About this role.
Masabi seeks a Principal Engineer to set platform and data architecture direction across a distributed engineering organization. The role combines hands-on technical delivery with technical leadership, including architecture reviews, roadmap input, governance, and cross-team decision-making. Key priorities include scalable microservices, AWS-based infrastructure, data platforms and pipelines, API design, reliability, performance, and cloud-cost efficiency. The successful candidate will turn ambiguous business and technical problems into practical designs while communicating clearly with technical and non-technical stakeholders. This UK-remote role also supports London-based hybrid work with occasional office travel.
Role DNA
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Job Complexity
5/5Pace & Pressure
4/5Autonomy Level
5/5Communication Load
5/5Salary analysis
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Core skills
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Cover letter sample
Dear Masabi Hiring Team,
I am excited to apply for the Principal Engineer - Platform & Data role. My experience designing distributed platforms, evolving microservices architecture, and guiding data-platform decisions would allow me to help strengthen Justride’s scalability, resilience, and long-term technical direction.
I bring a hands-on, pragmatic approach to architecture: translating ambiguous challenges into actionable designs, balancing reliability and cost, and supporting teams through clear standards, reviews, and documentation. I would welcome the opportunity to contribute to Masabi’s mission of making public transit more accessible and seamless.
Kind regards,
Your Name
Sample interview questions
I would begin by mapping current systems, critical flows, operational pain points, and business priorities. I would define a small set of enforceable architectural principles and reference patterns covering service boundaries, APIs, data ownership, observability, security, resilience, and deployment. The blueprint should include an adoption path, measurable outcomes, and governance that enables teams rather than creating unnecessary gates.
I would first clarify data domains, ownership, quality requirements, latency needs, and consumer use cases. I would separate operational storage from analytical workloads where appropriate, establish reliable ingestion and transformation patterns, and implement clear schemas, lineage, access controls, and retention policies. I would prioritize incremental improvements that deliver trusted data while minimizing disruption to existing services.
I make trade-offs using workload characteristics, service-level objectives, failure modes, and measured usage rather than assumptions. For example, I would assess whether a workload needs always-on capacity, whether caching or asynchronous processing can reduce load, and whether storage or compute choices meet recovery and latency targets. I document the decision, expected cost impact, and operational risks so stakeholders understand both the rationale and the review triggers.
I would avoid treating microservices as an end state and first identify the business capabilities, coupling points, and operational constraints within the monolith. I would use a phased strangler approach, extract bounded capabilities with clear ownership and API contracts, and invest early in observability, deployment automation, and data migration patterns. Each extraction should have a clear business or reliability outcome, not simply be a technical rewrite.
I build credibility through technical depth, careful listening, and clear written proposals that explain options and trade-offs. I involve relevant engineers early, use lightweight forums to reach alignment, and make standards easy to adopt through examples, templates, and tooling. When disagreement remains, I focus on shared outcomes, decision clarity, and revisiting choices based on evidence.
About Us_
// At Masabi, we’re driving the fare payment revolution, powering the journeys of millions all over the world. We build fare collection platforms that allow riders to seamlessly buy and present tickets for public transport either on their mobile phones, from a ticket machine, or even by tapping their bank card to travel.
Our Justride platform is used in over 250 locations globally, including some of the largest cities in the world. With our industry-first mobile ticketing SDK, we’ve partnered with large players in the transport space, including Uber, Moovit and Transit.
Your own journey is important to us too. Choosing a role here means joining a network of innovators from all walks of life; a group of passionate individuals who consistently deliver. Here, you’ll find the tools you need to build the career you want. Whether you’re taking the direct route or trying a new path, we’ll support you no matter what.
The Role_
// We’re looking for a Principal Engineer to join Masabi’s Architecture team.
This is a senior role for someone who combines deep technical expertise with strong judgement and the ability to operate across teams. You’ll help shape the technical direction of Masabi’s platform while staying close enough to the detail to design, review and deliver meaningful technical work.
Working across the engineering organisation, you’ll act as a senior technical leader: defining and evolving architecture, guiding complex decisions, and contributing hands-on where it matters most. A particular focus for this role is strengthening our data architecture, how we structure, use and build on the data our platform generates.
The role suits someone who can move between system-level thinking and implementation, someone who understands trade-offs, can navigate ambiguity, and helps turn complex or loosely defined problems into clear, practical technical approaches.
Location_
// This role is available on a remote basis for candidates located anywhere in the UK. Candidates based in London may also work in a hybrid model, with occasional travel to the office.
Responsibilities_
Shape Masabi’s platform architecture, including platform blueprint definition, standards and best practices
Help shape Masabi’s data architecture and strategy, including how we structure, store and make use of the data generated across our platform
Design and deliver scalable, robust, cost efficient services aligned with platform blueprint
Stay hands-on in code and technical delivery, including reviews and targeted contributions
Identify and work through complex platform challenges related to scalability, performance, resilience and cost
Act as a senior technical advisor across engineering teams, supporting and influencing technical decisions and ensuring Masabi standards are followed
Shape and contribute to technical roadmap planning and prioritisation of platform improvements
Support RFP estimation and technical scoping for complex initiatives
Produce clear, high-quality technical documentation and architecture artefacts
Improve how architecture is understood and applied across engineering and the wider business
Contribute to and help shape technical forums and working groups, including areas such as API and architecture governance
About You_
You bring strong experience designing and evolving distributed systems and microservices architectures
You’ve operated at Principal or Staff level, shaping technical direction across multiple teams or domains
You are comfortable staying hands-on, contributing in code, design and delivery when needed
You have strong experience with cloud platforms (AWS preferred) and modern infrastructure practices
You’ve worked on systems where scale, reliability, performance and cost trade-offs matter, and can navigate those decisions thoughtfully
You have proven experience in data architecture (e.g. data platforms, pipelines, warehousing or data lakes) and working on products built on top of large data stores
You can take loosely defined (early stage) business or technical problems and turn them into clear, actionable technical approaches
You communicate complex ideas clearly and effectively, and produce structured documentation that helps both technical and non-technical audiences make decisions
You’ve contributed to engineering standards, architecture patterns or platform direction
Strong experience with REST API design in complex, multi-service environments, ideally including how APIs are consumed on the front end
Interest in or exposure to AI-enabled systems, particularly understanding architectural implications in production
Nice To Have_
Experience breaking monolithic applications into microservices architectures
Experience with event-driven architectures (e.g. Kafka, schema governance)
Experience improving cloud cost and system efficiency at scale
Familiarity with a range of tools and technologies including:
Development: Kotlin, Java
Data storage/processing: DynamoDB, MySQL, Snowflake, Databricks, Spark
Infrastructure as code and CI/CD: Terraform, GitLab CI/CD
// You don’t need to have experience in every area listed above. If you bring strong fundamentals, good judgement and a willingness to learn, we’d still love to hear from you.
Some of Our Benefits_
25 days of holiday per year plus the option to buy another 5 days pro-rated
Private Healthcare via AXA, including pre-existing conditions and mental health
Life Insurance
Menopause support
Choice of workstation
Ability to work for up to 3 months per year from any country in the world (certain limitations)
Pension scheme
Training allowance of up to £1000 per year
£200 annual allowance for any home office need or improvement
Enhanced family leave pay
Cycle to work scheme
Regular social gatherings with a monthly allowance for each employee
Fun and collaborative environment with a focus on making a difference in the world
Careers at Masabi are for people going places – driven by a mission to make transit fair and accessible for all.
// We are a network of innovators from all walks of life, passionate about making a difference. At Masabi, we operate with openness and trust, creating an environment where everyone feels empowered to bring their whole, authentic selves to work.
Whoever you are, just be yourself.
// We welcome applications from underrepresented groups, including disabled and neurodivergent people, and can make adjustments at any stage of the process. You’re also welcome to share your pronouns whenever you feel comfortable. Together, we simplify journeys, remove barriers, and improve daily life for millions.
Why Join Masabi?
Driven by Purpose – We believe in journeys made simple. The work isn’t always easy, but the best things never are.
Encouraged to Accelerate – Masabi is going places and our people are in the driving seat. Whether you’re taking the direct route or exploring new paths, we support your journey.
Advancing with Empathy – We put people first and foster a culture of learning, not blame. No matter your cargo, we share the load.
We’re already powering journeys – are you ready to join us?
Annual salary information is not provided for this position. Explore salary ranges for similar roles in our Salary Directory ›
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