Lead Software Engineer, Backend (Payments)

About Grab and Our Workplace

Grab is Southeast Asia's leading superapp. From getting your favourite meals delivered to helping you manage your finances and getting around town hassle-free, we've got your back with everything. In Grab, purpose gives us joy and habits build excellence, while harnessing the power of Technology and AI to deliver the mission of driving Southeast Asia forward by economically empowering everyone, with heart, hunger, honour, and humility.

Get to Know the Team

The Payments PayCore team consolidates Grab's diverse payment stacks into a single, cohesive payment platform — the financial backbone that powers transactions across all of Grab's business units and partners. We own critical platform components including the Payment Platform, Driver Payouts, and Fee Platform, as well as the Dax ledger that underpins Grab's payment capabilities. We build and operate distributed systems that process millions of transactions daily, where correctness, consistency, and scale are non-negotiable. Concepts like Idempotency, Two-Phase Commit, Event Sourcing, and the Saga pattern are central to the systems we design and evolve.

Get to Know the Role

We're looking for an experienced Lead Software Engineer, Backend to join our engineering team in Singapore. In this role, you'll drive technical and innovation across our backend systems, leading a team of experienced engineers while architecting scalable solutions that impact millions of users. You'll take ownership of critical backend services, mentor engineers, and collaborate across product, design, and infrastructure teams to deliver reliable, high-performance systems that power our organization's core capabilities.

You will report to the Engineering Manager II.

You will be working on-site at Grab Office in Singapore.

The Critical Tasks You Will Perform

• Set technical direction and lead the design of backend services that improve availability, scalability, latency, and overall system performance
• Write high-quality, maintainable code in Go or Java and guide engineers toward best practices through thoughtful design and code reviews
• Lead architectural improvements across backend systems, partnering with engineers across teams to build solutions that scale with growing demand
• Collaborate with infrastructure and DevOps teams to evolve service foundations, enhance observability, and ensure smooth deployment of new features
• Mentor and develop engineers on your team, fostering their technical growth and creating a healthy, inclusive, and collaborative engineering environment
• Work closely with product and design teams to understand requirements, validate technical assumptions, and build reliable, customer-focused experiences
• Analyze system performance, identify bottlenecks, and implement optimizations to ensure efficient resource utilization
• Identify and solve complex technical challenges, balancing innovation with pragmatism
• Contribute to architectural decisions and technical strategy that align with organizational goals and business objectives

What Essential Skills You Will Need

• 10+ years of professional experience in backend software engineering or a related field
• Expert-level proficiency in Go, Java, or similar backend programming languages
• Strong knowledge of backend systems architecture, including databases, caching layers, NoSQL systems, and application servers
• Demonstrated expertise in designing and building distributed systems that are scalable, reliable, and performant
• Solid understanding of computer science fundamentals including data structures, algorithms, and operating systems
• Proven experience deploying and managing applications in cloud environments (AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud)
• Experience with OLTP systems and performance optimization techniques
• Track record of building consumer-facing products and understanding user-centric design principles
• Strong system design and architectural thinking skills
• Demonstrated leadership experience mentoring engineers and fostering technical growth
• Experience with code quality practices, testing strategies, and continuous integration/deployment pipelines
• Experience in the payments domain or fintech industry is a plus
• Experience with microservices architecture and event-driven systems

Life at Grab

We care about your well-being at Grab, here are some of the global benefits we offer:

• We have your back with Term Life Insurance and comprehensive Medical Insurance.
• With GrabFlex, create a benefits package that suits your needs and aspirations.
• Celebrate moments that matter in life with loved ones through Parental and Birthday leave, and give back to your communities through Love-all-Serve-all (LASA) volunteering leave
• We have a confidential Grabber Assistance Programme to guide and uplift you and your loved ones through life's challenges.
• Balancing personal commitments and life's demands are made easier with our FlexWork arrangements such as differentiated hours

What We Stand For at Grab

We are committed to building an inclusive and equitable workplace that enables diverse Grabbers to grow and perform at their best. As an equal opportunity employer, we consider all candidates fairly and equally regardless of nationality, ethnicity, religion, age, gender identity, sexual orientation, family commitments, physical and mental impairments or disabilities, and other attributes that make them unique.