Software Engineer (Senior/Principal)

HDB Housing & Development Board; Singapore; On-site; SGD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

HDB Housing & Development Board in Singapore seeks an experienced Engineering Manager to lead end-to-end delivery of high-impact digital products. You will stay hands-on while guiding a cross-functional team of software engineers, product owners and operations staff.

We value strong cloud-native design, secure by design practices, and the ability to translate business needs into scalable technical solutions. You will mentor engineers and shape the technical direction across platforms.

Qualifications

• 6+ years of software engineering experience with scalable enterprise-grade products.
• Proven ability to lead technical delivery in cross-functional teams.
• Hands-on expertise in frontend and/or backend web development.
• Strong cloud-native design, security and observability focus.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical delivery of significant product areas while remaining hands-on.
• Set technical direction and ensure secure, maintainable designs.
• Mentor engineers and raise engineering standards.
• Collaborate with Product Owner, Product Manager and platform teams.
• Drive live-site readiness, incident response and reliability improvements.

Skills

React

FastAPI

Express.js

Spring

Django

AWS

GCP

Azure

Tools

Docker

Amazon ECS

Kubernetes

Terraform

Job description

[What the role is]

The Housing and Development Board (HDB) is at the forefront of Singapore's public service transformation, delivering digital services that meaningfully impact the lives of citizens. Within HDB, our Information Services Group drives this mission by building and operating customised IT solutions that give HDB the flexibility and efficiency to serve Singaporeans well. Our team is growing with purpose. We are expanding our engineering capabilities to deliver HDB's most strategically significant digital products, supporting citizens at every stage of their housing journey. We are a full-spectrum engineering team spanning Frontend, Backend, DevOps, System Architecture, Quality, Resilience Engineering, and Tech Operations. We invest in engineers who combine deep technical expertise with broad product and operational awareness, and who can raise the capability of the teams around them. If you are an experienced engineer who wants to solve complex problems, shape technical direction, and multiply the impact of other engineers without moving away from hands‑on engineering, we would love to have you on board.

[What you will be working on]

You will be a technical leader and senior individual contributor in a cross‑functional engineering team that owns the end‑to‑end delivery of high‑impact digital products, from solution design through to live operations. We operate on a you‑build‑it, you‑run‑it model. You will lead the technical delivery of substantial product areas or complex initiatives, remaining hands‑on while guiding engineers towards secure, resilient and maintainable solutions at scale. Working with engineers across the team, the Software Engineering Manager, Product Owner and Product Manager, you will provide technical leadership across significant product areas and complex initiatives. Depending on scope and appointment level, you may serve as a Technical Lead or lead significant technical areas and complex initiatives, providing direction to other engineers through technical judgement and influence. You will lead architecture and engineering decisions while remaining hands‑on in design, implementation, review and production problem‑solving. You will create leverage through mentoring, reusable patterns, engineering tools and clear technical guidance.

Technical leadership

• Set technical direction for significant product areas or complex initiatives; turn ambiguous needs into coherent designs and execution plans, and make sound engineering trade‑offs.
• Shape cloud‑native, loosely coupled, microservices and event‑driven solutions; produce clear technical designs and evolve systems for scalability, resilience, security and maintainability.
• Build production‑grade frontend and/or backend software, contribute high‑quality code, and lead code, API, data model and design reviews for critical changes.
• Lead end‑to‑end technical execution of significant initiatives, decompose complex work, coordinate engineering decisions, and work with engineers, the Software Engineering Manager and product counterparts to manage technical dependencies and risks.
• Raise standards for Test‑Driven Development, automated testing, Secure‑by‑Design, observability, performance and maintainability; address systemic technical debt rather than isolated symptoms.
• Take a leading role in live‑site readiness, incident response, root‑cause analysis and reliability improvement; use operational evidence to prioritise engineering improvements.
• Improve CI/CD, infrastructure‑as‑code, local development and GenAI‑assisted engineering workflows; create reusable components and paved paths that make teams faster and safer.
• Guide engineers through pairing, reviews and technical discussions; enable others to take technical ownership, build alignment across disciplines, and raise the technical capability of the wider engineering community.
• Contribute to shared engineering standards and architecture across products, collaborate with platform and partner teams, and help resolve issues that span team or system boundaries.

[What we are looking for]

Have 6+ years of software engineering experience building and operating scalable, enterprise‑grade products on commercial cloud, including experience acting as a technical lead or leading the technical delivery of complex systems, with demonstrated ability across the following:

• Strong hands‑on capability in modern frontend and/or backend web application development, using frameworks such as React, FastAPI, Express.js, Spring, or Django.
• Deep practical experience in cloud‑native and serverless engineering on Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), or Microsoft Azure.
• Ability to design loosely coupled, microservices and event‑driven architectures that are scalable, fault‑tolerant and resilient, including messaging and streaming technologies such as Amazon SQS, SNS, and Kinesis.
• Experience designing data models and working with relational and non‑relational data stores such as PostgreSQL and Amazon DynamoDB, including application and database performance optimisation.
• Experience with containerisation and infrastructure‑as‑code using tools such as Docker, Amazon ECS, Kubernetes, and Terraform.
• Strong DevSecOps capability, including CI/CD using Git, GitLab, or GitHub and Secure‑by‑Design practices such as Static Application Security Testing (SAST) and Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST).
• Proven practice of Test‑Driven Development, automated testing across the stack, and pragmatic approaches to improving legacy systems and technical debt.
• Experience operating production systems, including observability, capacity and performance management, incident response, root‑cause analysis, and reliability engineering.
• Ability to translate product and business needs into technical approaches, explain trade‑offs to technical and non‑technical stakeholders, and make progress amid ambiguity.
• A track record of mentoring engineers, improving engineering practices, and influencing technical outcomes beyond your own assigned work.

Formal line‑management experience is not required. Beyond technical and delivery skills, we are looking for a people‑first leader who builds trust, fosters a team‑first culture, and creates an environment where engineers can do their best work and grow. You communicate clearly with engineers, stakeholders and management alike, make sound decisions amid ambiguity, and balance competing priorities with good judgement. We value managers who lead by example, take ownership of outcomes, and bring a growth mindset — curious, open to feedback, and committed to continuously improving both the team and how it works.

http://jobs.careers.gov.sg

The Singapore Public Service plays a key role in the economic growth, progress and stability of Singapore by formulating and implementing government policies, as well as providing key public services. Whether you are a fresh graduate joining the workforce or an experienced professional, the Singapore Public Service offers a great variety of job opportunities for you. The work in the Public Service can be broadly categorised into the following sectors: Economic, Social, Security & External Relations, and Administration & Corporate Development. Be part of the team that shapes the future of Singapore. Log on and take your first step towards a career that matters! Need help? Please click here for assistance. Our team will contact you shortly!