Principal Software Engineer - Operations and Customer Services

ZipRecruiter; London; Hybrid; GBP 80,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Join a forward-thinking company as a Principal Engineer, where your technical expertise will shape the future of cruise booking. You'll lead cross-functional teams, architect scalable solutions, and drive innovation in a collaborative environment. With a focus on customer service and operational excellence, this role is foundational to the company's growth. Experience the thrill of transforming the travel industry while working with smart, supportive colleagues who value your contributions. This is your chance to make a real impact in a dynamic and evolving sector.

Benefits

Paid Training

Conferences and Certifications

Flexible Working Options

Team Collaboration Events

Travel Discounts

Qualifications

• Experience leading engineering or cross-functional teams.
• Strong proficiency in enterprise integration patterns.
• Extensive experience with C#, MVC, and SQL.

Responsibilities

• Take technical ownership of CRM and operations domains.
• Architect clean, scalable integrations between platforms.
• Collaborate with product teams to align technology choices.

Skills

C#

MVC

SQL

AWS

Agile Methodologies

Problem-Solving

Interpersonal Skills

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science

Experience in E-commerce Development

Tools

TeamCity

Octopus

Bitbucket Pipelines

Job description

Job Description

About Iglu: Why You'll Love Working Here

At Iglu.com, we're more than just a travel company — we’re the UK’s leading online cruise retailer, and we’re redefining what it means to book a cruise in the digital age.

Working at Iglu means:

• Flat structure, real impact – Your ideas matter. Everyone contributes, and you’ll see the results of your work quickly.
• Cruise perks & travel love – We’re in the business of adventure, and you’ll feel it.
• Smart, supportive people – Join a talented, close-knit team that genuinely enjoys solving hard problems together.
• Room to grow – We’re on a transformation journey, and there’s huge opportunity to shape the future with us.
• Training and development – Paid training, conferences, and certifications (e.g., AWS Certs).

We combine a passion for travel with a love for technology, delivering smart, seamless customer experiences and building platforms that handle the complexity of modern cruising — all while keeping things collaborative and fun.

What you will be doing and why it matters

As a Principal Engineer at IgluCruise.com, you’ll take technical ownership of the CRM and operations domains, helping to shape the evolution of our enterprise platforms and the seamless integration of business-critical systems.

From architecting clean, scalable integrations between internal and external platforms to overseeing the development of vital applications that power our customer service and operations — your work will be foundational to how we operate and grow.

You’ll be at the technical heart of a business that’s transforming how people book cruises online — a sector ripe for innovation and full of complexity.

Who will I be working with?

You’ll report directly to the Director of Engineering and play a leadership role across two cross-functional Product Teams focused on CRM and operations.

You’ll be supported by and work closely with:

• The Head of Architecture to align technical direction with target architecture
• The Director of Engineering to drive engineering strategy and team growth
• The Head of QA to ensure high standards of quality, automation, and release confidence
• The Lead Engineers and Software Engineers in the CRM and operations Product Teams
• Business stakeholders as a technical consultant for new idea submissions

Collaboration will be at the heart of your role — ensuring technology choices and development practices are aligned with business needs and delivered with excellence.

What you will own

Enterprise COTS SaaS platforms covering:

• Customer service and sales lead management
• Back office automation platform
• Call centre platform

Bespoke development covering:

• Agent Reservations (Configure, Price, Quote, and Book)
• Booking management platform
• Customer Booking Portal

What we are looking for

• Contribute to sprint planning while providing architectural guidance to product teams.
• Shape the long-term technical vision for bespoke software, looking beyond immediate delivery needs.
• Serve as a technical advisor to business units aligned with product teams, with a primary focus on Sales and Customer Service.
• Bring deep expertise in application and platform development.
• Demonstrate strong proficiency in enterprise integration patterns (including APIs and event-driven design), AWS, and SQL as well as NoSQL databases.
• Lead architecture and development decision-making with confidence and clarity.
• Maintain a hands-on approach, effectively balancing strategic thinking with practical implementation.
• Remain calm under pressure to investigate and resolve technical issues and challenges.

Tech at Iglu:

• We work in an Agile way but let teams decide how to operate within those boundaries.
• Remote and office working options are available.
• We are pragmatic about technologies but always evaluate new tools/frameworks.
• We are passionate about Infrastructure as Code, with AWS as our platform of choice.
• We believe in autonomy and responsibility within teams that build and deploy software.
• Small, frequent deployments are our goal.

Experience / Qualifications:

• Experience leading engineering or cross-functional teams.
• Experience designing and developing highly available, scalable distributed solutions, ideally in e-commerce.
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code.
• Strong problem-solving and analytical skills.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Experience mentoring software developers.
• Extensive experience with C#, MVC, and SQL (.NET Framework and .NET Core).
• Experience working closely with stakeholders and wider business units.
• Experience with AWS (or other cloud platforms).
• Experience with distributed caching and search technologies.
• Exposure to TeamCity, Octopus, and Bitbucket Pipelines.