Principal Engineer

Are you a highly experienced Engineer ready to lead complex technical change and shape the future of our technology platforms? Were looking for a Principal Engineer to provide technical leadership across critical delivery initiatives, translating business needs into scalable, high-quality solutions. This is an opportunity to work at the forefront of engineering, influencing design, delivery and innovation across our technology landscape.

Youll be pivotal to providing technical leadership to develop colleagues, hands on expertise, and acting as a conduit between the Engineering community and key stakeholders across YBS through the translation of requirements into technical designs.

This is a hybrid role, a mix of working from home plus time in our central Leeds & Bradford offices.

About the role

As a Principal Engineer, youll act as a technical lead across complex initiatives, shaping solutions and guiding delivery from design through to live service. Youll work closely with engineering teams, stakeholders and third-party partners to ensure solutions are robust, scalable and aligned to business outcomes. You will -

• Own technical direction across projects, including solution design, build, testing and release planning
• Assess solution options and perform gap analysis to ensure alignment between current and future state systems
• Collaborate with stakeholders and 3rd party partners, acting as a key technical contact and subject matter expert
• Maintain awareness of technology trends, ensuring platforms remain supported, resilient and aligned to future needs
• Support live service stability by coordinating defect resolution and acting as an escalation point for risks and issues

About you

Youre a senior engineering professional with deep technical expertise and a strong track record of leading complex delivery. Youre confident shaping solutions, influencing stakeholders and driving high-quality outcomes. Youll have

• Ability to translate business requirements into scalable, well-architected solutions
• Experience leading technical delivery across the full lifecycle, from design through to live service
• Strong analytical skills, including solution evaluation and gap analysis
• Experience working with suppliers and third-party partners in delivery environments
• Awareness of emerging technologies and a proactive approach to continuous improvement
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence at all levels
• Hands-on experience of Java and Spring Boot
• Strong knowledge of modern technologies and platforms used within digital and cloud applications

Desirable skills include:

• Restful Design, working with API Gateway products - Azure
• Containers and Container Orchestration - Docker, Kubernetes
• Continuous Integration Pipelines and version control platforms
• IaC scripting & concepts (Bicep or Terraform preferred but not essential)

About our Benefits

Everyones different. Thats why we offer a wide range of benefits and rewards that we think youll love whatevers important to you, and whatever stage of life youre at. Such as

• Our pension scheme(where you can get up to 11% from us)
• On target bonus of 7%(with the opportunity to earn up to a maximum 15%)
• Access to brilliant health benefits
• Life assurance at 6 times your salary
• 25 days holiday(and the option to buy more)
• Cycle to work or an interest-free loan for an annual ticket
• Wellbeing resources and tools
• Retail and Leisure discounts