Principal Software Engineer

Our client is a health and life insurance provider. Team – UK Prospect, Direct & Life Adviser Engineering Working Pattern - Hybrid – 2 days per week in our London, Bournemouth or Stockport Office. Full-time hours per week. We are happy to discuss flexible working! Top 3 skills needed for this role Strategic Enterprise Technology Leadership Recognised Java Engineering Expertise Advanced Architecture & Systems Integration Capability What this role is all about We're looking for a Principal Software Engineer to join our client's Engineering function, providing technical leadership across complex enterprise platforms and customer-facing solutions.

This is a highly influential role responsible for shaping engineering standards, driving architectural decisions, leading large-scale technical initiatives and ensuring the successful delivery of integrated software solutions that support critical business outcomes. The role operates across multiple teams and works closely with senior stakeholders, architects and third-party partners to deliver technology that enables seamless customer journeys and long-term business growth.

Key Actions Lead the delivery of software solutions across the full development lifecycle, ensuring applications are designed, built, tested, released and supported to high standards of quality, reliability and performance. Take ownership of complex technical challenges, driving root cause analysis and resolution across multiple systems while improving the resilience, scalability and stability of business-critical platforms. Provide technical leadership across engineering teams, contributing to architecture decisions, shaping technical direction and promoting best practices in software design, development and delivery.

Design and deliver integrated solutions across a diverse technology landscape, ensuring alignment with architectural principles, security requirements, operational standards and business objectives. Drive continuous improvement through code reviews, technical governance, engineering standards and the adoption of modern development practices, tools and ways of working. Build strong relationships with business and technology stakeholders, translating complex requirements into practical technical solutions and providing clear guidance on delivery approaches and technical decisions.

Collaborate closely with architects, product teams, delivery managers and third-party partners to ensure solutions are effectively planned, integrated and delivered to meet customer and business needs. Coach and mentor engineers across the organisation, sharing knowledge, developing technical capability and helping to create a culture of continuous learning, innovation and engineering excellence. What do you need to thrive? Proven expertise in designing, developing and deploying enterprise-scale Java/JEE applications, with a strong focus on performance, scalability and engineering best practice.

Strong experience working with AWS cloud technologies, including services such as S3 and Redis, to build resilient and highly available solutions. Solid knowledge of PostgreSQL and SQL, with the ability to design, optimise and support robust data-driven applications. Experience integrating complex systems and services, alongside a strong understanding of authentication technologies such as LDAP, certificates and similar security frameworks. Hands-on experience with messaging and event-driven architectures, using technologies such as Kafka, AMQP or equivalent platforms.

Deep understanding of object-oriented design and SOLID principles, combined with experience using modern Dev Ops and containerisation tools such as Jenkins, Kubernetes and Docker to deliver high-quality software , what's in…