Principal Software Engineer – Berlin

Principal Software Engineer – Berlin (Confidential)

A team I am supporting in Berlin is looking for a Principal Software Engineer to join them at a key point in their journey.

They are the market leader in Germany in their space and are currently modernising a large, complex, business-critical platform that is used across several European countries. The system they are building and evolving supports extremely important real-world processes, and they are now investing heavily in cloud, modern architecture, and new technologies including AI.

This is not a polished greenfield environment. It is a role for someone who enjoys ownership, ambiguity, and impact. They need a strong, self-sufficient engineer who is comfortable jumping into existing systems, untangling complexity, and modernising old platforms.

The official title will be Principal Engineer, but this is a very hands-on position. Around 90 percent of your time will be spent coding, designing systems, and solving real production problems. The remaining part is influence: bringing engineers together, establishing healthy working relationships, and helping shape technical direction. There is no formal people management.

What you will be doing

• Taking technical ownership of a large, evolving platform
• Modernising legacy systems and introducing better patterns, tooling, and architecture
• Acting as a go-to engineer when things are unclear or high impact
• Working closely with internal teams and an external staff-augmentation team
• Influencing technical decisions and helping create alignment across engineers
• Contributing hands-on across the backend and wider system
• Supporting the move towards cloud-based, modern, and AI-enabled solutions

What they are looking for

• A very strong software engineer with a backend focus
• Professional experience with Java or C#
• Comfort working across a broader stack (React is a plus)
• Solid experience designing and working with complex systems
• Cloud experience, ideally Azure
• Someone who enjoys messy environments and modernisation projects
• A self-sufficient, pragmatic problem solver who brings structure
• Experience influencing or leading engineers, even without formal line management

Nice to have

• Experience working on large platforms, ERP systems, or business-critical products
• Experience modernising legacy systems
• Exposure to distributed teams or staff-augmentation models
• Interest in using modern tools, including AI, within products

Location

• Berlin based role
• Product is used across Germany, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Denmark, and more

If you are someone who likes ownership, real impact, and being trusted to solve meaningful problems rather than just picking up tickets, this is a really strong opportunity.