Senior Software Engineer I

About this role

<div class="content-intro"><p><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Careem is building the Everything App for the greater Middle East — making it easy to move around, order food and groceries, manage payments, and more. Our purpose is simple: to simplify and improve people’s lives and build an awesome organisation that inspires.</span><br><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Since 2012, Careem has enabled earnings for over 2.5 million Captains, simplified the lives of more than 70 million customers, and built a platform where the region’s best talent and entrepreneurs thrive. We operate in 70+ cities across 10 countries, from Morocco to Pakistan.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><strong data-stringify-type="bold"><em data-stringify-type="italic">We’re now entering our next chapter — one powered by AI. We’re looking for AI talent: curious problem-solvers who know how to apply AI to build tools, automate workflows, and create real impact. Whether it’s streamlining operations, enhancing customer experience, or reimagining internal systems — we want people who can make Careem work smarter and move faster.</em></strong></span></p></div><p><strong>About the Role</strong></p> <p>Careem's Quick and Shops team owns the customer-facing backend experience for two of our fastest-growing verticals. We power everything a customer sees and interacts with inside the consumer app — from browsing to checkout — through a server-driven UI architecture that keeps our mobile and backend teams tightly aligned.</p> <p>As a Senior Software Engineer I, you will take full ownership of backend domains, build reliable and scalable services, and collaborate closely with mobile engineers to deliver a seamless customer experience for millions of Careem users.</p> <p><strong>What You'll Do</strong></p> <ul> <li>Design, build, and maintain scalable backend services powering the Quick and Shops customer experience.</li> <li>Write high-quality Golang code, delivering complete features and resolving bugs independently.</li> <li>Build and maintain REST APIs, service-to-service integrations, and gateway and configuration-driven systems.</li> <li>Own and evolve backend data models and catalog systems supporting our product verticals.</li> <li>Manage event-driven systems using Kafka and Avro schema evolution.</li> <li>Support AWS cloud infrastructure including S3, CloudFront, DNS, and certificate management.</li> <li>Participate in on-call rotations and debug production issues across highly distributed and decoupled systems.</li> <li>Mentor junior colleagues and drive cross-functional technical discussions across teams.</li> <li>Champion AI-assisted development tools as part of your daily engineering workflow.</li> </ul> <p><strong>What You'll Need</strong></p> <ul> <li>Proven backend engineering experience at a mid-band level or above — this is not an entry-level role.</li> <li>Strong hands-on experience with Golang; candidates with deep experience in another modern language (Java, Kotlin, C#, C++) will be considered if they can demonstrate a clear ability to ramp up.</li> <li>Product-facing backend experience — you have built systems that directly serve end customers, not purely infrastructure or platform-isolated work.</li> <li>Experience with REST APIs, service-to-service integrations, and distributed systems.</li> <li>Familiarity with data modeling, Kafka, and Avro schema evolution.</li> <li>AWS cloud infrastructure exposure — S3, CloudFront, DNS, certificate management.</li> <li>On-call ownership and a track record of debugging complex issues across distributed systems independently.</li> <li>Strong communication skills, a collaborative mindset, and the ability to work autonomously without close supervision.</li> <li>Experience mentoring junior engineers and coordinating across cross-functional teams.</li> </ul> <p><strong>Nice to Have</strong></p> <ul> <li>Understanding of server-driven UI paradigms.</li> <li>Experience with Docker and Kubernetes.</li> <li>Working knowledge of relational and non-relational databases.</li> <li>Familiarity with software engineering best practices: code reviews, source control, testing standards.</li> </ul> <p><strong>What we’ll provide you</strong></p> <p>We offer colleagues the opportunity to drive impact in the region while they learn and grow. As a full time Careem colleague, you will be able to:</p> <ul> <li>Work and learn from great minds by joining a community of inspiring colleagues.</li> <li>Put your passion to work in a purposeful organisation dedicated to creating impact in a region with a lot of untapped potential.</li> <li>Explore new opportunities to learn and grow every day.</li> <li>Work 4 days a week in office &amp; 1 day from home, and remotely from any country in the world for 30 days a year with unlimited vacation days per year. (If you are in an individual contributor role in tech, you will have 2 office days a week and 3 to work from home.)</li> <li>Access to healthcare benefits and fitness reimbursements for health activities including gym, health club, and training classes.</li> </ul>