Principal Software Engineer

Our client is a major defence and aerospace company.

Date Posted:

2026-06-24

Country:

United Kingdom

Location:

Manchester, Lancashire

Position Role Type:

Onsite

Our client have a full time, permanent opportunity for a Principal Software Engineer to join our team on our Manchester or Gloucester sites within a hybrid working pattern.

As Principal Software Engineer, you have the opportunity to focus on technical work or have a mixture of technical focus and people management focus - guiding and developing our more junior members of the team. Either way, you'll be a part of our experienced software dev function, working in a cross-functional team, delivering and deploying critical software across a variety of business areas.

Due to the interesting work we do and the sector this team is working in, we require all candidates to hold SC and be eligible & willing to obtain eDV clearance.

Responsibilities

• Design and build software using industry best practice

• Collaborate with stakeholders and other engineers

• Contribute to the completion of milestones associated with your project

• Contribute to continuous improvement within your team

• Collaborate with your peers on technical direction within your team

Required Skills and Experience

• Full-stack experience across a selection of JavaScript frameworks (React, NextJS), TypeScript, Python, Java

• REST API development & OpenAPI / Swagger

• Cloud services (AWS or Azure)

• Containerisation & Orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes, OpenShift)

• Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Ansible)

• Relational Databases (e.g. PostgreSQL)

• Elasticsearch / Opensearch

• Unit testing / automation and use of testing frameworks (e.g. Mocha, Jest, Cypress)

We appreciate you may not be an expert in every area above - we can support with training and development in some areas! Please do make an application and we will identify where we can best support your growth specific to your application.

Benefits & Work Culture

Benefits:

• Contributory Pension Scheme (up to 10.5% company contribution)
• 6 times salary ‘Life Assurance' with pension
• 25 days holiday (increasing with service) + statutory public holidays, plus opportunity to buy and sell up to 5 days
• Company bonus scheme (discretionary)
• Private Medical Insurance
• Flexible Benefits scheme with extensive salary sacrifice schemes, including Health Cashplan, Dental, and Cycle to Work amongst others
• Enhanced sick pay
• Enhanced family friendly policies including enhanced maternity, paternity & shared parental leave

Work Culture:

• 37hr working week
• Early 1.30pm finish Friday, start your weekend early!
• Up to 5 paid days volunteering each year.
• Flexible working culture focused on output, with more formal flexible working arrangements on request (assessed subject to role) - please highlight any requests to the Talent Acquisition team.

About us

In this area of our client, we provide DevSecOps at scale, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, cyber and geospatial intelligence capabilities to support the defence, intelligence and cyber sectors. Collaborating with customers and suppliers to deliver secure, mission critical systems using the latest technologies and innovations.

We take immense pride in being a leader in defence and aerospace technology. As an employer, we are dedicated to fuelling innovation, nurturing talent, and fostering a culture of excellence.
Joining our team means being part of an organisation that shapes the future of national security whilst investing in your growth and personal development. We provide a collaborative environment, abundant opportunities for professional development, and a profound sense of purpose in what we do. Together, we are not just advancing technology; we're building a community committed to safeguarding a safer and more connected world.

Its parent company
Our client is a landed company and part of the wider its parent company organisation. Headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, USA, but with over 180,000 employees globally across every continent, its parent company provides advanced systems and services for commercial, military and government customers worldwide and comprises three industry-leading businesses – an aircraft systems business, an aircraft engines business, and our client.

Supporting over 35,000 jobs across 13 UK sites, its parent company is helping to drive prosperity. Each year our work contributes over £2.7bn to the UK economy and offers a wealth of opportunities to 4,000 suppliers across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. We're investing in all corners of the country, supporting 29,040 jobs in England, 3,040 in Northern Ireland, 1,900 in Scotland and 1,600 in Wales.

#LI-AS3

Its parent company adheres to the principles of equal employment. All qualified applications will be given careful consideration without regard to ethnicity, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation or identity, national origin, age, disability, protected veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law.

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