Senior Principal Engineer, Platform & AI Transformation

Build the System Behind the Grab SuperApp

We are a SuperApp operating at massive scale across transport, food, commerce, ads, merchant platforms, and enterprise services. Within this ecosystem, BECO (Business Ecosystem) powers the foundational platforms that connect merchants, consumers, ads, transactions, search, and intelligence.

We are now entering our next phase:

• Embedding G/AI into the engineering nervous system

• Raising reliability to utility-grade standards

• Unifying siloed platforms into a cohesive ecosystem

• Accelerating new businesses with AI-native architecture

To do this, we are hiring a Senior Principal Engineer — a rare, high-leverage individual contributor who will shape the technical trajectory of a 300+ engineer organisation. This role reports directly to the Head of BECO.

Why This Role Is Special

Most Principal roles influence a team. Some influence a domain. This role influences an entire engineering organisation. You will operate across five major departments spanning: 1). Merchant platforms, 2). Search & personalisation, 3). Ads & monetisation, 4). Transaction systems, 5). Enterprise capabilities

You are not here to own a microservice. You are here to evolve the system.

The Mission

1. Turn AI Into Engineering Leverage

We are moving beyond “AI demos.” You will help architect and scale:

• AI-assisted development workflows

• Agentic operational automation

• Reliability guardrails powered by AI

• Safe, test-backed automation systems

The goal is measurable improvement in:

• Engineering velocity

• Code quality

• Operational efficiency

You will shape how AI becomes embedded into how engineers work — not as a tool, but as infrastructure.

2. Build Reliability That Feels Invisible

We believe reliability should feel like running water — always there, never noticed. You will:

• Raise prevention standards across critical systems

• Institutionalise chaos engineering as discipline

• Strengthen detection and recovery mechanisms

• Reduce incident impact structurally, not reactively

This is about engineering maturity at scale.

3. Break Platform Silos

Search, Ads, Promo, Transactions, Data — today these evolve in parallel. We are building a unified ecosystem where:

• Ranking frameworks converge

• User understanding powers multiple surfaces

• Data infrastructure reduces cost and instability

• Shared capabilities unlock new business models

You will design the connective tissue that makes platformisation real.

4. Architect for Pattern-Breaking Growth

We are launching new businesses in e-commerce, AI agents, conversational transactions, and gamified engagement experiences. The challenge: Move fast without creating tomorrow’s technical debt. You will:

• Design clean 0→1 foundations

• Define execution models optimised for velocity

• Enable AI-native product experiences

• Balance exploration with ecosystem coherence