Principal Backend Engineer

About TimoLaunched in 2015, Timo pioneered digital banking in Vietnam with a mission to make banking faster, simpler, and more accessible.Today, as part of one of Southeast Asia’s leading digital financial services platforms, Timo is building secure, scalable, and customer-first digital banking experiences for millions of users across Vietnam.We are looking for curious minds and driven talents from fintech, digital banking, and technology companies who are excited to move fast, build meaningful products, and help shape the future of banking in Vietnam.About the RoleWe are looking for a Principal Backend Engineer to help shape the engineering foundations behind Timo's digital banking platform. In this role, you will own the core engineering platform, building internal frameworks, improving developer experience, and driving engineering best practices across teams. You will help Timo's engineers ship faster, build more reliably, and scale efficiently.You will report to the Head of Engineering.What You Will DoArchitect and build internal frameworks, SDKs, and reusable components that streamline development across Timo's engineering teamsDrive engineering standards in API design, microservices, observability, and performance optimizationImprove developer experience (DevEx) through self-service tooling, automation, and CI/CD improvementsLead technology evaluation: research, run PoCs, and contribute to Timo's and Kredivo's Tech RadarStrengthen observability: ensure logging, tracing, and monitoring scale seamlessly with the platformPartner with DevOps to optimize CI/CD pipelines and cloud cost efficiencyInfluence cross-functionally across Backend, Mobile, Data, and Security teams to drive organization-wide initiativesMentor senior engineers and drive adoption of platform tools and best practicesArchitect and evolve scalable backend and platform solutions using Java, Spring Boot, microservices, Kubernetes, Kafka/RabbitMQ, and event-driven architecturesProvide technical leadership on system design, architecture, performance optimization, and complex production troubleshootingWhat We Are Looking ForExperience6+ years of backend engineering experience, with prior experience in a Principal, Staff, or technical leadership roleProven track record of building production systems at scaleBackground in Platform Engineering, fintech, banking, payments, or Developer Experience is preferredStrong hands-on experience with Java, Spring Boot (4+ years), microservices, Kubernetes, Kafka/RabbitMQ, distributed systems, and cloud-native application architecturesSkills & ExpertiseStrong expertise in building internal frameworks, SDKs, or developer toolingDeep knowledge of distributed systems, microservices, and software architectureExperience evaluating and adopting new technologies, running PoCs, and maintaining a Tech RadarFamiliarity with CI/CD pipelines, cloud infrastructure, observability, caching, event-driven systems, and deployment automationSkilled at defining and driving engineering standards: API design, performance, reliabilityFamiliarity with event-driven and distributed system patterns.Excellent debugging and problem-solving skills across complex, multi-service environmentsProfessional working English: daily collaboration with Timo leadership and Kredivo's regional engineering teams