Principal Software Engineer

About the Role

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.

Key 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).

What We Offer

• Join a company that underpins the world’s financial system, connecting over 11,500 institutions across 200+ countries.
• Work on mission‑critical platforms with global scale, security, and reliability requirements.
• Strong culture of internal mobility and career development, supporting growth at senior and expert levels.
• Access to a rich ecosystem of learning and development programs to deepen both technical and leadership expertise.
• Competitive, market‑aligned compensation with structured merit and performance‑based rewards.
• Be part of an organization shaping the future of secure, instant, frictionless cross‑border transactions through advanced platforms, APIs, and data‑driven services.

What we offer

We give you the freedom to be yourself. We are creating an environment of unique individuals – like you – with different perspectives on the financial industry and the world. A diverse and inclusive environment in which everyone’s voice counts and where you can reach your full potential.

We are committed to an inclusive and accessible recruitment process. If you require a reasonable accommodation related to accessibility during your application or interview, please contact accessibility-Sysgroup@swift.com or indicate this in your application.

Please note that this mailbox is not monitored for general recruitment enquiries and should only be used for accessibility or accommodation-related requests (for example related to vision, hearing or neurodiversity).

All requests are confidential and will not affect your candidacy.

Don’t meet every single requirement? At Swift, we are dedicated to building a workplace where people can bring their full selves and ideas to the team, so if you are excited about this role, we encourage you to apply even if you do not meet every single qualification.