Principal Software Engineer

Staff / Principal Engineer

Location · Gurgaon / Mumbai · 5 Days WFO

About Snapmint

Snapmint is on a mission to democratise no/low-cost instalment purchases for the next 200 million Indians. Of the 300 million credit-eligible consumers in India, fewer than 30 million actively use credit cards. Snapmint is reinventing credit for the next generation — giving people the freedom to buy what they want and pay in instalments, no credit card needed.

In a short span of time, Snapmint has reached over a million consumers across 2,200 cities, powering more than ₹2,000 crores in purchases. Founded by a closely-knit team of IIT Bombay alumni, bankers and technocrats, Snapmint is building the financial infrastructure that India's next 200 million deserve.

Leadership

Nalin, Anil, and Abhineet - IIT Bombay alumni and serial entrepreneurs — have built and scaled companies including Oyo, Ola, Holachef, Inrea, and Sodel Solutions. Since 2008, they have been at the frontier of big data, real-time predictive technologies, and algorithms spanning Ad-tech, Consumer Marketing, and eCommerce.

Sanjeev leads Engineering at Snapmint with deep consumer-tech expertise and a singular focus: scale the platform for the next 100 million consumers. This role reports to Sanjeev and will be his closest technical partner.

Why This Role Exists

Snapmint has crossed an inflection point. We have proven product-market fit, scaled to over a million users, and built a transaction engine that processes thousands of EMIs every day. What got us here won't get us to 50 million users.

Our systems need to evolve from fast-moving startup architecture to a resilient, secure, and extensible financial platform. We need someone who has the scars from scaling a real product, the instinct to move fast, and the depth to make the right architectural calls.

We are not looking for someone to manage what exists. We need someone who will challenge every assumption, redesign what needs to be redesigned, and take complete ownership of outcomes — from decision to delivery.

Scope of the Role

Own the Technical Architecture

• Define and own the end-to-end technology architecture — from design decisions to production code.
• Be the single accountable voice on architectural trade-offs — performance vs cost, velocity vs stability, build vs buy.
• Drive platform thinking — build for scale without over-engineering for the current stage.

Be Hands-on

• Write production code, review PRs, and debug critical issues alongside the team — not above it.
• Handle ambiguous, ad-hoc problems and ship quickly — iterate, learn, and own the outcome end to end.

Elevate the Team

• Raise the technical bar of existing engineers through code reviews, design sessions, and leading by example.
• Work directly with product owners and founders — translate business urgency into fast, sound technical decisions.

What You Bring

The Non-Negotiables

• 7–12 years of overall software engineering experience, with at least 2–4 years in a senior, staff, or architecture role.
• Degree from IIT, BITS, or a top NIT — strong CS fundamentals are the foundation.
• Startup-first background: has personally lived through at least one 1→10 or 10x growth journey and knows what breaks at each stage.
• Still writes production code — you can whiteboard a solution and then write it. Not in review-and-approval mode.
• Any strong backend language — depth of system thinking matters far more than a specific stack.
• Takes full ownership of outcomes, not just tasks — accountable end-to-end, from decision to delivery.
• Self-starter who thrives in a high-pace, high-growth environment — comfortable with ad-hoc problems, shifting priorities, and incomplete information.
• Has built something significant from scratch — a platform, core service, or product — and can walk you through every decision made along the way.
• History of shipping: you move fast, cut the right corners, and know the difference between technical debt and technical risk.

Technical Depth

• Hands-on experience designing distributed systems that serve millions of users — you can whiteboard a solution and then write the code.
• Deep backend expertise with strong fluency in system design, data modelling, and API design.
• Strong command of relational and NoSQL databases and the trade-offs between them.
• Experience with AWS or GCP at serious production scale — infrastructure design, cost optimisation, security architecture.
• Experience with high-throughput transactional systems — fintech or lending domain is a strong plus.