Principal Engineer

About Xe

Xe operates as a cross-border payments platform serving SMEs and consumers in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Trusted by over 300 million users annually for currency information and more than 350,000 users for sending money internationally, Xe is in the process of rebuilding its platform layer for both corporate and consumer clients. Supported by Euronet Worldwide (Nasdaq: EEFT), the company combines large-scale challenges with fast-paced software delivery.

Role Overview

The Principal Engineer role is a senior individual contributor position focused on guiding complex, high-impact projects across the full technology stack while setting technical direction for others. The role emphasizes hands-on coding and mentorship over direct people management. A forward-thinking approach leveraging artificial intelligence tools is essential to enhance development and testing processes.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead engineering efforts on complex, high-impact problems spanning the full stack and define technical approaches foundational to other engineers' work.
• Establish and maintain technical standards and direction critical to platform consistency across multiple squads.
• Act as a force multiplier by elevating peers through design reviews, mentorship, sponsorship, and the adoption of AI-driven development methodologies, without managing direct reports.
• Maintain active involvement in producing production-quality code on priority projects requiring senior expertise.
• Collaborate with cross-functional partners—including product, design, compliance, and engineering leaders—to translate ambiguous objectives into clear, actionable technical plans.
• Consistent use of agentic coding assistants such as Copilot, Cursor, or Claude Code during all software development lifecycle stages, and lead efforts to modernize legacy services into a contemporary technology stack in cooperation with architects and team leads.

Qualifications

• Over eight years' experience developing production software encompassing the complete technology stack.
• Expertise in frontend technologies such as Vue.js, React, or analogous frameworks.
• Strong backend development skills, preferably in C# / .NET, or competence in object-oriented languages like Java, Kotlin, or Go.
• Proficient with frontend fundamentals including responsive design, accessibility, web optimization, and internationalization.
• Solid understanding of SQL and relational database concepts.
• Extensive experience in system design and architectural patterns including microservices, service-oriented architecture, and event-driven design.
• Proven ability to lead cross-team technical initiatives through influence and mentorship, focusing on raising technical standards rather than personal code output.
• Demonstrated capability in mentoring engineers via design reviews and technical guidance, without direct management responsibilities.
• Daily practical use of AI-based programming tools throughout the development lifecycle, coupled with a strategic perspective on integrating AI within engineering teams.
• Hands-on AWS production experience with deployments, continuous integration/delivery pipelines, and native services including SQS, DynamoDB, S3, ECS, and Lambda.
• Domain experience in payments, foreign exchange, or regulated sectors.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills to align technical teams and stakeholders effectively.

Preferred Skills

• Experience driving platform modernization projects or large-scale migrations.
• Proven record of developing engineering standards or technical strategies adopted across multiple teams.
• Familiarity with caching technologies like Memcached or Redis.
• Knowledge of project management and documentation tools such as Jira and Confluence.
• Experience writing automated tests alongside development using AI-assisted tools.

Perks & Benefits

• Birthday paid day off
• Incremental annual leave increased by service years (up to 5 extra days)
• Employer KiwiSaver contributions in addition to salary
• Healthcare coverage
• Discounts on Euronet Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP)
• One volunteering day annually for a charity of choice
• Onsite availability of fresh fruit, snacks, beverages, and coffee machine
• Access to mental health and wellness programs via Plumm

Diversity & Inclusion

Xe is dedicated to fostering an inclusive workplace representing diverse communities and is an equal employment opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will be considered regardless of age, race, ethnicity, disability, religion, gender identity or any legally protected characteristic. Reasonable accommodations are available upon request for individuals with disabilities.

Additional Information

The described responsibilities summarize general expectations for this position but do not enumerate all duties and may be adjusted as needed to meet company requirements.