Principal Software Engineer

About the role

We're the world's leading provider of secure financial messaging services, headquartered in Belgium. We are the way the world moves value - across borders, through cities and overseas. No other organisation can address the scale, precision, pace and trust that this demands, and we're proud to support the global economy. We're unique too. We were established to find a better way for the global financial community to move value - a reliable, safe and secure approach that the community can trust, completely. We're always striving to be better and are constantly evolving in an ever-changing landscape, without undermining that trust. Five decades on, our vibrant community reflects the complexity and diversity of the financial ecosystem. We innovate diligently, test exhaustively, then implement fast. In a connected and exciting era, our mission has never been more relevant. Swift now has a presence in 200+ countries and legal territories to serve a community of more than 12,000 banks and financial institutions. We are looking for a Lead Software Engineer to join our Data and Common Application Platform (D&CAP) Tribe, supporting and shaping the Product organization. Based in Belgium, you will operate as a technical leader with portfolio‑level impact, combining deep hands‑on expertise with strategic ownership of software delivery, platform engineering, and SDLC evolution. You will play a key role in defining, driving, and scaling modern engineering practices - including automation and AI‑enabled capabilities - across multiple teams and products. This role goes beyond delivery within a single team. You will act as a technical authority, influencing architecture, engineering standards, and delivery practices across the portfolio and contributing to broader tribe‑level initiatives. You will work in a highly collaborative, international environment, partnering with engineers, architects, product managers, security, and operations across Europe and APAC.

Responsibilities

• Technical Leadership & Strategy
• Own and drive technical direction for software delivery and SDLC practices across products and tribes.
• Act as a technical authority for complex system design, architectural trade‑offs, and long‑term sustainability decisions.
• Balance short‑term delivery needs with long‑term platform and operational excellence.
• Software Delivery & Platform Engineering
• Lead the design, development, testing, deployment, and support of critical applications and platform components.
• Define and evolve CI/CD standards and reusable pipelines, enabling secure, reliable, and scalable delivery across teams.
• Drive automation‑first approaches across build, test, deployment, monitoring, and operations to reduce manual effort and operational risk.
• Cross‑Team Impact & Enablement
• Coach and mentor senior engineers, raising the overall engineering bar and fostering technical excellence.
• Promote and enable inner‑sourcing and knowledge sharing across teams and locations.
• Drive alignment with security, compliance, and reliability requirements in partnership with security and operations teams.
• Collaboration & Communication
• Collaborate closely with product, architecture, testing, security, and operations stakeholders to ensure solutions meet functional and non‑functional requirements.
• Produce and maintain high‑quality technical documentation and deliver presentations for internal stakeholders and, where relevant, customers.
• Operate effectively in a global, agile environment spanning multiple time zones.
• What Will Make You Successful
• Professional Skills
• Bachelor's or higher degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related discipline.
• Demonstrated ability to operate autonomously with broad accountability and to influence without direct authority.
• Strong customer and quality mindset, with a focus on delivering measurable business and operational outcomes.
• Excellent analytical and problem‑solving skills, particularly in complex, distributed environments.
• Strong communication skills (written and verbal English), with the ability to explain complex technical topics to diverse audiences.
• Proven experience working in large‑scale agile environments across distributed teams.
• Technical Skills
• 8+ years of experience as a Software Engineer, DevOps Engineer, or similar role, with significant leadership responsibility.
• Expertise in Java, along with scripting and automation using Python, Bash, and Ansible.
• Deep experience with container platforms and orchestration (Podman, Docker, OpenShift) and infrastructure automation frameworks.
• Strong mastery of CI/CD practices and tooling, including Git, GitLab, Maven, Jenkins, Nexus, or equivalent.
• Experience with infrastructure and pipeline test automation.
• Solid background in monitoring, logging, and observability platforms (Prometheus, Grafana, ELK stack, or similar).

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