Principal Software Engineer

Principal Engineer About the role

As a Principal Engineer, you will help shape the technical direction of platforms used by the global research community. You will work across teams to modernise systems, improve reliability, and guide the responsible use of AI where it delivers clear value. This role combines technical leadership with hands‑on contribution.

The Submissions Technology group builds and operates platforms that support the scholarly publishing lifecycle—from submission and peer review through to editorial decisions and publication. We focus on reliability, scalability, and continuous improvement as we modernise core systems and introduce new capabilities.

Elsevier is a global information analytics company specializing in science and health. For over 140 years we have partnered with the scientific and medical communities to advance knowledge, improve outcomes, and foster innovation. Our content and technology help researchers, educators, and healthcare professionals in over 170 countries make critical decisions with confidence. Elsevier is part of RELX, a top 10 FTSE 100 company and global provider of information‑based analytics and decision tools.

• Set clear technical direction across teams and support the delivery of shared goals
• Guide the design of secure, scalable, and resilient services, APIs, and data flows
• Contribute directly to high‑impact work, including system modernisation and risk reduction
• Coach engineers and strengthen engineering practices such as observability, automation, and incident learning
• Support teams in using AI‑assisted development and production AI patterns where they add real value
• Help evolve engineering practices to take advantage of emerging AI capabilities

• Experience working at senior, staff, or principal engineer level across multiple teams or domains
• A track record of influencing technical decisions and supporting change at scale
• Experience designing and evolving distributed systems, services, and APIs in cloud environments
• Strong backend engineering experience (for example with Java and Spring Boot), and comfort working in modern product development teams
• A collaborative approach, with clear communication and thoughtful decision‑making around quality, risk, and delivery
• Event‑driven systems and messaging technologies (for example Kafka or SNS/SQS)
• Frontend development experience, such as React
• Containers, Kubernetes, infrastructure as code, and CI/CD pipelines
• Applying AI or GenAI techniques in production, such as prompting, retrieval workflows, or large language model integrations

We promote a healthy work/life balance across the organisation. With an average length of service of 9 years, we are confident that we offer an appealing working prospect for our people. With numerous wellbeing initiatives, shared parental leave, study assistance and sabbaticals, we will help you meet your immediate responsibilities and long‑term goals.

• Working remotely from home or in our office in a flexible hybrid style
• Working flexible hours – flexing the times when you work in the day to help you fit everything in and work when you are the most productive

We are an equal opportunity employer with a commitment to help you succeed. Here, you will find an inclusive, agile, collaborative, innovative and fun environment, where everyone has a part to play. Regardless of the team you join, we promote a diverse environment with co‑workers who are passionate about what they do, and how they do it.

At Elsevier, we know that your wellbeing and happiness are key to a long and successful career. These are some of the benefits we are delighted to offer:

• Generous holiday allowance with the option to buy additional days
• Access to learning platforms and encouragement to book up to 10 days focused learning/development time per year
• Health screening, eye care vouchers and private medical benefits
• Wellbeing programs
• Life assurance
• Access to a competitive contributory pension scheme
• Long service awards
• Save As You Earn share option scheme
• Travel season ticket loan
• Maternity, paternity and shared…