# Being a Principal Engineer at Grab

[Grab](https://yomu.fyi/company/grab) · Roman Atachiants · Sep 25, 2019

**Type:** Explainer

## Summary

Grab's rapid growth resulted in roughly 350 microservices powering its superapp, creating the need for defined individual contributor career milestones. At Grab, a principal engineer oversees the architecture of an entire Tech Family, a sub-organisation containing over 50 engineers and 20 or more microservices. Responsibilities include translating broad, ambiguous problems into concrete projects, managing technical debt, and aligning multiple engineering teams across global R&D centres. The role demands continuous technical leadership through RFC design reviews, cross-functional communication, mentorship, and self-directed prioritization alongside engineering leadership. Ultimately, principal engineers amplify engineering quality and operational stability without directly managing people.

## Context

As Grab scaled its microservice ecosystem and engineering teams, the management career path was generally well understood, but the principal engineer role on the individual contributor track required clarification.

## Approach / What changed

Grab defined the principal engineer role across key pillars including technical ownership, system-level architecture oversight for Tech Families, leading RFC design reviews, cross-team alignment, and engineering mentorship.

## Takeaways

- A principal engineer at Grab manages the architecture across an entire Tech Family comprising over 50 engineers and 20 or more microservices.
- Grab utilizes a Request For Comments (RFC) process across R&D offices in Southeast Asia, the US, India, and China to review software designs and critical features.
- The role operates at an organizational level parallel to senior managers, focusing on architectural strategy, system migrations, and mentoring rather than direct people management.

**Tags:** [Architecture](https://yomu.fyi/topic/architecture), [Microservices](https://yomu.fyi/topic/microservices)

[Read original post](https://engineering.grab.com/about-being-a-principal-engineer-at-grab)