4 minute read
Uber’s newest tech center in Rio de Janeiro is being built with global ambitions. Hear from Engineering Directors Marcello Azambuja and Rafael Pereira about the technical challenges, culture, and opportunities awaiting the engineers who will help shape the hub from day one.
“You’re not just joining an existing culture. You have the opportunity to help shape the DNA of the Rio office.”
Uber’s expansion to Rio de Janeiro represents more than the opening of a new office. It marks the growth of an engineering hub building technology with global impact. For engineers joining the team, being part of the Rio Tech Center means stepping into an environment of high technical complexity, global collaboration, and the opportunity to help shape something from the ground up.
At the first Rio Tech meetup, Next Stop: Rio Uber Tech, Engineering Directors Marcello Azambuja and Rafael Pereira offered a closer look at the challenges and opportunities ahead. Attendees heard about the technical complexity of the work, what Uber looks for in candidates, and what it means to be part of Rio’s Founding 50.
With the Rio Tech Center still in its early stages and an initial focus on hiring senior talent to help establish the office’s foundation, new employees have the opportunity to act as true builders. Rather than simply joining an established local culture, they will help shape the DNA of the Rio office and set standards for collaboration, innovation, and knowledge sharing that can influence the hub for years to come.
That means contributing not only through code, but also by helping define how teams work together locally, how knowledge is shared, and how Uber’s global culture comes to life in Rio. Every Uber site develops its own identity, making the opportunity to help build that culture both a responsibility and a privilege.
Roles in Rio de Janeiro are not regional support positions. Teams based in Rio will own areas of Uber’s global business and build products designed to serve users around the world.
An engineer joining a Safety or Uber Eats team, for example, may work on solutions that affect drivers, couriers, riders, or consumers across dozens of countries. That requires strong English communication skills, the ability to collaborate with distributed teams across time zones, and an understanding that regulatory, cultural, and operational contexts can vary significantly from market to market.
For engineers who want exposure to truly global problems, that scale is a major opportunity. It can also require an adjustment for those who have not previously worked in a globally distributed environment.
At Uber, seniority does not necessarily mean stepping away from technical work. At the Rio Tech Center, even highly senior individual contributors, including Staff Engineers, remain closely involved in coding, system design, and architecture.
The expectation is to stay technically sharp, contribute directly to complex systems, and continue learning regardless of level. For engineers who want to grow their influence while remaining hands-on, that creates a distinct career path.
The Uber Eats Growth team in Rio, led by Marcello Azambuja, will focus on helping grow the delivery business globally.
The work requires a product mindset that goes beyond incremental optimization. Teams will explore larger opportunities that can meaningfully influence acquisition, engagement, and retention.
One technical challenge is creating seamless and secure experiences when Uber Eats surfaces within external ecosystems, including experiences powered through WebViews. That requires strong web engineering expertise, robust APIs, and careful consideration of how users move between platforms and experiences.
One of the areas the Safety team in Rio, led by Rafael Pereira, will support is Uber Teen, an experience designed to help teenagers use Uber through family profiles.
What may appear straightforward to a user can involve significant technical complexity behind the scenes. Safety systems must evaluate multiple signals and scenarios in real time while delivering an experience that works reliably across markets.
For engineers, that means solving challenging technical problems where thoughtful system design can have a direct impact on how people use Uber around the world.
Joining Uber’s Tech Center in Rio de Janeiro is an opportunity to help build something that is still taking shape. The challenges are technical, organizational, and human, and they begin from day one.
For those excited by that kind of opportunity, the reward is equally meaningful: the chance to help establish a new engineering hub, shape its culture, and build products with global reach.
Join the Founding 50 and explore open roles in Rio de Janeiro today!
