Principal Full Stack Software Engineer

Principal Software Engineer
Salary to £80k, poss higher for their Unicorn candidate
Role can be based remotely, as long as you can occasionally travel to London for client work (travel expenses paid) - approx. once a month.
NB: Please only apply if you are a UK National & UK passport holder, have resided in the UK for the past 5 years and are prepared to go through UK SC Security Clearance. Proof of ID will be required prior to interview.
This role is with a growing is a technology consultancy. This is a hands-on principal engineering role: architecture ownership across multiple services, technical leadership across teams, and direct contribution to engineering standards and hiring. Their successful candidate will be writing code as well as setting direction - this is not a purely architectural or management position. Current delivery is a Java/Spring Boot microservices platform on AWS EKS, with a Next.js frontend and Camunda-based process orchestration.
Essential
Experience level: 10+ years minimum, principal or staff grade equivalent.
Backend and cloud:
Java 17 or 21, at expert level - modern language features
Spring Boot in depth: security, transaction management, async/reactive
Microservices architecture design - has designed services from scratch
Kubernetes and Docker in production (not local development use)
AWS, hands-on: EKS, Lambda, S3, RDS, EventBridge
CI/CD pipeline ownership
Automated testing discipline: JUnit, Mockito, integration testing, TDD or BDD
Frontend:
Held a lead or tech lead role on frontend development in React. Leadership must have been over React work itself.
Understands and has implemented FFE/BFE separation - the split between the presentation layer (components, styling, client state) and the frontend's own server-side tier (data aggregation for the UI, session and auth handling, server-side rendering, API route composition).
Leadership:
Architecture ownership across multiple systems
Cross-team technical leadership
Track record of influencing engineering standards, technology choices, or hiring
Evidence of growing other engineers
Security clearance: UK SC clearance required. Active clearance strongly preferred; eligible candidates considered - must be a UK national with 5+ years continuous UK residency.
Desirable:
Camunda 8 / BPMN process orchestration
Next.js specifically (App Router, server components, route handlers)
Terraform or other infrastructure-as-code, to module-authoring level
React Native or equivalent building native mobile from a React codebase
Design system or component library ownership
Consultancy or client-facing delivery background
Open-source contributions, conference talks, or published technical writing
Polyglot beyond Java
Other Stuff
NB: for non-UK Citizens; we cannot accept applications from anyone requiring sponsorship (now or in the future) for UK permanent employment status.If you are utilising a work visa this must allow you to work in the UK unrestricted for at least the next 5 years.
Profile 29 recruitment keywords: Java Spring Boot Microservices Kubernetes Docker AWS EKS Lambda S3 RDS EventBridge CI/CD Junit Mockito integration testing TDD BDD React Camunda BPMN Next.js Terraform lead senior manage manager director remote London hybrid developer engineer

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