Principal Engineering Lead Role

Key Responsibilities

• Engineering Excellence and Technical Leadership
• Solution Shaping and Business Value
• People Leadership and Capability Development
• AI-Native Engineering and Continuous Improvement
• Engineering Operating Model, SDLC and Quality
• Stakeholder Leadership and Influence

Required Experience And Knowledge

• Extensive hands-on experience in software engineering and solution architecture.
• Experience working across multiple programming languages, frameworks, and technology stacks.
• Proven experience designing and delivering cloud-native solutions, preferably using Microsoft Azure.
• Experience defining architecture, engineering standards, technical direction, and reusable patterns at organisational scale.
• Strong knowledge of modern software engineering practices, including:
• DevOps and CI/CD
• Automated testing
• Secure engineering
• Observability
• Operational resilience
• Platform engineering
• Cloud engineering
• Good understanding of cloud economics, cost optimisation, and total cost of ownership.
• Experience leading strategic engineering initiatives across multiple teams, products, or domains.
• At least four years of leadership and people management experience, including coaching, mentoring, performance management, and career development.
• Experience establishing or leading a Centre of Excellence, Community of Practice, engineering maturity programme, or similar capability function.
• Experience working with Product, Architecture, Infrastructure and Engineering teams to align technical decisions with business outcomes.
• Experience adopting AI-enabled engineering tools, workflows or operating models is desirable.

Skills And Competencies

• Exceptional technical leadership, architecture, and system design skills.
• Ability to shape technical direction early and make sound decisions in complex or uncertain situations.
• Strong stakeholder management, communication, and influencing skills.
• Excellent people leadership, coaching, and mentoring capability.
• Ability to explain technical concepts, risks, and trade-offs clearly to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Strong analytical and outcome-focused mindset.
• Ability to connect technical decisions with business value, delivery outcomes, and cost efficiency.
• Ability to balance short-term delivery requirements with long-term engineering sustainability.
• Commitment to engineering excellence, continuous improvement, innovation, and AI-enabled ways of working.