Principal Systems Engineer

OverviewWELCOME TO SITAAt SITA, we keep airports moving, airlines flying smoothly, and borders open. Our technology and communication innovations power the success of the global air travel industry.
You'll find us in 95% of international airports, working closely with over 2,500 transportation and government clients. Each partnership brings unique challenges, and we thrive on delivering fresh solutions and cutting-edge tech to keep operations running like clockwork. We don't just move the world forward-we're proud to be recognized as a Great Place to Work® by 79% of our employees and certified in most of our growing locations. Here, we feel empowered, supported, and inspired to grow.
Are you ready to love your job?The adventure begins right here, with you, at SITA.
PURPOSELeads the definition, design, and productization of software systems that transform how Datalink services are monitored, configured, and operated across SITA's global infrastructure.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
System Engineering LeadershipLead the system requirement definition and design of next-generation Datalink Monitoring, Observability, Provisioning, and Configuration Management systems.
Guide engineers technically across system design, implementation, and review activities, serving as principal technical contact and coordinator within the domain.
Enforce engineering quality through modern system definition practices, observability standards, and secure-by-design principles.
Lead and participate in technical reviews to ensure solutions are high-quality, maintainable, testable, scalable, and supportable.
Leverage personal expertise and advanced AI tools to drive productivity, engineering quality, and delivery excellence.
System Modernization & ArchitectureDrive the modernization of legacy monitoring and configuration management assets while ensuring operational continuity throughout the transition.
Define and design provisioning and configuration management capabilities that align with SITA's technology stack, lifecycle management, validation, deployment, and governance practices.
Ensure proposed solutions are resilient, scalable, production-ready, and aligned with the long-term evolution of the Datalink Observability and Configuration systems.
Define and maintain the backlog based on the system development roadmap, ensuring priorities are aligned with business requirements and SITA's strategic objectives.
Technical Leadership & Cross-Team CollaborationAct as technical lead across a distributed engineering team, providing direction, mentorship, and hands-on problem-solving support.
Work closely with software engineers, architects, product managers, operations teams, and business stakeholders to define system requirements and deliver solutions.
Foster a culture of technical excellence, collaboration, ownership, and innovation across distributed teams.
Strategic OutcomesLead the definition and design of SITA's next-generation Datalink Monitoring and Configuration systems, including modern telemetry, alerting, visualization, and operational capabilities.
Drive the progressive modernization of legacy monitoring, provisioning, and configuration management systems while maintaining operational continuity.
Deliver scalable and supportable system capabilities that improve operational efficiency, service reliability, and long-term maintainability.
Security, Compliance & DocumentationEnsure solutions are designed and implemented according to secure-by-design principles and SITA's security and governance requirements.
Create and maintain technical documentation for system architecture, design decisions, and operational procedures, leveraging AI tools to improve documentation quality.
Maintain thorough knowledge of SITA's policies, processes, and procedures; ensure team adherence to required standards and escalate non-compliance as appropriate.
Innovation & Continuous DevelopmentExplore and assess emerging technologies, AI tools, and industry developments in observability, distributed systems, and platform engineering.
Recommend and champion technical improvements to Datalink Observability and Configuration systems to better meet user and operational needs.
QualificationsREQUIRED EXPERIENCE & SKILLS10+ years experience as a Lead technical Analyst, Lead System Engineer or equivalent in building complex and large-scale software systems, with demonstrated technical leadership.
Hands-on experience with container orchestration and modern observability ecosystems, including Grafana Labs tools such as Alloy, Loki, Mimir (or Prometheus), Grafana, and OpenTelemetry Protocol.
Deep expertise in software and system design, distributed systems, enterprise application development, and modern programming paradigms and frameworks.
Experience in software integration, configuration management, APIs (REST, SNMP, TCP/IP), microservices, and backend systems in a distributed systems context.
Solid understanding of software architecture principles, modern programming paradigms, and event-based systems (K