distinct advantage