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This job is for a Principal Engineer at AirAsia MOVE in Kuala Lumpur. You might like this job because you'll shape the tech behind travel for millions, mentor fellow engineers, and innovate on exciting projects in a fast-paced environment!
Undisclosed
Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur
Job Description
Job Description
Job Title: Principal Engineer
Location: Kuala Lumpur
About AirAsia MOVE
AirAsia MOVE is a dynamic ASEAN-focused budget travel platform redefining how people experience and book travel. As part of Capital A, we’re building products that span flights, hotels, e-hailing, experiences, payments, and more—powered by a tech-first mindset and a relentless focus on customer experience. Join us in shaping the digital future of travel across the region.
About the Role
As a Principal Engineer – Backend, you will drive the architectural strategy, scalability, and resilience of MOVE’s backend services. You'll collaborate closely with cross-functional teams to design distributed systems, evolve our microservices infrastructure, and mentor senior engineers across backend squads. Your work will directly impact millions of users as we scale regionally.
Core Competence
Deep coding, system design, and architecture expertise
Cross-functional system knowledge for resilience, availability, and scale
Confident in architectural and design trade-offs
Strong debugging and problem-solving skills
Ability to own and evolve the team’s technical roadmap
Proficiency in AI-driven tools and processes to boost developer productivity and automation
Key Responsibilities
Own end-to-end architecture for complex, large-scale systems with long-term scalability, reliability, and cost-efficiency.
Make high-impact technical decisions and guide trade-offs across multiple domains and platforms.
Set engineering standards, best practices, and governance models adopted across teams.
Lead deep technical design reviews, critical incident postmortems, and complex problem investigations.
Mentor senior engineers, fostering a culture of technical excellence and continuous learning.
Partner cross-functionally with product, security, infra, and business teams to align on strategic priorities.
Evaluate emerging technologies and drive innovation aligned with organizational goals.
Influence platform-wide modernization, observability, DevSecOps, and developer productivity initiatives.
Serve as a trusted technical advisor to leadership, influencing product and business direction.
Required Qualifications
10-18 years of backend engineering experience, with at least 2+ years in a principal-level or staff-level role.
Deep expertise in distributed systems, cloud-native architecture (GCP/AWS/Azure), microservices, and data platforms.
Proven experience designing resilient, scalable, and secure platforms at enterprise scale.
Strong leadership in system design, architecture reviews, and cross-team technical governance.
Hands-on expertise in full-stack development, API design, data modeling, and infrastructure-as-code.
Deep expertise in Java (Spring Boot) or similar backend languages (Go, Python, Node.js).
Strong knowledge of relational (MySQL/PostgreSQL) and NoSQL (Redis, MongoDB) databases.
Working knowledge of frontend ecosystems (Native, React, React Native, Flutter) to ensure seamless backend–UI integration.
Strong expertise with authentication protocols (OAuth2, OIDC) and event systems (Kafka, GCP PubSub).
Strong understanding of security principles, regulatory compliance, and cost optimization.
Demonstrated thought leadership via papers, talks, patents, or open-source contributions
Ability to simplify complex problems, drive clarity, and align diverse stakeholders in technical direction.
Excellent debugging and system design skills in distributed environments.
Experience implementing benchmarking services for throughput and quality automation for backend systems.
Deep understanding with OpenTelemetry and observability best practices.
Excellent communication, influencing, and stakeholder management skills.
Startup experience is strongly preferred
Why Join AirAsia MOVE?
Build impactful products used by millions across ASEAN.
Work with seasoned engineers and cross-functional experts.
Flat structure, fast decisions, no bureaucracy.
High trust, high responsibility culture with space to lead and innovate.
Employee travel perks and regional exposure.
We are all different - one talent to another - that is how we rely on our differences. At AirAsia, you will be treated fairly and given all chances to be your best.We are committed to creating a diverse work environment and are proud to be an equal opportunity employer.
Search Firm Representatives - AirAsia does not accept unsolicited assistance from search firms for employment opportunities. All CVs / resumes submitted by search firms to any employee at our company without a valid written search agreement in place will be deemed the sole property of our company. No fee will be paid in the event a candidate is hired by our company as a result of an agency referral where no pre-existing agreement is in place.
Job Requirements
Company Benefits
Comprehensive Benefits Package
The company offers various perks such as travel discounts, which include reduced rates for flights and access to e-coupon schemes.
Career Development Opportunities
The company invests in its employees through training programs, workshops, and skill development initiatives.
Dynamic Work Environment
The company is known for its innovative culture and encourages employees to bring creative ideas to the table.
Additional Info
Company Activity
Last active - few hours ago
Experience Level
0 - 10 Years of Experience