Principal Engineer

Woolworths Group India is partnering exclusively with Zinnov Group to recruit for this position.

About the role

As the apex technical authority across the Information Management (IM) Data Engineering capability, the Principal Engineer sets the strategic technical direction, engineering standards, and architectural blueprints across all data domains. This role acts as a bridge between Enterprise Data Architecture and active engineering squads, driving the transition toward a unified, automated, and code-driven data platform.

Operating without direct reports or day-to-day project management duties, this role has the dedicated headspace required to champion engineering excellence, define modern CI/CD patterns, evaluate emerging technologies (such as Agentic AI and semantic layers), and curate career development pathways to uplift engineering talent across our Global Capability Centres (GCC) and onshore hubs.

The Principal Engineer serves as the definitive escalation point for our most complex data challenges, advising the executive leadership team on technical opportunities, operational risks, and industry trends.

What you’ll do

- Set and Own Technical Standards: Establish, govern, and enforce contemporary coding standards, data quality frameworks, testing protocols, and engineering patterns across all IM data products.
- Architect the Code Supply Chain: Lead the design and implementation of automated CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, release gates, and “infrastructure-as-code” models to streamline delivery and eliminate manual “click-ops” processes.
- Enforce Compliance & Tooling Standards: Ensure absolute alignment across engineering squads with standard enterprise tool chains (e.g., Google Cloud Platform, GitHub, Looker, Tableau, Collibra, and Ataccama).
- Provide Strategic Leadership Input: Act as a key advisor to the leadership team, highlighting technological opportunities, architectural risks, mitigation strategies, and industry trends (particularly regarding Agentic AI, LLM-orchestration, and advanced semantic layers).
- Uplift Engineering Capability: Design and champion clear coaching, mentoring, and technical career progression pathways for engineers in the Competency Centre.




- Establish Learning Mechanisms: Form and run Architecture Guilds, technical pairing sessions, and hands-on design workshops to elevate the domain's collective engineering maturity.
- Act as Apex Escalation Point: Serve as the deepest technical authority for debugging, performance tuning, and resolving the most complex, high-severity data pipeline and platform outages.
- Drive Alignment without Authority: Collaborate with Product Managers, Solution Architects, and Domain Leads to shape technical roadmaps, make trade-offs transparent, and ensure engineering designs are highly scalable, secure, and cost-effective.

What you’ll bring

- Authoritative Data Mastery: Expert-level mastery of cloud data engineering (specifically Google Cloud Platform/BigQuery), distributed processing, and enterprise-scale data warehouse design.
- CI/CD & Automation Architecture: Expert command of version control (Git, GitHub), automated release frameworks, and building robust, self-verifying CI/CD pipelines.
- Enterprise Tooling Governance: Direct hands-on capability across core BI, ingestion, and cataloging architectures, specifically Google Looker, Tableau, Collibra, and Ataccama.
- Strategic Systems Thinking: Proven ability to balance short-term delivery velocity against long-term architectural health, security posture, and commercial GCP/tooling costs.
- Talent Uplift & Pathway Design: Demonstrated ability to structure technical learning programs, assess skills gaps, and coach Senior and Lead Engineers on technical judgement without requiring formal management authority.
- Influencing & Communication: Exceptional communication and presentation skills, with a track record of translating highly complex data architectures into clear risk/reward narratives for executive business stakeholders.
- AI-First Developer Mindset:



High proficiency in integrating AI-assisted development practices (e.g., Cursor, GitHub Copilot) into the SDLC, setting standard practices for prompt optimization, evaluations, and LLM-guardrails across the team.

What you’ll experience

- Be a part of Australia’s largest retailer
- 20 days annual leave
- A flexible approach to work
- Premium insurance coverage for you and your dependants

Everyone belongs at Woolworths Group

Diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging are key to realising our purpose of better together for a better tomorrow. We recognise the value our team’s diversity brings to our business, customers, and communities and that teams with diverse experiences and backgrounds enrich our group and are better able to innovate and solve problems. As one of the largest employers in Australia and New Zealand, we aim to create a truly inclusive workplace where everyone feels that they belong, can be their best selves, and reach their full potential.

We encourage all candidates to apply; please let us know in your application if we can support you with any adjustments in the hiring process.

Your Personal Data

By submitting your application, you acknowledge and consent to Zinnov Management Consulting Private Limited and its subsidiaries (Zinnov) and/or Woolworths Group Limited and its subsidiaries (Woolworths Group) collecting, processing and disclosing your personal information, including any sensitive personal information provided by you, for the purposes of managing the recruitment process, assessing your suitability for employment, communicating with you regarding your application, and, where appropriate, considering you for future employment opportunities, to the extent relevant. If your application is successful, Zinnov and/ or Woolworths Group will also use your personal information, including sensitive personal information, for managing your ongoing working relationship.

Your personal information will be handled, in accordance with applicable privacy laws.

To learn more about how we collect, use, disclose and safeguard your personal information, including your privacy rights, please refer to the Zinnov Privacy Policy and Woolworths Group Team Member Privacy Notice.

📌 Principal Engineer (GCP) (Bengaluru)
🏢 Woolworths Group International
📍 Bengaluru