Database Principle Engineer

Square One Resources; Sheffield; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A financial services company in Sheffield is looking for an experienced Database Principal Engineer to lead its global Database Platform team. The successful candidate will define the strategy and engineering excellence for enterprise-level database platforms. With over 10 years of engineering experience and strong expertise in database technologies, the candidate will ensure robust and scalable solutions. The role demands excellent leadership and communication skills to engage with senior executives. Attractive contract terms are offered.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in engineering roles, with senior/principal level experience.
• Deep knowledge of database technologies across IaaS and DBaaS.
• Strong platform engineering background with a focus on automation.

Responsibilities

• Define long-term strategy for database infrastructure and services.
• Act as a subject-matter expert on database technologies.
• Lead design and implementation of scalable database platforms.

Skills

Leadership

Database technologies expertise

Performance tuning

Infrastructure automation

Microservices

CI/CD

SRE/DevOps

Communication skills

Job description

Job Title: Database Principal Engineer
Location: Sheffield
Start Date: 19/01/2026
Job Type: Contract

Overview

One of our leading financial services clients is seeking an experienced Database Principal Engineer to play a key leadership role within its global Database Platform team in the Chief Technology Office. This is a senior, hands‑on engineering position focused on defining strategy, architecture, and engineering excellence across enterprise‑scale database platforms.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and drive the long‑term strategy for database infrastructure and shared services (DBaaS/PaaS).
• Act as a subject‑matter expert and trusted advisor on database technologies and engineering decisions.
• Lead architecture, design, and implementation of resilient, secure, and scalable database platforms.
• Collaborate with architects, product owners, a global organisation.
• Champion automation, DevOps, SRE practices, and continuous improvement.
• Provide technical leadership, mentoring, and influence across cross‑functional engineering teams.

Required Skills / Experience

• 10 years in engineering roles, including significant experience at senior/principal level.
• Deep expertise in database technologies (relational, NoSQL, distributed SQL) across IaaS and DBaaS environments.
• Strong background in platform engineering, performance tuning, capacity planning, and infrastructure automation.
• Hands‑on experience with microservices, CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code, and SRE/DevOps practices.
• Proven ability to lead large‑scale, enterprise platforms within regulated environments.
• Excellent communication skills with the gravitas to engage and advise senior executives.

If you are interested in this opportunity, please apply now with your updated CV in Microsoft Word/PDF format.

Disclaimer

Notwithstanding any guidelines given to level of experience sought, we will consider candidates from outside this range if they can demonstrate the necessary competencies.

Diversity Statement

Square One is acting as both an employment agency and an employment business, and is an equal opportunities recruitment business. Square One embraces diversity and will treat everyone equally. Please see our website for our full diversity statement.