principal Software engineer

Sabre is the global leader in innovative technology that leads the travel industry. We are always looking for bright and driven people who have a passion for technology, are builders at heart, and want to solve complex, large-scale problems. If you are interested in challenging work, being part of a global team, and shaping the future of cloud-native platforms through technology, analytics, and Agile practices—then Sabre is right for you.

The Revenue Optimization Team is expanding as we modernize our platforms, transition fully to the cloud, and build next-generation, highly scalable software solutions. We are seeking a Principal Software Engineer who brings deep technical expertise, architectural vision, and engineering leadership to drive cloud-native application development on Google Cloud Platform (GCP).

The successful candidate is a seasoned technologist who understands the full software lifecycle—from architecture and design to development, deployment, and operations—and plays a key role in setting technical direction across teams and systems.

Responsibilities

Technical Leadership & Architecture

• Serve as a technical authority across multiple applications, services, and platforms.
• Define and drive cloud-native architecture standards and best practices aligned with GCP.
• Own end-to-end system design for complex, distributed, and high-scale solutions.
• Partner with Architects to influence long-term technical roadmaps and platform evolution.
• Proactively identify and eliminate systemic architectural risks and technical debt.
  
  

• Lead modernization initiatives to transition legacy systems to cloud-native, microservices-based architectures.
• Design, develop, and review high-quality, production-grade code.
• Drive performance, scalability, reliability, security, and cost optimization across systems.
• Lead deep technical reviews for critical components and cross-team integrations.
• Take a hands-on role in prototyping and proof-of-concepts to validate architectural decisions.
  
  

• Champion GCP-native services (GKE, Cloud Run, Pub/Sub, BigQuery, Cloud SQL, Spanner, etc.).
• Influence CI/CD, infrastructure-as-code, observability, and reliability practices in partnership with platform teams.
• Guide teams on designing for resilience, fault tolerance, disaster recovery, and multi-region deployments.
• Drive engineering decisions with a strong understanding of cloud cost optimization (FinOps).
  
  

• Mentor and guide Lead and Senior Engineers, raising the technical bar across teams.
• Foster a culture of engineering rigor, innovation, and continuous improvement.
• Collaborate closely with Product Management to translate business strategy into scalable technical solutions.
• Influence engineering practices beyond immediate team boundaries.
  
  

• 12+ years of professional experience building enterprise-grade software systems.
• Proven experience operating at a Lead or Principal Engineer level in complex environments.
  
  

• Strong hands-on experience designing and building applications using Java or another major programming language (e.g., Go, Python, C#).
• Deep expertise in microservices architecture, RESTful APIs, and distributed systems.
• Strong experience with SQL and NoSQL databases, data modeling, and data-intensive applications.
• Expertise in cloud-native design principles (stateless services, scalability, resiliency).
  
  

• Strong experience building and operating systems on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) (preferred) or equivalent public cloud.
• Proficiency with containers and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes, GKE).
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines, Git-based workflows, and automation.
• Strong understanding of observability, monitoring, alerting, and production operations.
  
  

• Experience with Big Data and data engineering technologies (e.g., BigQuery, Spark, data pipelines).
• Proven ability to optimize system performance, scalability, and cloud cost efficiency.
  
  

• Exceptional problem-solving and analytical skills.
• Ability to influence without authority and lead through technical credibility.
• Strong communication skills, capable of articulating complex technical concepts to diverse audiences.
• Willingness to continuously learn, adapt, and innovate in fast-changing environments.
  
  

• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science or related field (required).
• Master’s Degree in Computer Science or related field (preferred).