Hands-On Principal Engineer: Architecture & Delivery

Candour; Manchester; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 95,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

30 days holiday + Bank Holidays

Company pension scheme

Significant technical ownership and |

Job summary

Candour is seeking a Principal Engineer in Manchester to own architecture and lead delivery while staying hands-on with code. You will shape the platform, drive technical direction, and collaborate with the CTO to raise engineering standards. The role emphasizes ownership, mentoring, and high-impact delivery.

Ideal candidates are senior engineers ready to influence at scale, comfortable guiding across the full stack, and adept with modern tooling and AI-enabled development.

Qualifications

• Senior-level software engineering experience with leadership exposure.
• Experience across the full software development lifecycle.
• Mentoring engineers is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Own technical decisions across architecture, development and delivery.
• Design, build and ship features across the full stack.
• Mentor and support other engineers while remaining hands-on.
• Develop and improve CI/CD processes and engineering practices.
• Work with REST/GraphQL APIs and third-party integrations.
• Identify opportunities to introduce AI/LLM functionality where it adds value.
• Contribute to automated testing, code reviews and technical standards.

Skills

Senior-level experience

Ownership

Mentoring

Tools

Node.js

Go

PostgreSQL

MySQL

SQL Server

REST APIs

GraphQL

Job description

Candour is seeking a Principal Engineer in Manchester to own architecture and lead delivery while staying hands-on with code. You will shape the platform, drive technical direction, and collaborate with the CTO to raise engineering standards. The role emphasizes ownership, mentoring, and high-impact delivery.

Ideal candidates are senior engineers ready to influence at scale, comfortable guiding across the full stack, and adept with modern tooling and AI-enabled development.