Principal Software Engineer

Position: Principal Software Engineer (Contract)
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