Principal Consultant - Cloud & Engineering

The Role As a Principal Consultant for Cloud & Engineering, you will provide senior technical and engineering leadership across complex client engagements. You will help clients shape and deliver practical strategies for cloud adoption, optimisation and migration, ensuring that technology decisions support their wider business goals. You will combine cloud architecture expertise with consulting, delivery and engineering leadership. You will work directly with client stakeholders and delivery teams to solve complex problems, challenge conventional thinking and turn strategic intent into practical, high-quality outcomes.

This is a client-facing, delivery-oriented role. You will engage with teams, contribute to technical delivery, prototype and validate ideas, and help create the conditions for successful engineering outcomes. How youll make an impact Act as a trusted advisor, helping clients understand and address complex cloud, technology and engineering challenges. Help clients understand how cloud, data and AI capabilities can support business strategy and improve products, services and operations.

Lead discovery and design sessions, technical workshops, architecture reviews, proof-of-concept projects and evaluations of new technologies and vendors. Contribute to early engagements by creating a compelling vision for clients technology transformation, cloud optimisation and migration journeys. Guide and de-risk programmes and projects, promoting iterative delivery and incremental value. Provide technical leadership to cross-functional teams delivering and prototyping platforms, services and products across diverse technology environments.

Help stakeholders define functional and non-functional requirements, ensuring solutions address performance, capacity, scalability, availability, security, manageability, sustainability and operational needs. Make pragmatic technology decisions and explain their trade-offs and value to both technical and non-technical audiences. Support teams in improving engineering effectiveness, delivery practices, automation, Dev Sec Ops  and Infrastructure as Code. Work collaboratively with software engineering, platform engineering, data, AI, security, operations, product, delivery and finance teams.

Provide guidance on privacy, information security, resilience, responsible AI and regulatory considerations. Apply your expertise across technology domains including applications, platforms, infrastructure, data, integration, identity and observability. Keep current with developments in cloud, data engineering, analytics, Generative AI, foundation models and responsible AI practices. Manage and mentor colleagues, helping them develop their technical, consulting and leadership capabilities through coaching, feedback and career support.

Whats important to us A clear understanding of the business value of your work and a focus on delivering that value transparently. Confident decision-making and the ability to explain technical choices, trade-offs and implications. The ability to articulate complex technical solutions and their value to both technical and non-technical audiences. Experience working as a Principal or Lead Cloud Architect, Technical Architect or Engineering Leader across multiple programmes and projects.

Strong experience designing and delivering solutions using modern cloud technologies and engineering practices. Experience working across complex, distributed or changing technology environments. Experience across cloud and modern technology environments, with an understanding of how software, platforms, data and AI capabilities work together to deliver business value. Strong software and engineering judgement, with the ability to work effectively across applications, platforms, infrastructure, data and cloud services.

Experience working directly with delivery teams and contributing practically through prototyping, technical problem-solving or hands-on guidance. Experience working in fast-paced, Agile, delivery-oriented environments, with an emphasis on quality and a show by doing approach. Experience guiding, mentoring and developing colleagues through…