Collinson
Principal Software Engineer
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Principal Engineer at Collinson
At Collinson, we don’t just build technology — we power the experiences behind some of the world’s most recognised travel, financial services, and retail brands.
Our solutions help global brands acquire, engage, and retain millions of customers worldwide. Our flagship product is Priority Pass, the world’s leading airport experiences programme, trusted by travellers across more than 170 countries.
Key clients include: Mastercard, American Express, Cathay Pacific, British Airways, LATAM, Flying Blue, Accor, EasyJet, HSBC, Chase, HDFC.
Our mission is focused on doing good beyond profit, which for us means we seek out opportunities for our people to share in our success and give back to the communities and people within which we work.
Never short of ambition, the success of our business is delivered through the diverse and talented team of over 2,200 global colleagues.
About the Role
We are now looking for a visionary Principal Engineer to help define the next generation of our platform.
Why this role matters:
This is more than a leadership position. It’s an opportunity to:
- Influence the architecture, scalability, and future direction of a truly global technology ecosystem.
- Lead the technical vision for one of our most critical pillars in the Engineering organisation — our API platform.
- Drive innovation across synchronous and asynchronous services built with REST, GraphQL, Kafka, and cloud-native technologies.
- Work hands-on with modern engineering tools and practices while partnering with talented squads to solve complex distributed systems challenges at scale.
- Focus on AI-driven engineering initiatives, highly observable event-driven architectures, and building exceptional systems and empowering exceptional teams.
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Responsibilities
- Defining the architectural vision for our API ecosystem.
- Leading the design and development of scalable, cloud-native distributed systems.
- Building high-throughput event-driven services using Kafka.
- Driving engineering excellence across security, observability, performance, and maintainability.
- Mentoring and coaching engineers and technical leaders across multiple squads.
- Collaborating closely with Product, Delivery, and Engineering leadership to shape strategic technical decisions.
- Championing modern development practices including:
- TDD (Test-Driven Development)
- CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery)
- Infrastructure as Code
- Automated testing
- Exploring and embedding AI-powered engineering capabilities into our workflows and platform.
Technology Stack
You’ll be working with a modern, forward-thinking stack including:
- TypeScript (Node.js & React)
- AWS (EKS, Lambda, Aurora RDS)
- Kubernetes
- GraphQL & REST APIs
- Kafka
- Terraform & Helm
- GitHub Actions
- DataDog
- Salesforce integrations
Requirements
We are looking for:
- A technically exceptional engineering leader who still loves being close to the code.
- What you bring:
- Proven experience architecting large-scale distributed systems in the cloud.
- Deep expertise in APIs, event-driven architectures, and containerised applications.
- Strong knowledge of AWS and modern DevOps practices.
- Experience leading engineering teams and influencing technical direction across squads.
- A passion for software craftsmanship, clean architecture, and scalable design.
- A mentoring mindset and a collaborative leadership style.
- Curiosity around AI and emerging engineering technologies.
- Experience with Salesforce or enterprise CRM ecosystems is a strong advantage.
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Benefits
At Collinson, we prioritise your wellbeing and professional growth:
- Flexible and hybrid working options.
- Work from anywhere— 8 weeks per year.
- Generous parental leave and family-friendly policies.
- Focus on career development, mentorship, and training.
- Supportive, inclusive culture, with employee resource groups and diversity initiatives.
Collinson’s Culture & Values
Collinson is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes diverse backgrounds, including differences in colour, race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, neurodivergence, family status, age, ability, and more. We strongly believe that this contributes to our continued success.
Our company values and work environment guide us in delivering value to both our teams and customers:
Take Action** Do the Right Thing One Team Be Insight Led
We aim to create an environment where everyone can achieve their full potential while engaged in meaningful, interesting work.
Application Notes
Please feel free to note which pronouns you use (for example: she/her/hers, he/him/his, they/them/theirs).
If you need any additional support during the interview process, please email: ukrecruitment@collinsongroup.com.
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