About the Role
Being a Principal Engineer at Uber isn’t about sitting in an ivory tower; it’s about being in the trenches of the most complex technical challenges we face. At this level, your impact isn't measured by a single feature, but by the technical trajectory of entire organizations. You will lead the Safety and Core Services mission from our **Sao Paulo Tech Center** —a critical global hub that is expanding at a breakneck pace.
Sao Paulo is at the heart of Uber’s growth strategy. It is one of our most complex and high-volume markets, making it the ultimate proving ground for safety innovations. As a Principal Engineer here, you aren't just supporting global systems; you are leveraging the unique challenges of the Latin American landscape to build platforms that protect users worldwide. This role is high-stakes and high-ambiguity. If you are a pragmatic technologist who acts as a humble teacher and cares about building things that actually work in the real world—this is where you’ll make your mark.
Core Services is the foundation of Uber’s entire ecosystem. Without the systems you will lead—Safety, Identity, Risk, and Payments—the Uber app doesn't just stop working; it loses the trust of millions. Every time a rider joins the platform, a driver gets paid, or a trip is monitored for safety, they are relying on the invisible, high-scale architecture of Core Services. You are responsible for the heartbeat of the company.
What You’ll Do
Architect for the Real World: Design and maintain systems within Safety, Identity, and Risk that support millions of daily movements, where performance, safety, and scale can’t be separated.
Navigate Massive Complexity: Foresee architectural problems and opportunities 1–2 years out, making intelligent bets on high-impact innovations and knowing when to "fail fast."
Drive Strategic Impact: Lead org-wide engineering projects through every messy stage—from idea inception and stakeholder tension to productionization and operations.
Unblock and Multiply: Act as a force multiplier by identifying architectural gaps and reducing technical debt across multiple organizations, ensuring systems are designed to be extensible and modular.
Lead Through Influence: Build strategic relationships across Product, Data Science, and Operations to ship practical solutions at speed, navigating competing priorities and influencing without control.
Uphold the Bar: Champion engineering excellence by role-modeling code health, testing, and design clarity, even when the pace is fast and the pressure is high.
Mentor and Rally: Inspire and coach the next generation of Uber’s technical leaders, fostering an inclusive culture where diverse perspectives are leveraged to solve our hardest problems.
Basic Qualifications
- Foundational Knowledge: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or a related field.
- Proven Track Record: 10+ years of full-time software engineering experience, with a focus on building and launching services to millions of global users.
- Scale Expertise: Experience building real-time applications that handle hundreds of thousands of requests per second and manage complex downstream dependencies.
- Leadership Depth: Demonstrated experience leading large-scale engineering projects that span multiple teams and geographic regions.
Preferred Qualifications
- Advanced Expertise: PhD in a technical field and 12+ years of experience in global-scale product architecture.
- Systems Thinking: A track record of building long-lasting engineering artifacts that reduce complexity and increase developer velocity across the company.
- Resilience and Adaptability: Experience working in high-growth, ambiguous environments where you’ve had to balance long-term technical health with urgent business needs.
Perks
- The rare opportunity to change the world such that everyone around you is using the product you built. We’re not just another social web app, we’re moving real people and assets and reinventing transportation and logistics globally.
- Sharp, motivated co-workers in a fun office environment.
Uber's mission is to reimagine the way the world moves for the better. Here, bold ideas create real-world impact, challenges drive growth, and speed fuelds progress. What moves us, moves the world - let’s move it forward, together.
Offices continue to be central to collaboration and Uber's cultural identity. Unless formally approved to work fully remotely, Uber expects employees to spend at least half of their work time in their assigned office. For certain roles, such as those based at green-light hubs, employees are expected to be in-office for 100% of their time. Please speak with your recruiter to better understand in-office expectations for this role.
*Accommodations may be available based on religious and/or medical conditions, or as required by applicable law. To request an accommodation, please reach out to accommodations@uber.com.