Marks and Spencer
Principal Software Engineer - Store Operations
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The Principal Engineer
The Principal Engineer is the most senior engineer in the company and plays a crucial role in delivering our business goals. They are technical leaders responsible for setting technical direction, driving engineering excellence, and aligning technology with business strategy. This role combines deep technical expertise with strong leadership, mentorship, and cross-functional influence to deliver robust, scalable solutions and foster a high-performing engineering culture.
This role is aligned with Store Operations in the Retail Domain and will partner closely with the Head of Engineering and the Solution Architect in the Store Ops sub-domain. Being creative, curious, and confident, you will be an integral part of our empowered, self-managing, multi-disciplinary Engineering teams – designing, building, releasing, and maintaining products. A Full Stack and/or Native Mobile application background would align best; however, it’s your passion for designing and delivering the best tech solutions to our colleagues in stores that counts the most.
Due to high interest, this role may close earlier than advertised. We recommend applying as soon as possible.
What You'll Do
Your key accountabilities will include:
- Lead system design and solution architecture across multiple teams and domains.
- Own and drive the technical strategy and roadmap for the area of responsibility.
- Mentor and coach engineering managers, staff, and key engineers, fostering continuous improvement and contributing to talent development.
- Act as a bridge between business and engineering, influencing product and business strategy by articulating technical trade-offs and representing engineering in strategic discussions.
- Ensure quality, reliability, and security are embedded in engineering processes, lead incident response for critical issues, and drive tooling improvements.
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Who You Are
Your skills and experience will include:
- Extensive experience in system design, architecture, and technical leadership across complex domains.
- Proven ability to set and deliver technical strategy and roadmaps.
- Strong mentoring and coaching skills.
- Experience aligning technology with business objectives and influencing strategy, ideally at enterprise level or within large organisations.
- Deep understanding of engineering best practices, quality, and operational excellence.
What's in it for you?
Working at M&S means being part of something bigger - helping to deliver quality, value, and service to millions of customers every day. We’re inclusive, fast-moving, and always evolving, with a strong sense of purpose and a focus on doing the right thing.
Here are just a few of the benefits that make working here even more rewarding:
- 20% colleague discount on all M&S products and many third-party brands for you and someone in your household, available once you've completed your probation
- Competitive holiday allowance with the option to buy more
- Discretionary bonus schemes linked to your performance and ours
- Strong pension and life assurance to help plan for the future
- Tailored induction and training to support your development from day one
- Exclusive perks and savings through our M&S Choices portal
- Market-leading family policies, including parental, adoption, and neonatal leave
- 24/7 wellbeing support, including virtual GP access and mental health services
- One paid volunteer day a year to support a cause that matters to you
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Everyone's welcome
We are ambitious about the future of retail. We’re disrupting, innovating, and leading the industry into a more conscientious, inspiring digital era. We’re transforming how we work together and offering our most exciting opportunities yet. Marks & Spencer strives to be an inclusive organisation, trusted and admired by our colleagues, customers, and suppliers. Join us and make change happen.
We are committed to building diverse and representative teams, where everyone can bring their whole selves to work and be at their best. We support each other and work together to win together.
If you feel you'd benefit from any support or reasonable adjustments during any stage of the recruitment process, please don’t hesitate to let us know when completing your application. This information will be picked up by our team, so we can try and put steps in place to help you be at your best through this process.
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