Principal Frontend Engineer - Auckland

About Auror

At Auror, we’re empowering the retail industry to tackle theft and Organised Retail Crime, a $150 Billion problem globally. It’s high volume crime that’s increasingly organised in nature and is putting people, retailers, and communities at risk every day.

Founded in New Zealand 11 years ago, we’re working with some of the best and largest retailers in the world across the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK. Auror is connecting people and intelligence to reduce crime. We’re using technology for good. 

In partnership with our leading retail partners, we need people with the passion, determination, and innovation required to overcome one of the world's largest problems. If you’re looking to make a difference with and for the people dedicated to stopping crime, for good, then we want you on our team.

We're also embracing the potential of AI to supercharge our impact—whether that's enhancing the way we detect trends, support our customers, or improve internal workflows. As a company, we're committed to responsibly incorporating AI into how we work and what we build, and we encourage all Aurors to be curious about how AI can elevate their work, regardless of role or function.

About Auror Engineering

Collaboration is at the heart of the Engineering team at Auror. We believe that we can only build the very best software by working with each other and seeking different perspectives to solve problems. We’re a team that:

• Ship code to production constantly: Our product team ships code to production on average at least 10-15 times a day prioritising small releases and short feedback cycles and we do this with a minimal defect rate. 
• Work on cloud native architecture: We focus on delivering business value to customers, without the burden of maintaining complex infrastructure
• Work on innovative and up to date tech stacks: We are constantly evolving our technology stack inline with the needs of our business, leveraging React and Typescript for front-end and C# / Dotnet for back end. We host our services in Azure and utilise a wide range of cloud-native services with an evolving service-oriented architecture.
• Contribute to our product: We work with Product Management and Product Design from the very beginning to make sure we’re delivering value to our customers and making a meaningful impact.
• Supports a coaching culture: Together, we support one another to level up
• Continuously improve: We are relentless about getting better and improving our processes, tooling and tech stack.

The Role – Staff Software Engineer and (Senior) Principal Software Engineer 

We are hiring at two senior levels: Staff and Principal Software Engineer. During the process, we’ll assess with you where your experience and impact best align.

• Staff Engineer (IC4)
  At this level, you are a strong individual contributor who tackles complex technical challenges directly through the code you write. You'll act as a key technical leader and decision maker within your team, guiding and mentoring engineers to help them grow and succeed. Your expertise will be crucial in shaping the technical direction for your team and, on occasion, contributing to broader strategic initiatives that deliver significant business outcomes and raise the engineering bar across Auror.
• Principal Engineer (IC5) - Building on the foundation of a Staff Engineer, you are a key driver of technical and strategic direction across the organization. You will bring clarity to Auror's most complex and ambiguous challenges, and your expertise will be essential in navigating high-stakes initiatives where you are accountable for directing the delivery of critical outcomes. You'll serve as a trusted thought leader and mentor, elevating the technical bar and empowering our engineering teams to navigate complexity and scale effectively, working closely with engineering leadership.
• Senior Principal Software Engineer (IC6) - At this level, you are a company-wide technical leader who defines Auror's architectural philosophy and long-term technical vision across multiple domains. You identify systemic risks and opportunities that cut across teams, bring clarity to the deepest technical ambiguity, and set the direction that lets the whole organisation move faster and with more confidence. You work in close partnership with Distinguished Engineers (IC7) to shape Auror's most foundational technical bets — together you set the direction, and you own driving it into reality. You elevate the organisation by mentoring Staff and Principal engineers and carry Auror's technical reputation both internally and in the broader industry.
• Senior Principal Software Engineer (IC6) - At this level, you are a company-wide technical leader who defines Auror's architectural philosophy and long-term technical vision across multiple domains. You identify systemic risks and opportunities that cut across teams, bring clarity to the deepest technical ambiguity, and set the direction that lets the whole organisation move faster and with more confidence. You work in close partnership with Distinguished Engineers (IC7) to shape Auror's most foundational technical bets — together you set the direction, and you own driving it into reality. You elevate the organisation by mentoring Staff and Principal engineers and carry Auror's technical reputation both internally and in the broader industry.

About the team
This is our epic Product team where you’ll work with a collaborative, fun and diverse bunch of people.
To learn more about the team you’ll be joining, check out the video on Innovation Week 2024 on our careers page https://www.auror.co/company-careers 

You can also read up up on our blogs and what life is like at Auror: https://www.auror.co/at-auror 

Requirements

As one of our Senior/Staff Software Engineers, you will bring the following:

• Bias to action & ownership: You take full ownership of complex problem spaces bringing urgency, focus, and accountability. You’re not afraid to make pragmatic calls, remove blockers, and drive initiatives forward, even in the face of ambiguity or lack of consensus.
• Technical mastery and judgment: Strong expertise in React, TypeScript, C# .NET Core, and cloud-native architectures. You know how to design distributed systems with clear domain boundaries that balance scalability, performance, security, and usability, and you can articulate trade-offs clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Strategic thinking: Ability to think holistically about the long-term impact of your work, guiding technical decisions that align with product and company strategy. You bring clarity to complex, ambiguous problems and help chart the course forward.
• Collaboration and communication: Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to create shared understanding across engineering, product, design, and external stakeholders.
• Mentorship and leadership: A passion for growing others whether through direct mentorship, coaching, or by setting examples in technical excellence and pragmatic decision-making. You help raise the bar for the team and build a strong engineering culture.
• Execution in complexity: You break down large, ambiguous problems into tangible, incremental value. Applying strong domain-driven design, you build simple, evolvable architectures that balance speed and learning with resilience and quality.
• AI integration mindset: Curiosity and thoughtfulness in leveraging AI tools and LLMs as force multipliers accelerating delivery and enhancing engineering practices in responsible and scalable ways.
• Values-driven engineering: An interest in topics that extend beyond code, this includes privacy, ethics, security, and how technology can be harnessed for good. You care deeply about the societal impact of the systems you build.
  

We are looking for people who demonstrate a strong alignment to our Guiding Principles (you can find these on our Careers page).

Auror is committed to providing an inclusive and accessible application process to all candidates and we are actively working to improve diversity within the tech industry. We celebrate diversity and inclusiveness at Auror, regardless of (but not limited to) race, gender, sexual orientation, family status, religion, ethnicity, national origin, physical disability, veteran status, or age.

If you need adjustments to any part of our recruitment process because of accessibility reasons, please do not hesitate to let us know during the application process. We will work with you to identify adjustments that will allow you to perform at your best.

Benefits

• Competitive salary Range: Depending on level of experience of IC5/IC6 ($167,500 - $232,500)

• Employee share scheme: You’ll own part of a company making a real difference!
• Flexibility: We are hard-working and outcome focused, but recognise there is more to life than work. We promote a healthy work/life blend.
• Shorter work weeks (at full pay): Everyone gets Friday afternoons off, so you can start your weekend early, and do more of whatever it is that makes you happy.
• Health Care Plan: In partnership with Nib, Auror covers 100% of the cost of your individual health insurance plan.
• Focus on mental and physical health: We understand how vital our health is and have policies to support your wellness, including: Wellness Days,  and up to three expert sessions paid for every year.
• Family-friendly: We offer comprehensive parental leave and benefits for primary and non-primary caregivers, including a baby bonus and meals delivered to your door.
• Personal growth: We support our team to participate in courses, conferences, or events that will help them develop their skills.
• Team love: We have regular team lunches and social events where most (if not all) activities are during work hours.

Next steps:

If you’re excited about our mission and you have the experience and a passion for this role, please hit “Apply”.

If you’re not sure that you tick all the boxes but feel you’re close to what we’re looking for, please apply anyway! We’re proud that Auror is a place where everyone can learn and grow so we’d love to hear from you.

You'll be asked to submit a cover letter as part of your application. While this is optional we do encourage it, as we find cover letters can tell a story that resumes alone often cannot. Our hiring team love to understand what attracted you to this role and why you are excited about the opportunity to join Auror.

Once you apply, you’ll hear from us to acknowledge your application. If you have questions about any of the above, or if you have any accessibility requirements, we’ll be able to help you from there.