Head of Engineering, Mobile Backend Frameworks

GrabTaxi Holdings Pte. Ltd.; Singapore; On-site; SGD 150,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Term Life Insurance

Medical Insurance

Flexible work arrangements

Parental and Birthday leave

Volunteer leave

Job summary

A leading Southeast Asia superapp company is looking for a Head of Engineering to lead mobile and backend frameworks. You'll own the foundations that shape engineering practices and drive major platform innovations. The ideal candidate should have 12-15 years of experience in software engineering and proven leadership in large engineering organizations. This senior role demands technical credibility, change management skills, and the ability to guide teams toward effective solutions. The workplace offers comprehensive benefits and supports work-life balance.

Qualifications

• 12–15+ years of software engineering experience with leadership involvement.
• Experience with large engineering organizations and brownfield systems.
• Deep hands-on in backend platforms, native mobile development, or CI.

Responsibilities

• Own technical vision and roadmap for mobile and backend frameworks.
• Drive adoption of major platform improvements.
• Manage and grow a technical organization of ~30-40 engineers.

Skills

Software engineering leadership

Technical judgment

Large-scale native mobile development

Backend platforms expertise

Change management

Agentic coding exposure

Automated testing

Tools

Go

gRPC

Kubernetes

Swift

Kotlin

CI infrastructure

Job description

About Grab and Our Workplace

Grab is Southeast Asia's leading superapp. From getting your favourite meals delivered to helping you manage your finances and getting around town hassle-free, we've got your back with everything. In Grab, purpose gives us joy and habits build excellence, while harnessing the power of Technology and AI to deliver the mission of driving Southeast Asia forward by economically empowering everyone, with heart, hunger, honour, and humility.

Get to Know the Team

We are hiring a Head of Engineering to lead Grab's Mobile Frameworks, Backend Frameworks, and Build & Test Infrastructure (CI) domain.

You will own the developer-facing foundations that shape how hundreds of engineers write, build, test, and evolve software across Grab's mobile and backend systems. The scope includes:

• Backend frameworks used across ~500 Go-based microservices (gRPC, Kubernetes)
• Native mobile frameworks for large-scale iOS (Swift) and Android (Kotlin) applications
• Build and test infrastructure (CI) allowing fast feedback and strong testing hygiene

A core mandate is to align these foundations with emerging trends in agentic and AI-assisted software development, while ensuring they deliver real productivity gains in large, brownfield codebases — not just greenfield experiments.

This is a senior leadership role combining technical credibility, people leadership, and change management, operating in close partnership with peer platform leaders across Tech Infrastructure.

The Critical Tasks You Will Perform

• Own the technical vision and roadmap for mobile frameworks, backend frameworks, and CI
• Drive adoption of major platform revamps (e.g. backend frameworks, mobile tooling, testing approaches)
• Lead a strong push on shift-left and automated testing, improving test coverage, reliability, and developer confidence
• Enable agentic and AI-assisted development through a hybrid strategy of internal platforms and best-of-breed tools
• Pilot new capabilities, move fast with partial coverage, and scale what works
• Partner with senior ICs to set architectural direction and simplify complex systems
• Lead and grow a highly technical organization of ~30–40 engineers
• Manage change across teams by combining clear standards, platform defaults, and strong stakeholder alignment

What Essential Skills You Will Need

• 12–15+ years of software engineering experience, with significant leadership in platform, framework, or developer infrastructure teams
• Proven experience supporting large engineering organizations and complex brownfield systems
• Deep hands-on experience in at least one of:
  • Backend platforms (Go, gRPC, Kubernetes, microservices)
  • Large-scale native mobile development (Swift / Kotlin)
  • Build, test, or CI infrastructure
• Strong technical judgment and credibility (you don't need to code daily, but you can guide and challenge designs)
• Demonstrated ability to drive adoption and change, not just build tools
• Exposure to agentic coding or AI-assisted development tools
• Experience modernizing legacy systems without slowing delivery

Life at Grab

We care about your well-being at Grab, here are some of the global benefits we offer:

• We have your back with Term Life Insurance and comprehensive Medical Insurance.
• With GrabFlex, create a benefits package that suits your needs and aspirations.
• Celebrate moments that matter in life with loved ones through Parental and Birthday leave, and give back to your communities through Love-all-Serve-all (LASA) volunteering leave
• We have a confidential Grabber Assistance Programme to guide and uplift you and your loved ones through life's challenges.
• Balancing personal commitments and life's demands are made easier with our FlexWork arrangements such as differentiated hours

What We Stand For at Grab

We are committed to building an inclusive and equitable workplace that enables diverse Grabbers to grow and perform at their best. As an equal opportunity employer, we consider all candidates fairly and equally regardless of nationality, ethnicity, religion, age, gender identity, sexual orientation, family commitments, physical and mental impairments or disabilities, and other attributes that make them unique.