Principal Software Engineer - UK Security Clearance eligibility required
Location: London, UK (Hybrid 1 day per week in office / onsite). Contract: Permanent, Full-time. Package: £80,000-90,000 + 10% bonus + 10% shares options + benefits.
About the Role
As a Principal Software Engineer, you will play a hands on technical leadership role across Appvia's software engineering engagements, helping lead the design, delivery, and evolution of modern software systems. You will work closely with delivery managers, platform engineers, and customer stakeholders to drive high quality outcomes across complex software modernisation programmes. You'll help lead and grow the team and contribute to Appvia's broader engineering strategy by influencing tooling, development standards, AI assisted engineering approaches, testing practices, and architectural patterns used consistently across customer engagements.
Eligibility
You must be eligible for UK Security Clearance (SC):
- British Passport or ILR
- Resided in the UK for the last 5 years
- No criminal record or financial irregularities
About You
You are a senior software engineer with strong architectural judgement and a passion for well designed systems. You are comfortable leading technically, influencing delivery decisions, and working closely with customers in a consulting environment.
You'll bring:
- Strong experience with Domain Driven Design (DDD) and modern system decomposition.
- Proven delivery of microservice based architectures.
- Deep hands on experience with React and full stack development.
- Experience improving engineering effectiveness through testing strategy, automation, and developer tooling.
- Exposure to AI assisted development approaches to improve code quality and productivity.
- Confidence mentoring engineers and leading technical discussions.
- A consulting mindset, able to translate business problems into practical technical solutions.
Experience in regulated or public sector environments is beneficial but not required.
Responsibilities
- Lead the design and delivery of modern, scalable software systems.
- Shape architecture, service boundaries, and dependencies across complex systems.
- Drive improvements in development processes, testing strategy, and delivery cadence.
- Work hands on across the stack, particularly on React based applications.
- Support teams in reducing technical debt and improving long term maintainability.
- Collaborate with platform and cloud engineers to deliver cohesive end to end solutions.
- Act as a senior technical advisor to customers, guiding decision making and trade offs.
- Contribute to shared engineering standards, patterns, and best practices within Appvia.
Technical Skills
Core technologies (in order of importance):
- Java / Spring
- NoSQL / SQL databases
- React / JavaScript
- HTML / CSS / XML
- Playwright
- Docker / Kubernetes
- Maven
- GitLab
- AWS
Nice to have:
- GovUK UI Framework
- Azure / GCP
- .NET
Benefits
Work life balance
- Flexible working with core hours of 10-4pm because we know life happens outside of work
- Hybrid working - only one compulsory office day per month
- 25 days' holiday a year, plus bank holidays
- An additional day off for your birthday
- Enhanced maternity and paternity to full pay
- Workplace Nursery Benefit to help working parents
Well being
- Full Private Healthcare cover for you with partners and children covered 50%
- Death in Service
- Cycle to Work scheme
- Electric Car Scheme
- Pension plus a salary sacrifice option for even greater savings
- Employee Assistance Programme
- Free hygiene products available in the London office
Mental health support
- Free therapy through AXA
- Access to the Headspace App
- Trained Mental Health First Aiders
Other fun perks
- Learning budget of £1,000 a year
- Your own MacBook Pro while you work at Appvia
- Dog friendly officeWear what makes you comfortable
- Free snacks in the office
- Pool table & ping pong table
- Regular team socials, board game nights, industry meetups and more!
We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and actively encourage, respect, and recognise diversity of thought and background throughout the business. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to age, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, family or parental status, national origin, veteran, neurodiversity, and disability status.