Principal Software Engineer Core Platform & Growth / Lounge by Zalando (all genders)

THE ROLE & THE TEAM Are you a seasoned technical leader passionate about building scalable platforms and elevating the engineering craft around you? Lounge by Zalando is our thriving off-price shopping club, serving millions of members across 20+ European markets. In this role, you will act as a key technical anchor for the Core Platform & Growth, while also stepping up to drive Lounge-wide engineering initiatives. You will help shape the architecture of our growth engine—spanning event-driven pipelines, lifecycle messaging, and modern AI infrastructure. Beyond your immediate domain, you will play a pivotal role in enabling other missions and teams across Lounge, helping them deliver robust solutions and make better, more informed technical decisions. If you thrive on multiplying the impact of engineers around you and driving broad architectural excellence, this role is for you. INCLUSIVE BY DESIGN At Zalando, our vision is to be inclusive by design. And this vision starts with our hiring - we do not discriminate on the basis of gender identity, sexual orientation, personal expression, ethnicity, religious belief, or disability status. You are welcome to leave out your picture, age, or marital status from your application. We only assess candidates on their qualifications and merit. We want to provide you with a great candidate experience. Feel free to inform us of any accommodations you may need, so we can best support you throughout the hiring process. do.BETTER - our diversity & inclusion strategy: https://corporate.zalando.com/en/our-impact/dobetter-our-diversity-and-inclusion-strategy Our employee resource groups: https://corporate.zalando.com/en/our-impact/our-employee-resource-groups WHAT WE'D LOVE YOU TO DO (AND LOVE DOING) Architect Scalable Platforms: Shape the technical direction for our core growth, data, and AI infrastructure. You will guide the evolution of event-driven microservices and high-throughput pipelines, ensuring reliability and sustainable scale. Drive Lounge-Wide Technical Initiatives: Look beyond your immediate mission to lead cross-team engineering efforts. You will enable other teams across Lounge to make better technical decisions, sharing best practices and fostering a cohesive architectural vision. Enable AI & Modern Engineering Practices: Help transition GenAI initiatives from prototype to robust, production-ready platforms. You will guide teams in adopting modern engineering workflows, including the effective, secure use of AI coding assistants and evaluation tooling. Multiply Engineering Impact: Act as a mentor and coach to senior engineers. Rather than centralizing knowledge, you will elevate the technical craft of those around you through thoughtful architecture reviews, pair programming, and clear architectural guidelines. Represent and Contribute: Engage actively with Zalando’s broader Principal Engineering community and guilds. You will champion engineering excellence, author architecture decision records (ADRs), and help establish the standards that others build upon. Drive Business & Product Initiatives: Partner with Project Management to deliver complex product and business initiatives across the entire Lounge organization. WE'D LOVE TO MEET YOU IF Extensive Backend Expertise: You have a strong track record of designing, building, and operating distributed, highly available backend systems. While we rely heavily on Kotlin and the JVM ecosystem, your broad foundational architectural skills and ability to adapt matter most. Cloud & Data Platform Experience: You are comfortable working in modern cloud-native environments (e.g., AWS, Kubernetes) and have a solid understanding of data infrastructure, streaming pipelines (like Kafka), and operational best practices. Applied AI Knowledge: You have experience bringing machine learning or GenAI solutions into production, understanding the broad nuances of observability, evaluation, and scaling these systems reliably for real users. Cross-Team Leadership: You possess a proven ability to lead without formal authority. You are experienced in guiding cross-functional teams, shaping technical strategies across multiple domains, and driving alignment on complex architectural decisions. Exceptional Communication: You can distill complex technical concepts into clear, actionable insights for both engineering peers and non-technical stakeholders, whether in writing or in architectural forums. OUR OFFER Zalando provides a range of benefits, here’s an overview of what you can expect. Ask your Talent Acquisition Partner to learn more about what we offer. Employee shares program 40% off fashion and beauty products sold and shipped by Zalando, 30% off Zalando Lounge, discounts from external partners 2 paid volunteering days a year Hybrid working model with up to 60% remote per week Work from abroad for up to 30 working days a year 27 days of vacation a year to start Relocation assistance available (subject to prior agreement) Family services, including counseling and support Health and wellbeing options (including Gympass) Mental health support and coaching available Drive your development through our training platform and biannual peer-to-peer review Learn all about Zalando and our values here: https://jobs.zalando.com/en/?gh_src=22377bdd1us ABOUT LOUNGE BY ZALANDO Lounge by Zalando is an online outlet for fashion and lifestyle products in +20 European countries. We offer our members daily, time-limited sale campaigns with discounts of up to 75% off the recommended retail price. However, Lounge by Zalando is so much more than discounts. Our strength lies in our focus on fashion and lifestyle brands: from sought-after labels to niche brands, from famous international names to trendy luxury brands, we make sure to meet the fashion taste of all our customers, who are always on the hunt for the best products at the best prices. Working with our brand partners, we're pioneering innovative supply-chain and production processes and offer them an impactful and smart solution, creating a new way to shop for fashion - and a new way to sell it. https://www.zalando-lounge.de