Principal Platform Engineer

Tandem Search; Al Khobar; On-site; SAR 450,000 - 900,000; Full time

Job summary

Tandem Search is seeking a Principal Platform Engineer in Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia to take technical ownership of a real-time, distributed platform. This is a hands-on IC role, not management.

You will define architecture, contribute to production code, and guide cloud and data infrastructure, ML/AI capabilities, while mentoring senior engineers and aligning with Product and Hardware teams. Ideal candidates bring 10+ years in scalable systems, deep cloud experience, and breadth across backend,

Qualifications

• 10+ years of software engineering experience.
• Experience building large-scale distributed systems and backend platforms.
• Hands-on coding across backend and cloud platforms.

Responsibilities

• Own and evolve the architecture of a large-scale distributed SaaS platform.
• Remain hands-on across coding, prototyping, debugging, code reviews and system design.
• Design scalable backend services, APIs, data pipelines and real-time systems.
• Drive architecture across cloud infrastructure, data platforms, security and platform services.
• Lead technical direction for GenAI/LLM capabilities.
• Establish engineering standards across testing, CI/CD, observability and release management.
• Mentor senior engineers and influence decisions across teams.
• Collaborate with Product, Engineering, Hardware and other stakeholders.

Skills

Distributed systems

C#/.NET

Go

Python

Java

Node.js/TypeScript

AWS/GCP

Kubernetes

Terraform

CI/CD

Microservices

Real-time streaming

Architectural leadership

Tools

Kubernetes

Terraform

CI/CD tooling

Job description

Principal Platform Engineer

Location: Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia

Role Overview

We are seeking a highly experienced Principal Platform Engineer to take technical ownership of a complex, real-time technology platform. This is a hands-on individual contributor role, not an engineering management position.

You will define platform architecture, solve complex engineering challenges, contribute directly to production code, and provide technical direction across backend, cloud, data and emerging AI capabilities.

Key Responsibilities

• Own and evolve the architecture of a large-scale distributed SaaS platform.
• Remain hands-on across coding, prototyping, debugging, code reviews and system design.
• Design scalable backend services, APIs, data pipelines and real-time/streaming systems.
• Drive architecture across cloud infrastructure, data platforms, security and platform services.
• Lead technical direction for GenAI/LLM capabilities, including RAG, AI agents, tool/function calling and MCP.
• Establish engineering standards across testing, CI/CD, observability, reliability and release management.
• Mentor senior engineers and influence technical decisions across multiple teams.
• Work closely with Product, Engineering, Hardware and other stakeholders.

Requirements

• 10+ years of software engineering experience, with experience operating at Staff, Principal, Lead Architect or equivalent level.
• Strong experience designing and building large-scale distributed systems, SaaS platforms or backend platforms.
• Strong hands-on programming experience in at least one of:
• C#/.NET
• Go/Golang
• Python
• Java
• Node.js / TypeScript
• Strong experience with AWS and/or GCP, Kubernetes, containers, Terraform and CI/CD.
• Strong understanding of microservices, APIs, data stores, streaming and production operations.
• Experience owning architecture from design through implementation, deployment and scaling.
• Exposure to LLMs, RAG, AI agents, tool calling or other production GenAI systems.
• Ability to provide Principal-level technical leadership while remaining highly hands-on.

Nice to Have

• Palantir Foundry / AIP or Databricks experience.
• Ontologies, data lineage and governed data platforms.
• MCP and agent-runtime architecture.
• IoT, connected devices, device-to-cloud or high-volume event processing.
• Experience with real-time industrial or enterprise platforms.

Ideal Profile

A Staff/Principal-level engineer who still codes, has built complex production platforms at scale, understands distributed systems and cloud architecture deeply, and has the technical breadth to move across backend, data, infrastructure and AI technologies.