Principal Engineer

Key Responsibilities
1. Product Engineering & Product Thinking
Lead the technical design and engineering of software products from early ideation and prototyping through development, launch, scaling, and continuous evolution.
Bring a strong product mindset, focusing on customer problems, user experience, business value, differentiation, and long-term product sustainability.
Collaborate with Product Owners, designers, business stakeholders, and engineering teams to translate product vision into scalable and technically sound solutions.
Make pragmatic engineering decisions by balancing product requirements, speed to market, quality, cost, and future scalability.
Identify opportunities for reusable components, shared platforms, and engineering capabilities that accelerate product development.
Take ownership of product engineering outcomes rather than focusing solely on completing assigned technical deliverables.
2. Innovation & Intellectual Property (IP) Mindset
Contribute to Tntra's IP-led engineering approach by identifying opportunities for technical innovation and product differentiation.
Understand the importance of intellectual property in creating competitive advantage, protecting innovation, and building long-term business value.
Collaborate with product, innovation, and IP specialists to explore unique technical approaches and potentially protectable innovations.
Encourage experimentation, rapid prototyping, proof-of-concept development, and structured technical validation of new ideas.
Help document innovative technical approaches, architectural decisions, and engineering concepts that may support future IP development.
Promote an engineering mindset that goes beyond implementing existing solutions to creating differentiated products and capabilities.
3. Technical Leadership & Software Architecture
Serve as a technical authority for complex engineering challenges, system architecture, and critical technology decisions.
Design scalable, secure, reliable, maintainable, and high-performing software systems and platforms.
Provide hands-on technical guidance and remain actively involved in architectural problem-solving, engineering reviews, and critical implementations.
Establish and promote architectural principles, engineering standards, design patterns, and software development best practices.
Lead and participate in Tntra's Design Forum, contributing to end-to-end design authority and architecture governance.
Evaluate technology choices, architectural trade-offs, technical risks, and long-term implications of engineering decisions.
Promote modern engineering practices, automation, AI-assisted development, and responsible adoption of emerging technologies.
4. Strategic Engineering & Business Alignment
Work closely with the Global CTO and engineering leadership to align technology decisions with product strategy, business objectives, and innovation opportunities.
Translate complex business challenges into practical technology solutions, architecture strategies, and engineering roadmaps.
Contribute to technical discovery, solution architecture, estimations, feasibility assessments, and pre-sales engagements.
Communicate architectural recommendations and technical concepts effectively to customers, senior leadership, and non-technical stakeholders.
Support technical mobilisation and engineering team composition in collaboration with Engineering Managers and Delivery Managers.
Provide engineering and architectural leadership across Tntra's operating modes, including Startup, Product, Incubation, Delivery, and Strategy.
5. Engineering Culture, Collaboration & Mentorship
Demonstrate strong technical ownership, accountability, integrity, and commitment to engineering excellence.
Foster a culture of innovation, experimentation, constructive technical discussions, and continuous improvement.
Encourage engineers to challenge assumptions, explore alternatives, and solve underlying problems rather than simply implementing requested solutions.
Collaborate openly across engineering, product, design, and business teams, promoting collective ownership and shared success.
Mentor Senior Engineers, Technical Leads, and emerging technology leaders through technical guidance, design reviews, and knowledge sharing.
Lead through technical credibility, collaboration, and influence rather than formal reporting authority.
Contribute to an environment where engineers are empowered to learn, innovate, take initiative, and grow professionally.
Required Skills
Technical and Product Engineering Experience
Extensive hands-on software engineering experience with demonstrated technical leadership and architectural responsibility.
Proven experience building, launching, and evolving software products, rather than experience limited to project-based development or feature implementation.
Strong understanding of the end-to-end product engineering lifecycle, including discovery, design, development, deployment, scaling, and continuous improvement.
Deep expertise in software architecture, system design, distributed systems, API design, integration patterns, and modern application development.
Experience designing and delivering scalable, secure, reliable, and production-grade software solutions.
Strong understanding of cloud platforms, databases, DevOps, CI/CD, security principles, and modern engineering practices.
Ability to remain technically hands-on while providing architectural and strategic leadership.
Strong technical problem-solving skills and the ability to make sound engineering decisions in complex or ambiguous situations.
Product, Innovation & Strategic Capabilities
Demonstrated product mindset with an understanding of customer needs, product differentiation, business value, and long-term product evolution.
Good understanding of intellectual property concepts and how differentiated technical solutions can contribute to valuable IP.
Experience evaluating technical ideas, validating assumptions, building prototypes, and translating concepts into working products.
Ability to balance technology decisions with product strategy, commercial considerations, and engineering sustainability.
Experience driving technical initiatives across multiple teams, stakeholders, or product areas.
Leadership and Cultural Attributes
Strong ownership mindset with the ability to independently drive complex technical challenges to resolution.
Excellent communication, collaboration, stakeholder management, and technical presentation skills.
Ability to mentor engineers, facilitate technical discussions, and influence decisions across teams.
Creative and curious problem-solver who is comfortable challenging assumptions and exploring new approaches.
Demonstrates integrity, empathy, accountability, adaptability, and a genuine commitment to continuous learning.
Comfortable operating in dynamic environments involving ambiguity, experimentation, and evolving product requirements.
Preferred Qualification:
Experience building products in startups, product companies, technology ventures, or innovation-led organisations.
Experience taking products from concept or MVP to production and supporting subsequent growth and evolution.
Exposure to IP-led product engineering, invention disclosures, patents, proprietary platforms, or technology differentiation.
Experience participating in product incubation, innovation programs, research initiatives, or early-stage technology development.
Experience with AI-enabled applications, AI-assisted engineering, or emerging technology platforms.
Experience in solution consulting, technical pre-sales, architecture workshops, or customer-facing technical leadership.
Experience working across diverse business domains, technology ecosystems, and cross-functional engineering teams.
What Makes a Great Principal Engineer at Tntra?
We value engineers who:
Think Beyond Code: Understand the problem, product, customer, and business impact before choosing a technical solution.
Build Products, Not Just Features: Take pride in creating and evolving products that users genuinely value.
Think Differently: Challenge conventional approaches, explore new ideas, and identify opportunities for innovation and differentiation.
Understand IP & Long-Term Value: Appreciate how unique engineering capabilities and intellectual property can create lasting competitive advantage.
Own Outcomes: Take responsibility for technical decisions and the real-world results they produce.
Elevate Others: Share knowledge, mentor engineers, and strengthen technical capabilities across the organisation.
Embrace Continuous Evolution: Remain curious, adaptable, and committed to learning as technologies, products, and markets evolve.
Why Join Tntra?
At Tntra, you will have the opportunity to do more than architect systems and deliver software.
You will help transform ideas into products, contribute to meaningful innovation, influence technical directi

Work arrangement
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