Principal Software Development Engineer

GoCardless; Lisbon (ME); On-site; USD 93,000 - 139,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Wellbeing

Work away scheme

Adaptive Working

Parental leave

Learning Budget

Time off + volunteering days

Job summary

GoCardless is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to strengthen technical leadership in Lisbon. You will own the architecture of our dashboard platform and the design system, while acting as a technical multiplier across multiple teams.

You will work hands-on on the hardest challenges, mentor others, and collaborate with engineering managers and Principal Engineers globally to drive high-impact initiatives. This role requires proactive leadership and strong communication with executives.

Qualifications

• Experience leading multi-team initiatives and architecting platforms.
• Strong track record delivering scalable front-end and back-end systems.
• Ability to communicate technical trade-offs to executives.

Responsibilities

• Own the dashboard platform architecture and design system.
• Mentor engineers and drive high-impact initiatives.
• Lead hands-on problem solving while guiding multiple teams.
• Collaborate with engineering managers and Principal Engineers.

Skills

Full-stack engineering

Front-end architecture

Back-end engineering

Technical leadership

Cross-team collaboration

Executive communication

Tools

Ruby on Rails

Golang

Python

JavaScript

TypeScript

React

PostgreSQL

BigQuery

Kubernetes

Elasticsearch

Prometheus

Google Cloud (GCP)

Job description

About us

GoCardless is a global bank payment company. Over 100,000 businesses, from start-ups to household names, use GoCardless to collect, manage and send bank payments through Direct Debit, real-time payments and open banking. With US$130bn+ processed annually across 30+ countries, we handle recurring and one-off payments without the chasing, stress, or expensive fees. Our end-to-end payment platform also features AI-powered solutions to improve payment success and reduce fraud, alongside connections to over 350 platforms businesses use everyday. We are headquartered in the UK, with teams and operations spanning North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific.

Engineering at GoCardless

The technical challenges of building GoCardless span from simplifying building banking schemes to optimising the time to render the dashboard.

You will enjoy being a Principal Software Engineer at GoCardless if:

• You’re looking to champion a great engineering culture within GC and in the wider engineering community;
• You enjoy collaborating and learning from people from various backgrounds and experiences;
• You want to feel proud of the work you’re doing and its impact on real customers.

Our engineers contribute to the engineering culture within and outside of GoCardless: they contribute to Open Source Software projects (see our Github), and share learnings in post-mortems, conferences and on our blog.

Our technologies: We endeavour to build simple, reliable systems and we believe in using the best technologies for each task.

Technologies we use across GoCardless include: Ruby on Rails, Golang, Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, React, Postgres, BigQuery, Kubernetes, Elasticsearch, Prometheus, Google Cloud (GCP).

The role

This is a new role based in Lisbon, created to strengthen the technical leadership within the Global Growth group. In this role you will:

• Own the architecture of our dashboard platform and the design system used across the company
• Bring technical depth to de-risks our highest-impact initiatives
• Act as a technical multiplier for engineers across multiple teams — all while staying hands‑on enough to lead the hardest problems yourself.
• Report into engineering leadership for Global Growth and work alongside engineering managers in the group and Principal Engineers across the company.

What excites you

• Proactive Leadership: You don't wait to be asked - you identify problems, develop options, and drive solutions. When you need help, you explicitly ask for it. You spot issues and either fix them or bring options to leadership
• Empowered Decision‑Making: You're ready to own technical decisions across multiple teams and escape blocking issues effectively. This role has real authority and mandate, not just influence
• Systems Thinking: You can see across the entire domain, understand interdependencies, and make architectural decisions that balance immediate needs with long‑term flexibility
• Executive Communication: You communicate using metrics and data to support your recommendations, and you're comfortable presenting technical strategies to executives and working with senior stakeholders

What excites us

• Full‑stack engineering background with deep front‑end architecture experience and strong, hands‑on back‑end expertise
• Track record operating as a senior technical leader across multiple teams: setting direction, mentoring other engineers, and being trusted by both engineers and senior stakeholders.
• Collaboration — we work together across different parts of the organisation to achieve the best outcome possible
• Pragmatism — we balance quality and time to delivery differently depending on the situation and business need
• Strong communication skills — you can explain a technical trade‑off to a non‑technical stakeholder as easily as you can to another engineer.

Base salary range: € 80,000 - € 120,000

Base salary ranges are based on role, job level, location, and market data. Please note that whilst we strive to offer competitive compensation, our approach is to pay between the minimum and the mid‑point of the pay range until performance can be assessed in role. Offers will take into account level of experience, interview assessment, budgets and parity between you and fellow employees at GoCardless doing similar work.

(some of) The good stuff

• Wellbeing - stay healthy with dedicated support and medical cover
• Work away scheme - gives you the option to work away from your country of residence for up to 90 days in any 12 month period
• Adaptive Working - allows you to work flexibly, around your lifestyle
• Parental leave - to suit everyone embarking on life's great adventure
• Learning Budget - lead your own development with an annual learning budget
• Time off - generous holiday allowance, + 3 annual volunteer days, + 4 annual business‑wide wellness days (‘GC Fridays’)

Life at GoCardless

We're an organisation defined by our values; We start with why before we begin any project, to ensure it’s aligned with our mission. We act with integrity, always. We care deeply about what we do and we know it's essential that we be humble whilst we do it. Working this way creates the GC magic- the reason we all love showing up to work.

Diversity & Inclusion

As of April 2025, we had 806 employees (GeeCees) globally, with 524 based in the UK, 163 based in Latvia and 119 across our other offices.

To ensure that we're representative of the world around us - and to be able to review relevant benchmarks - we ask GeeCees to voluntarily disclose diversity data. This year, the proportion of GeeCees providing data increased to 88% (up from 79% in 2024). With regards to diversity within GoCardless, we can see GeeCees identifying as:

Asian, Black, Mixed or Other — 25%

Neurodiverse — 9%

LGBTQIA+ — 9%

Disabled — 1%

Average age — 33

Female — 45%

Male —55%

We’re rooting for you during your application and GoCardless aims to provide reasonable adjustments to make our recruitment process as remarkable and accessible as we can. Please speak to your Talent Partner if you need extra support.

If you want to learn more, you can read about our Employee Resource Groups and objectives here

Sustainability

We’re committed to reducing our impact on the environment, leaving a more sustainable world for future generations. Check out our sustainability action plan here.

Find out more about Life at GoCardless via Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.