Principal Software Engineer, Full Stack

Skylo is a global Non-Terrestrial Network service provider based in Mountain View, CA, offering a service that allows smartphone and IoT cellular devices to connect directly over existing satellites. Skylo’s direct-to-device service is now live on millions of activated devices across five continents, with more than 60 million square kilometers of coverage, in partnership with multiple satellite operators, mobile network operators (MNOs), Tier-1 chipset makers, and OEMs. Devices connected over satellite are managed and served by Skylo's commercial NTN vRAN, featuring a 3GPP standards-based cloud-native base station and core. Skylo provides an anywhere, anytime connectivity solution that seamlessly roams between terrestrial and satellite networks. Our focus is on enabling connected services for people outdoors and connected workflows across three main verticals: mass-market consumer devices, automotive, and industrial IoT.

This role is located in Bangalore, India where we are onsite 3 days a week in office. 

Skylo is hiring a Principal Software Engineer for the Connectivity Platform team, you will be a technical cornerstone, helping fulfill Skylo's mission of making satellite connectivity available to all. This is a senior, hands-on Individual Contributor role for an architect-level engineer who is driven by technical excellence and has a passion for mentoring others. You will be a technical authority, responsible for driving the architecture, design, and implementation of our most critical product features and services.  Your influence will extend across multiple functional groups, ensuring that our backend platform is scalable, resilient, and built to the highest standards. You will lead by example, setting the bar for engineering quality and guiding teams through complex technical challenges, elevating the skills of the entire team.

• Architect and Design: Lead the design and architecture of complex, large-scale, and distributed backend systems. You will take ownership of critical architecture decisions, design patterns, and infrastructure choices.
• Drive Technical Strategy: Define and steer the technical strategy for major components and product features, working closely with engineering leadership, product managers, and other key stakeholders.
• Lead Implementation: Own and lead the implementation of large-scale features, from initial design and prototyping through to testing and deployment. You will be hands-on, solving the most challenging technical problems.
• Champion Engineering Excellence: Drive a culture of high quality and continuous improvement through rigorous code and design reviews. You will champion best practices like clean code, test-driven development (TDD), and DevOps maturity.
• Mentor and Advise: Act as a technical advisor and mentor to senior, mid-level, and junior engineers, promoting best practices and elevating the technical skills of the team.
• Ensure Quality and Security: Define component test scenarios, drive API test automation, and ensure high code coverage. You will implement and enforce security best practices throughout the software development lifecycle.
• Optimize and Scale: Identify performance bottlenecks and lead initiatives to optimize system performance, scalability, and reliability.

• 16+ years of progressive experience in software engineering, with a strong focus on backend development and the architecture of distributed systems.
• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience).
• Technical Leadership: A proven track record of technical leadership, including owning the design of major features, mentoring engineers, and successfully driving engineering-wide initiatives.
• Backend Expertise: Deep proficiency in one or more programming languages (e.g., Java, Go, Python).
• Extensive experience with microservices architecture, API design (REST, gRPC), and API documentation (Swagger/OpenAPI).
• Strong expertise in data stores (SQL and NoSQL), caching systems (Redis, Memcached), and message queues (Kafka, RabbitMQ, or Pub/Sub).
• Frontend Expertise: Strong proficiency in modern frontend development with React.js or Angular.js.Demonstrable experience building complex, data-driven user interfaces, including interactive charts, graphs, and dashboards.
• A keen eye for user experience and the ability to translate raw data into intuitive visualizations.
• Cloud-Native Fluency: Solid understanding of cloud environments (AWS, GCP, or Azure). Hands-on experience with containerization (Docker), orchestration (Kubernetes), and building robust CI/CD pipelines (e.g., Jenkins, GitLab CI).
• Quality and Observability: Strong knowledge of engineering best practices, including automated testing frameworks (e.g., JUnit, TestNG).
• Experience with observability tools for monitoring, logging, and tracing (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, ELK/EFK stack, OpenTelemetry).
• Collaboration and Communication: Excellent communication skills with the ability to articulate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Proven ability to work cross-functionally and influence decisions through technical expertise.