Principal Software Engineer

Bjak; Malaysia; Hybrid; MYR 180,000 - 300,000; Full time

Job summary

KIRA is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to own technical direction and drive major products and systems across Southeast Asia. This is a hands-on, design-led role where you will code, design, and push critical engineering work from idea to production.

You will lead architecture decisions, raise engineering quality, and mentor engineers across teams in a hybrid setup with on-site presence required 3 days per week. English proficiency is essential for global collaboration.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of software engineering experience.
• Experience designing scalable systems.
• Hands-on coding and debugging.
• Proven track record leading major projects.

Responsibilities

• Own technical design and execution for major products and systems.
• Design scalable, reliable systems across backend, frontend, APIs, databases and infrastructure.
• Code, prototype, review, debug and drive production readiness.
• Drive architecture decisions balancing speed, scalability, reliability and cost.
• Mentor engineers and lead technically critical initiatives across teams.

Skills

Leadership

System design

Hands-on coding

Backend development

Job description

About KIRA

Our mission is to make money smart, reliable and within reach for everyone.

In 2019, we built the first mobile-first, insurance platform, enabling insurance to be accessible online by millions in the region. Today, it's the leading insurance platform in Southeast Asia.

Today, we are expanding ways to help people in Asia and it includes spending, saving, investing, exchanging, travelling, and more. Our objective is to build tools that will help people get more from their money and at ease and self reliance, become an expert. We believe AI will help us achieve this in our generation.

We are looking for the most talented and driven people we can find. We are looking for people who work for their passion, not counting hours. Who loves building great next-generation products, not status quo. Who cares about redefining how everyone around us can get the best financial applications, not for an exclusive few.

We have teams working around the world, with over 20 nationalities and growing from our offices and remotely. Join us and build a better future.

If you're this person, we'd love to talk to you.

The Role

KIRA builds technology products used by millions of users across Southeast Asia. As our products and systems scale, we need technical leaders who can solve difficult engineering problems and raise the engineering bar around them.

The Principal Software Engineer owns technical direction and execution for major products and systems. This is a hands-on role - you will design systems, write code, and drive critical engineering work from idea to production.

What You'll Own

• Owning technical design and execution for major products, systems and engineering initiatives.
• Designing scalable, reliable systems across backend, frontend, APIs, databases and infrastructure.
• Building alongside the team through coding, prototyping, code reviews, debugging and production problem-solving.
• Driving architecture decisions and trade-offs across speed, scalability, reliability, cost and maintainability.
• Turning ambiguous product problems into clear technical solutions and execution plans.
• Raising engineering quality through stronger system design, testing, security, observability and development practices.
• Leading technically critical initiatives and mentoring engineers across teams.

What We're Looking For

• 7+ years of software engineering experience building and shipping production systems.
• Deep expertise in backend, frontend, distributed systems, APIs, databases or cloud infrastructure.
• Strong system design and architecture skills for complex or high-scale systems.
• Strong coding ability and willingness to remain hands-on.
• Track record of technically leading major engineering projects from design through production.
• Ability to make sound technical trade-offs, influence engineers and solve complex production problems.

Nice to have

• Experience scaling engineering teams, systems or development practices through significant growth.
• Experience operating across multiple products, markets or countries.

Location

This is a hybrid role. You are expected to work from our local office at least 3 days per week, with the remaining days offering flexibility to work remotely.

Candidates should be based in, or able to work from, the location where the role is advertised.

Language

English is our main working language across global teams. Strong English communication is required.

Interview Process

Our process is designed to move fast:

1. Online assessment or practical task
2. Technical interview
3. CEO / final round

For strong candidates, we aim to complete the process and make an offer within 1 week from the start of the interview process. Candidates who complete assessments quickly will be prioritized.