Principal Engineer

Location: Mumbai, India (roles in Andheri East and / or Turbhe) 

We are hiring Principal / Lead Engineers to design, build, and scale robust, production-grade data and platform systems within Accelerate People (AP), an ed-tech venture within Blenheim. This is a hands-on engineering leadership role where you will own complex problem areas end-to-end, influence system architecture, mentor engineers, and deliver scalable solutions in a fast-growing, product-led environment.

If you enjoy working with ambiguity, building platforms from the ground up, and shipping real business impact, we’d love to hear from you.

Blenheim Chalcot India is part of Blenheim Chalcot, a global venture builder headquartered in London. With over 26 years of innovation, we've been at the forefront of creating some of the most groundbreaking GenAI-enabled companies. Our ventures lead the charge in digital disruption across a spectrum of industries, from FinTech to EdTech, GovTech to Media, and beyond. Our global presence spans the US, Europe, and Southeast Asia, with a portfolio that employs over 3,000 individuals, manages assets exceeding £1.8 billion, and boasts total portfolio sales of over £500 million.

Accelerate People (AP) is Blenheim Chalcot’s product portfolio in ed-tech space and assessment platform, transforming how apprenticeships and professional assessments are delivered at scale in the UK.

AP owns its end-to-end assessment platform, replacing legacy systems with:

• AI-driven grading and automation
• Dynamic scheduling and workflow orchestration
• Full data ownership and platform control

As a Principal / Lead Engineer, you will play a key role in designing and delivering scalable systems across AP’s core platforms. You will collaborate closely with Product, Data, and Engineering teams in Mumbai and London, helping shape technical direction while remaining hands-on.

Successful candidates will take a leading role within our Engineering Centre of Excellence in Mumbai, with day to day responsibilities which will include.

• Lead and mentor a team of engineers, fostering a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement.
• Oversee the planning and execution of projects, ensuring alignment with business objectives and timelines.
• Provide technical guidance and expertise to the team, promoting best practices in engineering.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to understand requirements and deliver effective solutions.
• Implement and maintain ELT (Extract, Load, Transform) processes using scalable pipelines and data architecture.
• Ensure data integrity and quality across various data sources.
• Support data-driven decision-making by providing clean, reliable, and timely data.
• Design, develop, and maintain the data models used by ML Engineers, Data Analysts and Data Scientists to access data.
• Conduct exploratory data analysis to uncover patterns and trends.
• Identify opportunities for process improvement and drive continuous improvement in operations.
• Stay updated on industry trends, technologies, and best practices in engineering.

We are seeking to onboard candidates with a track record of leading complex delivery, demonstrating technical depth and pragmatic leadership. You’re hands‑on when it matters, coach others effectively, and make clear design trade‑offs that improve customer and business outcomes. You communicate crisply, collaborate across functions, and keep teams focused on the few things that move the needle.

• Professional experience in full-stack software engineering with evidence of architecting and delivering production systems at scale.
• Proven experience mentoring and developing engineers and raising code quality standards.
• Strong proficiency in one or more programming languages commonly used in engineering, such as Python or Java.
• Extensive experience with database systems, including SQL and NoSQL databases.
• In-depth knowledge of cloud data platforms like AWS or Azure (e.g., S3, Redshift, Glue, Data Factory, Azure Synapse, etc.).
• Experience with CI/CD practices for data solutions.
• Proven ability to take ownership over outputs and drive complex data projects to completion.
• Highly adaptable and comfortable working in ambiguous, problem-solving environments.
• Strong evidence of teamwork and successful cross-functional delivery; including particularly with customers, Product, Marketing, and Sales.
• Excellent communication, leadership, and collaboration skills.
  

• Rigorous problem-solving and systems thinking. Breaks down complex problems, evaluates multiple approaches, and designs scalable, maintainable architectures.
• Clean, performant, and secure code. Chooses suitable data structures, writes readable & defensive code, and bakes in performance and security from the start.
• Test-first and observable engineering. Designs for testability, automates meaningful unit/integration tests, and implements robust logging, metrics, and monitoring.
• Production and operations excellence. Understands CI/CD, infrastructure and cost drivers, engineers for reliable development, resilience, and fast recovery.
• Data-driven, outcome-focused decisions. Validates ideas with data, plans for schema evaluation, and aligns features with real user impact.

Process - We have a rigorous, but streamlined recruitment process, which respects the time of candidates and portfolio companies alike. This process starts with a 30-minute call with our Talent Acquisition team and a member of the Engineering Centre of Excellence, followed by further interviews with the Engineering Centre of Excellence team.

Please note that our roles are primarily office based, with modern and well-connected office locations in both Andheri East and Navi Mumbai.

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