Principal Software Engineer

Contract Software Engineer (Ada) – Real-Time Embedded

Location:

Luton (Hybrid – ~4 days on-site) Contract Length: 12 months IR35:
Inside IR35 Rate: £57.72 p/h PAYE (£66.11p/h inc. holiday rate) OR £78.70 p/h Umbrella We seek an engineer with recent high-integrity or safety-critical industry experience (defence, aerospace, or similar), or eligible for UK security clearance. The Opportunity We're looking for an experienced real-time embedded Ada engineer to work on mission-critical defensive systems within a highly technical electronic warfare environment. This is a hands-on role developing, integrating, and testing high-integrity software that directly supports operational capability.

You'll be trusted with complex problems, work closely with systems, hardware, and firmware teams, and play a key role across the full software lifecycle. What You'll Do Design, develop, debug, and test real-time embedded software in Ada Own complex work packages from requirements through integration and delivery Produce high-integrity, mission-critical software to defined engineering and quality standards Work collaboratively across disciplines while retaining autonomy and technical ownership Support current platforms and contribute to future capability development What You Bring Expert-level Ada (including OO design principles) Strong experience debugging embedded real-time systems using a COTS RTOS Solid understanding of UML and structured design Deep knowledge of Verification & Validation techniques and when to apply them

Experience with requirements engineering, integration, and target testing Comfortable working within a mature, governed development framework