Principal Engineer

Shape scalable tech. Lead with impact.

Why is this role made for you?

You’ve built solid systems. You’ve mentored teams. Now you’re ready to take ownership—architecting solutions that scale across Europe while guiding other engineers to grow.

We’re looking for a Principal Engineer living in the Netherlands who’s ready to lead from within: technically sharp, culturally aware, and business-savvy. You’ll bridge vision and execution in a role where your leadership directly accelerates international growth.

What you’ll do

Architect & Guide

• Design modular, scalable systems (Java/Spring Boot & Angular) built to grow
• Shape long-term architecture with an eye for quality and team autonomy
• Align cross-domain tech initiatives with business strategy

Mentor & Empower

• Be the go-to for engineering questions, decisions, and growth
• Coach senior and medior engineers in best practices and architectural thinking
• Stimulate ownership and learning in every sprint

Set Standards

• Define and document best practices for backend, frontend, and DevOps
• Elevate CI/CD, test automation, observability, and release pipelines
• Champion clean code, system resilience, and performance tuning

Collaborate & Align

• Work closely with Dutch and international colleagues—Product Owners, Platform Leads, Engineering Managers
• Ensure shared vision across all engineering efforts

Cloud & Infrastructure

• Lead AWS optimization (EC2, Lambda, RDS, S3, CloudWatch)
• Promote Infrastructure as Code (CDK/Terraform), security, and automation

Drive Innovation

• Introduce practical tools like domain-driven design, event-driven architecture, and micro-frontends where they fit
• Continuously improve what already works—and know what to leave alone

Here’s what we offer you

• A competitive salary between € 6000 - 8500 gross per month based on 40 h/w, depending on your experience
• 8,33% holiday allowance
• 27 vacation days, with the option to purchase additional days
• A fully premium-free pension with BeFrank
• Excellent bonus schemes
• A net internet allowance of €60,- per month

What we expect from you

• 8+ years of experience in software engineering (min. 2 years in Principal/Staff/Tech Lead role)
• Deep Java expertise with Spring Boot in distributed systems
• Strong Angular experience (frontend patterns, performance, scalability)
• Real-world AWS experience, especially with cloud-native development
• Infrastructure as code (CDK/Terraform), CI/CD pipelines, test automation
• You live and work in the Netherlands
• Fluent in English (Dutch is a bonus, not a must)
• Strategic and practical: you balance delivery with long-term quality
• Trusted by peers and stakeholders—you're a listener, mentor, and builder
• Resilient, proactive, and ready for growth

Bonus if you have

• Led modernization efforts (replatforming, DDD, legacy refactoring)
• Experience with micro-frontends or event-driven systems
• JVM or Angular performance optimization at scale
• Experience navigating international rollouts from the Netherlands

Jouw voordelen bij HeadFirst Group

27 vakantiedagen

Én de mogelijkheid tot bij- of verkopen van dagen. Wij werken hard, maar vergeten niet te ontspannen.

Viermomenten

Met meer dan 450 collega's hebben wij altijd iets te vieren. Als één team staan wij stil bij verjaardagen, jubilea en andere successen!

OpenUp & HeadFirst Group Academy

Werk aan je mentale gezondheid met toegang tot het platform OpenUp. Wij leren elke dag en daarom kun je bij ons gratis opleidingen en cursussen volgen om jezelf te blijven ontwikkelen.

Bonusregeling

Je doelen behalen en dit terugzien in de vorm van een bonus? Dat kan bij ons! Hard werken wordt beloond.

Hybride werken

Werk op één van onze 4 locaties, thuis, of op elke andere plek waar jij je prettig voelt. Uiteraard ontvang jij een mobiliteits- en thuiswerkvergoeding vanuit ons.

Ons hoofdkantoor

Maak gebruik van de gratis sportfaciliteiten, fijne werkplekken en geniet van een heerlijk lunchbuffet. Een geduchte concurrent van thuis!