Principal Backend Engineer

Full Time📍 Chandigarh IT Park⏱ 8 - 10 years

Job Description

Experience: 10+ years

Job Location: Chandigarh

Tech Stack: PHP, Node.js, Laravel, MySQL, MongoDB

Additional Requirement: Strong Project Management experience with proven expertise in team leadership, stakeholder management, and end-to-end delivery ownership.

Role Overview: As a Principal Engineer, you will lead and drive large-scale engineering initiatives while managing projects, teams, and technical strategy. You will play a key role in planning, execution, architecture discussions, mentoring engineering teams, and ensuring timely delivery of scalable technology solutions.The ideal candidate should bring deep technical expertise along with strong project management capabilities and experience leading cross-functional teams. This role requires balancing hands-on technical leadership with execution ownership and people management.

Key ResponsibilitiesBackend Architecture & Technical Leadership

Own and evolve backend architecture across PHP (CodeIgniter/Laravel) and Node.js services.
Lead architecture discussions and guide technical decisions across teams.
Design scalable systems using microservices or modular architecture principles.
Review system design, implementation approaches, and engineering workflows.
Drive engineering best practices, coding standards, and scalability initiatives.
Review and approve Pull Requests (PRs) while ensuring code quality, maintainability, and adherence to engineering standards.
Establish PR review processes and mentor teams on clean coding and review practices.
Conduct code reviews and provide technical guidance to engineering teams.

Project Management & Execution

Own end-to-end project planning, execution, delivery timelines, and resource allocation.
Lead multiple engineering projects while ensuring quality and timely delivery.
Define project roadmaps, sprint planning, milestones, and execution strategies.
Identify risks, dependencies, and proactively drive mitigation plans.
Ensure alignment between business goals and technical execution.
Track project progress and provide visibility to leadership teams.

Team Leadership & Stakeholder Management

Lead, mentor, and manage engineering teams across multiple projects.
Collaborate with Product, Engineering, and Leadership teams to define priorities and technical strategy.
Act as a bridge between technical teams and business stakeholders.
Communicate project status, challenges, and execution plans to leadership.
Foster a high-performance, ownership-driven engineering culture.

Scalability, Security & Performance

Ensure applications and systems are scalable, secure, and highly available.
Optimize performance through caching, indexing, job queues, and efficient system design.
Drive process improvements and engineering efficiency initiatives.
Support infrastructure scaling and performance optimization initiatives.

Who Are You?

10+ years of software engineering experience with strong backend expertise.
Strong hands-on experience with PHP, Node.js, Laravel, MySQL, and MongoDB.
Proven experience managing engineering teams and large-scale projects.
Strong experience with project planning, stakeholder management, and delivery ownership.
Experience reviewing Pull Requests (PRs), maintaining coding standards, and mentoring teams.
Strong system design and architecture expertise.
Excellent communication, leadership, and problem-solving skills.
Ability to balance technical leadership with execution and people management.

Good to Have