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Principal Engineer
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Principal Java Engineer | London (Hybrid) | £110k-£135k
The Opportunity
We're partnering with a market-leading digital platform used by millions of consumers every month. The business is undergoing an exciting period of growth and transformation and is looking for a Principal Engineer to help shape the future of its consumer-facing technology landscape.
This is a senior, cross-functional leadership role with influence across multiple engineering teams. You'll play a key role in defining technical strategy, improving architectural standards, and helping engineering teams deliver scalable, high-quality solutions that create real customer impact.
What You'll Be Doing
Engineering & Architecture Leadership
- Lead the design of scalable, resilient systems that support high-traffic consumer products.
- Shape architectural direction across multiple teams and codebases.
- Drive improvements in performance, maintainability, and engineering efficiency.
- Identify opportunities for shared services, reusable components, and platform capabilities.
Delivery & Strategic Impact
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- Partner with Engineering Managers and Product leaders to guide major initiatives from conception through delivery.
- Help teams navigate complexity, manage technical risk, and improve delivery outcomes.
- Balance technical excellence with commercial and customer priorities.
Engineering Excellence
- Champion best practices across software development, testing, observability, and operational readiness.
- Improve engineering processes, standards, and ways of working.
- Influence long-term technology strategy and platform evolution.
Coaching & Leadership
- Mentor senior engineers and technical leaders across the organisation.
- Foster a culture of collaboration, knowledge sharing, and continuous improvement.
- Help raise the technical capability of the wider engineering function.
What We're Looking For
- Extensive experience designing and delivering complex distributed systems.
- Deep expertise in Java and Spring Boot.
- Experience operating at a strategic level across multiple teams or domains.
- Strong architectural knowledge with the ability to influence technical direction.
- Proven ability to mentor engineers and drive engineering best practices.
- Strong communication skills with the ability to engage both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
- A proactive mindset, identifying opportunities and challenges before they become problems.
- Interest in AI-assisted and agentic development approaches, with a pragmatic view of where they add value.
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Technology Environment
- Java
- Spring Boot
- Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
- Modern cloud-native architecture
- High-scale consumer-facing systems
Why Join?
- Opportunity to influence the direction of a large-scale, highly visible consumer platform.
- Shape how Principal Engineering operates within a growing engineering organisation.
- Work alongside experienced engineering leaders in a business actively modernising its technology practices.
- Join a company investing heavily in engineering excellence, AI adoption, and long-term platform evolution.
- Collaborative culture with strong leadership, autonomy, and opportunities for career growth.
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