Description
As part of the M&S Software Engineering team, you'll be joining a well-loved British brand, working on solutions that serve millions of loyal customers and thousands of colleagues.
We are looking for a Principal Software Engineer to provide senior technical leadership across our International Fashion, Home & Beauty domain. You will shape and modernise mission-critical platforms that support international growth, working closely with Engineering, Product, Architecture, Delivery and partner teams to design robust, scalable, secure and reusable technology solutions.
Key Accountabilities:
- Lead technical excellence across the full software development lifecycle, from solution design through launch and live operation of core product features, strategic platforms and business-critical programmes.
- Define and evolve scalable integration patterns for product, price and availability flows, fulfilment capabilities, partner onboarding, marketplace integrations and market-specific customer experiences.
- Shape technical direction and influence Technology and Product investment decisions, engineering team structures and delivery approaches to ensure sustainable, scalable outcomes.
- Champion engineering excellence by promoting clean code, clean architecture, automation, DevOps principles and pragmatic engineering practices that improve maintainability, productivity and delivery quality.
- Drive operational ownership and "you build it, you run it" practices, enabling teams to build, release, monitor and continuously improve the services they own.
- Provide technical leadership and guidance to internal engineering teams and external delivery partners, creating alignment across complex multi-team and multi-supplier delivery environments.
- Build engineering capability through mentoring, Communities of Practice, innovation initiatives, recruitment support, onboarding activities and contributions to the wider engineering community.
Requirements:
- Significant experience providing technical leadership across complex software engineering environments, with a proven track record of strategic thinking, technical innovation and successful large-scale delivery.
- Strong expertise in software engineering fundamentals, including clean code, clean architecture, design patterns, distributed systems and solution design for highly complex, business-critical platforms.
- Demonstrable experience shaping technology strategy and implementation approaches, ensuring alignment with business objectives, engineering standards, governance requirements and long-term architectural direction.
- Deep knowledge of cloud and platform engineering, including cloud-native architectures, Kubernetes, networking, security, observability, reliability engineering and automation practices.
- Strong understanding of quality engineering, test strategies, testing quadrants, testing pyramids, continuous integration, continuous delivery and DevOps ownership models.
- Excellent communication, stakeholder management and influencing skills, with the ability to engage and guide senior technical and non-technical audiences while driving consensus across multiple teams.
- A strong leadership mindset with high levels of ownership, accountability and coaching capability, helping senior engineers and stakeholders make effective technical decisions without over-prescribing solutions.
Tech Stack:
- Java, Spring, Spring Boot and Micronaut
- React, Next.js, TypeScript and Angular
- Azure Cloud and Kubernetes
- Kafka and IBM MQ
- SQL Server, MongoDB and Redis
- OpenTelemetry and Dynatrace
Benefits:
- 20% colleague discount on all M&S products and many third-party brands for you and someone in your household, available once you've completed your probation.
- Competitive holiday allowance with the option to buy more.
- Discretionary bonus schemes linked to your performance and ours.
- Strong pension and life assurance to help plan for the future.
- Tailored induction and training to support your development from day one.
- Exclusive perks and savings through our M&S Choices portal.
- Market-leading family policies, including parental, adoption and neonatal leave.
- 24/7 wellbeing support, including virtual GP access and mental health services.
- One paid volunteer day a year to support a cause that matters to you.