Neuron Principal Engineer

Willis Towers Watson; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading global insurance firm is seeking a Principal Engineer to lead engineering resilience and strategic technical partnerships. This hybrid role focuses on improving the codebase, collaborating with product teams, and driving engineering standards. Candidates should have extensive experience in backend software engineering, particularly with MuleSoft, APIs, and scalable architectures. Join a team committed to inclusivity and professional growth while delivering impactful technical solutions.

Benefits

25 days annual leave plus an extra WTW day

Private healthcare

Life insurance

Group income protection

Defined contribution pension scheme

Employee assistance programme

Electric vehicle car scheme

Cycle-to-work programme

Dental and optical cover

Qualifications

• Extensive years’ experience in backend software engineering with strong expertise in MuleSoft, APIs, distributed systems, and scalable architectures.
• Proven ability to assess technical landscapes, identify gaps, and drive engineering improvement initiatives.
• Strong track record of delivering complex technical work and enabling teams to deliver effectively.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, able to translate technical realities into clear guidance.

Responsibilities

• Assess the current state of the codebase, tooling, and operations to identify and prioritize improvement opportunities.
• Define and communicate expectations for engineering resilience, maintainability, and operational excellence.
• Collaborate with the Technical Product Owner to clearly define backlog of engineering improvements.

Skills

MuleSoft

APIs

Distributed systems

Scalable architectures

CI/CD

Operational monitoring

Tools

MuleSoft

MongoDB

Terraform

Kubernetes

Azure

AWS

Job description

Summary

Working as part of a team to establish a new way of Digital Trading within the Global Insurance Industry, you will work collaboratively with the Head of Technology and your peers to support both the set up and subsequent rapid growth journey of a new part of WTW, winning new customers and expanding into new markets internationally.

The Role

Neuron is seeking a highly capable Principal Engineer to act as a senior technical leader responsible for two core pillars of impact.

They will spend about 70% of their time evaluating, elevating, and maintaining engineering resilience continuously assessing our codebase, developer tooling, testing practices, standards, and operational health against Neuron’s engineering vision. They own the technical bar for engineering excellence, with full authority to research, propose, and drive solutions to uphold it, including personally tackling the most complex technical work (up to 15% of their capacity). They coach and enable platform and product teams to deliver with clarity and precision, primarily by automating repetitive tasks and creating documentation that defines how teams operate.

The final 30% is spent acting as a strategic technical partner to the Digital Product team, bridging the gap between product vision and technical reality. This involves illuminating what is feasible, guiding product teams on reusable service/component opportunities, and ensuring concepts are mature and well-articulated to support efficient technical design and delivery.

This role demands a hands‑on, self‑starting and thoughtful leader who blends deep technical expertise with strong communication and collaboration skills, driving robust, scalable and maintainable solutions that meet both business and technical needs.

Engineering Resilience & Delivery Enablement (70%)

• Assess the current state of the codebase, developer tooling, testing coverage, engineering standards, and operations to identify and prioritise improvement opportunities with a view to creating a resilient, consistently scalable platform.
• Define and communicate expectations for engineering resilience, maintainability, and operational excellence.
• Deliver personally the most technically challenging 10‑25% of critical improvements, including complex refactoring and architecture enhancements.
• Collaborate with the Technical Product Owner to clearly define and prepare the remaining backlog of engineering improvements for execution by platform and product teams.
• Establish, promote, and enforce engineering standards around code quality, testing, and tooling.
• Facilitate root cause analysis and lead systemic remediation of production incidents.
• Advocate for continuous reduction of technical debt and foster a culture of craftsmanship and operational rigor.

Product Technical Partnership & Reusability (30%)

• Act as the primary technical liaison to Digital Product, providing clear, honest guidance on what is feasible and the technical implications of product requests.
• Partner with product teams early in the idea and requirements phase to ensure concepts are sufficiently defined and technically viable.
• Champion the design and build of reusable backend services and components that can be leveraged across multiple business areas.
• Collaborate with product leadership to prioritise work that maximises reuse and technical efficiency.
• Help bridge the gap between product vision and engineering execution, ensuring smoother delivery and alignment on scope and timelines.

Qualifications

Requirements (Critical)

• Extensive years’ experience in backend software engineering with strong expertise in MuleSoft, APIs, distributed systems, and scalable architectures.
• Proven ability to assess technical landscapes, identify gaps, and drive engineering improvement initiatives.
• Strong track record of personally delivering complex technical work and enabling teams to deliver effectively.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, able to translate technical realities into clear guidance for product teams.
• Experience working closely with product managers or product owners to shape requirements and technical approaches.
• Skilled mentor and influencer capable of driving adoption of engineering standards.
• Deep understanding of developer tooling, CI/CD, automated testing, and operational monitoring.
• Ability to act as an escalation point for complex technical and architectural challenges.

Preferred

• Familiarity with cloud platforms (min. Azure & AWS) and container orchestration (Kubernetes).
• Knowledge of reusable service/component design patterns and API‑first development.
• Experience in domain‑driven design and event‑driven architectures.
• Strong background operating and running Agile software development and continuous delivery processes.
• Previous experience in technical partnership roles or bridging product and engineering.

Role‑Specific Tools & Technologies

• Core tools: MuleSoft, REST APIs, MongoDB.
• Cloud & Infrastructure: Azure, AWS, Terraform, Kubernetes.

Success In This Role Looks Like

• Comprehensive assessment of codebase, tooling, testing, and operational health completed, vision of improvements and a strategic implementation plan communicated.
• A prioritised, well‑defined backlog of engineering improvements prepared and actively delivered by platform and product teams.
• Delivery of the hardest 5‑15% of critical technical improvements with measurable impact on resilience and maintainability.
• Established and authored engineering standards, widely adopted across teams.
• Defined and ongoing delivery of reusable backend services/components aligned with business priorities.
• Clear, trusted technical partnership with Digital Product; product concepts consistently mature and delivery ready.
• Mentor and elevate senior developers to have increased technical product knowledge.

Benefits – GB

Enjoy a benefits package designed to help you thrive, both professionally and personally. You’ll receive 25 days of annual leave plus an extra WTW day to relax and recharge. Our comprehensive health and wellbeing offering includes private healthcare, life insurance, group income protection, and regular health assessments, all giving you peace of mind. Secure your future with our defined contribution pension scheme, featuring matched contributions up to 10% from the company.

We support your growth and balance with hybrid working options, access to an employee assistance programme, and a fully paid volunteer day to make a difference in your community. On top of these, you can opt into a variety of additional perks including an electric vehicle car scheme, share scheme, cycle‑to‑work programme, dental and optical cover, critical illness protection, and much more. Start making the most of your career and wellbeing with a range of benefits tailored for you.

Equal Opportunity & Inclusive Workplace

At WTW, we believe difference makes us stronger. We want our workforce to reflect the different and varied markets we operate in and to build a culture of inclusivity that makes colleagues feel welcome, valued, and empowered to bring their whole selves to work every day. We are an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering an inclusive work environment throughout our organisation. We embrace all types of diversity.

We’re committed to equal employment opportunity and provide application, interview and workplace adjustments and accommodations to all applicants. If you foresee any barriers, from the application process through to joining WTW, please email [e-mail].

Please note that this is a hybrid role, requiring 2 days per week in the office, and based in the London office.