Principal Software Engineer (Networking)

Location: Portugal

Salary: €76,000–€98,400 EUR starting base salary per year; no variable compensation component.

Company

hirify.global develops the hirify.global Search AI Platform for search, security, and observability across structured and unstructured data.

What you will do

• Set the technical direction for major hirify.global Cloud application networking initiatives from proposal through general availability.
• Lead the development of large-scale Ingress, private connectivity, DNS, and security control systems.
• Own multi-quarter, cross-organizational projects and guide them through delivery.
• Improve service performance, reliability, operability, security, stability, and cost efficiency.
• Lead complex incident investigations and reviews, participate in the on-call rotation, and mentor engineers across the organization.
• Advise product management and senior engineering stakeholders on technical trade-offs, feasibility, and roadmap direction.

Requirements

• Staff- or Principal-level experience setting technical direction for complex distributed systems running at production scale.
• Deep expertise in application networking and cloud-native architecture, including Ingress, private connectivity, DNS, and security controls.
• Experience building and operating large-scale distributed systems and high-availability SaaS platforms.
• Experience owning projects end to end, coordinating multiple engineers, and collaborating across teams and functions.
• Hands-on experience with Kubernetes networking, including Cilium, external-dns, Envoy Gateway, and Crossplane, plus at least one of AWS, Azure, or GCP.
• Experience using AI to accelerate development, debug complex systems, and optimize code, while retaining ownership of outcomes.

Nice to have

• Contributions to CNCF or other open-source networking projects.

Culture & Benefits

• Distributed working environment with flexible locations and schedules available for many roles.
• Competitive pay based on the work performed rather than previous salary.
• Health coverage for employees and families in many locations.
• Generous vacation allowance and a minimum of 16 weeks of parental leave.
• Up to $2,000 or local-currency equivalent matched for financial donations, plus up to 40 volunteer hours annually.
• Responsibilities include following security and privacy policies, the Secure Software Development Framework, and mandatory role-based training.