About Appier 

Appier is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to power business decision-making. Founded in 2012 with a vision of democratizing AI, Appier’s mission is turning AI into ROI by making software intelligent. Appier now has 17 offices across APAC, Europe and U.S., and is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (Ticker number: 4180). Visit www.appier.com for more information.

About the role

We're looking for an experienced data engineer to build and scale our data infrastructure. You'll work on mission-critical systems that power our data-driven decision making, designing robust pipelines and optimizing distributed platforms that process massive datasets.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain production data pipelines processing hundreds of terabytes of data daily across distributed systems
• Build, manage, and optimize large-scale data platforms including Spark clusters, Kafka clusters, and related big data infrastructure
• Develop and operate data warehouse systems and ETL pipelines for data collection, processing, storage, and analytics
• Profile and tune performance of critical components to optimize throughput, reduce latency, and improve resource efficiency
• Establish architectural foundations and engineering best practices for the platform
• Design frameworks and tooling to streamline software development, deployment, monitoring, and observability
• Provide technical expertise and guidance on big data system design, performance optimization, and scalability challenges

About you

[Minimum qualifications]

• BS/MS degree in Computer Science or related technical field
• 2+ years of hands-on experience building and operating large-scale distributed systems
• Proficiency in Java and/or Scala for production-level development
• Proven experience building ETL pipelines and data processing workflows using Apache Spark
• Experience managing and optimizing data lakes or data warehouses at scale
• Ability to work independently and adapt quickly in fast-paced, dynamic environments
• Self-motivated learner who takes ownership, manages multiple priorities effectively, and thrives in collaborative team settings
• Experience deploying and managing infrastructure on public cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure)

[Preferred qualifications]

• Proficiency in Python and/or Golang for building production systems
• Experience profiling and optimizing JVM performance for high-throughput applications
• Hands-on experience managing and operating data platforms such as Hadoop, Kafka, Flink, Hive, Trino, Presto, or ClickHouse
• Knowledge of modern open table formats including Apache Iceberg, Delta Lake, or Hudi 
• Active contributions to open source projects (please include your GitHub profile if applicable)

#LI-AK1

An overview of this role

GitLab is seeking a Principal Engineer to set technical direction for our most critical infrastructure platforms. This role operates at organizational scale, owning architecture, solving complex systems problems, and driving initiatives that shape how GitLab grows, performs, and remains reliable.

As a Principal Engineer, you will serve as a technical authority and force multiplier, leading architectural decisions across distributed and cloud-native systems to translate business strategy into durable technical direction. Spanning multiple teams and domains, you will bring clarity to ambiguity, raise engineering standards, and mentor senior talent while remaining accountable for real production outcomes. This is a hands-on, high-impact role for leaders who drive success through influence and shape the foundational platforms that the entire organization depends on.

Organizational Focus Areas

Principal Engineers at GitLab drive strategy across our most critical infrastructure and delivery groups. Role placement across the following tracks is determined by business need and organizational priority.

Group Tenant Scale (GTS)

This track builds GitLab’s next generation, multi-tenant, horizontally scalable, and resilient SaaS platform. You will architect the foundations that enable other engineering teams to build upon this platform and drive convergence among GitLab’s various platforms..

• Core Focus: Lead the design and evolution of projects that enable our distributed, multi-tenant SaaS transformation, including Cells, Organizations, and OrgMover.
• Distributed Architecture: Architect for zero downtime, transparent relocation, and application hardening in a massive distributed environment.
• Strategic Decisions: Guide architecture decisions with availability, reliability, resiliency, performance, and cost in mind.

GitLab Delivery 

The GitLab Delivery track focuses on enhancing the reliability, efficiency, and speed of GitLab’s end-to-end software delivery across all platforms and offerings.

• Core Focus: Lead the platform strategy spanning Developer Experience, CI infrastructure, packaging, and release delivery across SaaS, Self-Managed, and Dedicated.
• Developer Experience: Treat GitLab engineers as customers, building self-service tooling, testing infrastructure, and paved paths that increase velocity while maintaining quality.
• Delivery at Scale: Architect reliable, automated pipelines that streamline how GitLab is packaged, released, and deployed across all platforms and offerings.

What You'll Do

• Own and drive the architectural direction for critical infrastructure platforms that support GitLab at global scale.
• Lead the design and evolution of large platforms and distributed systems that are scalable, resilient, secure, and cost-efficient.
• Serve as the technical authority on complex initiatives, guiding decisions that impact multiple teams and product areas.
• Translate business and product strategy into long-term technical roadmaps and execution plans.
• Drive alignment across engineering, product, and leadership by clearly communicating tradeoffs and recommendations.
• Establish technical standards and architectural patterns that raise quality and consistency across the organization.
• Be accountable for production outcomes, including reliability, performance, and operational excellence.
• Mentor senior engineers and act as a force multiplier through influence rather than direct authority.
• Operate effectively in ambiguous problem spaces where both the problem and the solution need to be defined.

What You'll Bring

• Proven experience designing and evolving large-scale platforms or distributed systems in cloud-native environments.
• Strong proficiency in Golang and/or Ruby, with the ability to contribute to, review, and guide core architectural changes in production codebases.
• Strong architectural judgment, including the ability to balance scalability, reliability, performance, security, and cost.
• Experience owning platform-level technical decisions that impacted multiple teams or an entire engineering domain.
• Solid understanding of Kubernetes-based environments as a production platform, including how they influence system design, deployment models, reliability, and operational complexity.
• Experience being accountable for production systems, not just design recommendations.
• Ability to author and drive long-term technical strategy and multi-month roadmaps.
• Track record of leading through influence and shaping technical direction without direct authority.
• Comfort making high-impact technical decisions, including build vs buy vs partner tradeoffs.
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to explain complex technical concepts to engineers, leadership, and non-technical stakeholders.

About the team

The Principal Engineer role sits within GitLab’s Infrastructure Platforms organization, working across multiple teams to shape how our platform scales and operates. This group is responsible for some of GitLab’s most critical systems, including the multi-tenant SaaS platform, core delivery pipelines, and the underlying infrastructure that powers millions of users. As a Principal Engineer, you’ll define technical direction, guide architectural decisions, and ensure our platforms remain resilient, performant, and modern. The team operates fully remotely and collaborates asynchronously across time zones, grounded in GitLab’s values of transparency, autonomy, and open communication. You’ll help the organization tackle complex distributed systems challenges at scale while mentoring other engineers and building a culture focused on reliability, efficiency, and continuous improvement.

We are hiring for one of our ecosystem projects, an innovative AI and Web3 company building an Ethereum Layer 2 solution integrated with advanced AI agents. As the first engineer dedicated to this initiative, you will play a pivotal role in its development, with potential opportunities to build and lead a team in the future.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and implement AI platforms, encompassing both front-end interfaces and back-end services.
• Collaborate with other developers and AI engineers on data preprocessing, model training, and optimization.
• Deploy AI models into production environments, ensuring performance, scalability, and reliability.
• Develop and maintain data processing pipelines to ensure data quality and consistency.
• Stay updated on AI technology trends, advocating for the integration of new technologies into our products.
• Contribute to other projects based on the company’s product development progress

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, or a related field.
• 5 years of full-stack development experience, proficient in both front-end and back-end technologies.
• Expertise in front-end and back-end technologies (especially Golang)
• Eager to explore and could use new technologies related to AI that help improve working efficiency
• Strong curiosity and willingness to explore new product directions, identify potential AI applications, and contribute to product innovation.
• Familiarity with Web3, blockchain, and the crypto industry, with insights into different product models and a personal perspective on industry trends and innovations.
• Excellent communication skills and a collaborative team spirit, with the ability to independently solve problems and take initiative.

Preferred Qualifications

• Knowledge in data processing and analysis will be a plus, with knowledge of SQL and NoSQL databases such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, or MongoDB.
• Experience in deploying and optimizing AI agent
• Experience contributing to open-source projects
• Build high-performance APIs and microservices to support large-scale Web3 application
• Familiarity with large-scale data processing technologies such as Hadoop or Spark.