Principal Software Engineer📣 Job Ad

About the Role

Hays is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to serve as a technical authority within the Product Engineering & Technology (PET) division. This full-time, hands-on leadership position in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, requires an experienced software architect and engineering practitioner. The role involves defining the technical direction for flagship cybersecurity products and driving the adoption of sovereign cryptography and Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) principles across the technology ecosystem. The successful candidate will architect and deliver high-assurance software solutions for enterprise and highly sensitive sovereign, air-gapped infrastructures, establish engineering standards, and govern secure software development practices.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and lead the architecture, development, and deployment of highly resilient backend services using Python and FastAPI.
• Establish and enforce engineering standards, coding practices, and architectural principles.
• Design scalable microservices architectures for connected and disconnected sovereign environments.
• Embed advanced cryptographic controls, including sovereign cryptographic frameworks, secure key management, PQC readiness, and secure data protection.
• Ensure compliance with NCA Essential Cybersecurity Controls (ECC) and other security frameworks.
• Lead the design and development of modern frontend platforms using ***, JavaScript, and TypeScript.
• Architect seamless integration between application platforms and specialized cybersecurity hardware appliances in Operational Technology (OT) environments.
• Ensure reliable real-time communication, synchronization, and data integrity across distributed systems.
• Drive frontend performance optimization, scalability, and maintainability.

Technical Leadership and Engineering Excellence

• Act as the highest technical escalation point for complex software engineering challenges.
• Mentor senior engineers and technical leads, fostering a culture of engineering excellence.
• Define and mandate best practices for software architecture, code quality, system reliability, security engineering, and performance optimization.
• Review critical architectural decisions and provide authoritative technical direction.

Secure Software Development Lifecycle (SSDLC)

• Champion and enforce SSDLC practices across all engineering teams.
• Establish security-first engineering processes from project inception through deployment and maintenance.
• Design and implement secure CI/CD pipelines leveraging GitLab CI/CD.
• Drive automated security validation, including Static Application Security Testing (SAST), Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST), dependency and container security scanning, and infrastructure security validation.
• Ensure software releases meet stringent security and quality standards before deployment.

Strategic Architecture and Innovation

• Define the long-term technical roadmap for software platforms and engineering practices.
• Lead initiatives to reduce technical debt while maintaining delivery velocity.
• Evaluate and introduce emerging technologies, frameworks, and cryptographic approaches.
• Support the organization’s strategic vision for sovereign cybersecurity solutions and secure digital transformation.

Qualifications

• A minimum of 10 years of experience in software engineering.
• Demonstrated expertise in software architecture and engineering practices.
• Proficiency in Python, FastAPI, ***, JavaScript, and TypeScript.
• Experience with sovereign cryptography, Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC), and secure key management.
• Familiarity with NCA Essential Cybersecurity Controls (ECC) and secure software development lifecycles.