Principal AWS Cloud Engineer

Shaw Daniels Solutions; United Kingdom; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive benefits

Hybrid work arrangement

Job summary

Shaw Daniels Solutions is seeking an experienced Principal AWS Cloud Engineer to shape cloud strategy and architect scalable AWS solutions. You will mentor engineers across teams and drive best practices, security, and operational excellence within a hybrid UK office setup.

The role requires leading large-scale cloud initiatives, designing resilient cloud infrastructure, and advancing CI/CD platforms while optimizing costs. Strong AWS expertise and SC clearance eligibility are essential.

Qualifications

• Experience designing multi-region AWS environments.
• Ability to mentor engineers and lead cross-team initiatives.
• SC clearance eligibility or ability to obtain.
• AWS Associate Certification or higher.
• Strong leadership and cloud strategy execution skills.

Responsibilities

• Design and govern multi-region AWS architectures aligned to roadmaps.
• Lead cross-team initiatives and set engineering standards.
• Drive Infrastructure as Code using Terraform, AWS CDK and Pulumi.
• Develop internal developer platforms and enterprise CI/CD frameworks.
• Drive AWS cost optimization and performance improvements across services.

Skills

AWS expertise

Cloud architecture

Infrastructure as Code

Terraform

AWS CDK

Pulumi

CI/CD

Programming languages (Python/Go/Java/

Leadership

Mentoring

Cost optimization

Networking

Security

Education

AWS Associate Certification

Tools

Terraform

AWS CDK

Pulumi

Job description

Up to £100,000 (dependent on experience) + comprehensive benefits

Hybrid – UK offices/3 days per week in the office

Our client is seeking an experienced Principal AWS Cloud Engineer to provide technical leadership across cloud infrastructure and platform engineering initiatives. This is a senior-level opportunity to shape cloud strategy, architect scalable and secure AWS solutions, and drive engineering excellence across multiple teams.

The Role

As a Principal AWS Cloud Engineer, you will define and lead the AWS cloud strategy, designing resilient, scalable and secure distributed systems that support long-term business objectives. Acting as the highest level of technical escalation, you will mentor engineers at all levels and influence engineering best practice, operational excellence, and cloud adoption across the organisation.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and architect complex, multi-region, highly available AWS environments aligned to business and product roadmaps.
• Evaluate emerging AWS services and third-party technologies to improve capability, efficiency and time-to-market.
• Provide technical leadership across multiple engineering teams, ensuring effective collaboration and cloud integration.
• Develop and maintain infrastructure using Infrastructure as Code tools such as Terraform, AWS CDK and Pulumi.
• Design and implement internal developer platforms and enterprise-scale CI/CD frameworks.
• Drive AWS cost optimisation initiatives and resolve performance bottlenecks across microservices, databases and networking layers.
• Act as a senior technical advisor, leading engineering standards, peer reviews and mentoring programmes.
• Extensive experience designing, building and managing cloud infrastructure within AWS environments.
• Expert knowledge of the AWS ecosystem, particularly networking (including Transit Gateway and Direct Connect), compute, storage, and security services.
• Strong expertise in Infrastructure as Code and configuration management.
• Software engineering background with advanced proficiency in at least one of the following: Python, Go, Java or Node.js.
• Proven experience leading large-scale technical programmes and influencing engineering strategy across multiple teams.
• Demonstrated success designing, deploying and supporting large-scale distributed systems and microservices architectures.

Qualifications

• AWS Associate Certification (minimum) or higher.

Working Arrangements

• Based from one of the client's main UK sites with a minimum average attendance of three days per week.
• Working hours may vary to support service coverage between 07:30 and 18:30 GMT.
• Participation in an on-call rota is required to support critical systems and incident response.

Security Clearance

Applicants must be eligible for SC Security Clearance as a minimum requirement.

• Matched pension contribution scheme with life assurance.
• Generous annual leave allowance, with the option to purchase additional days.
• Health Cash Plan, Private Medical Insurance and Dental Insurance options.
• Employee discounts across retail, travel, entertainment and insurance providers.
• Volunteering opportunities supporting charities and local communities.
• Supportive and inclusive working environment with a strong focus on professional development and career progression.

Our client welcomes applications from candidates of all backgrounds and values diversity, inclusion and continuous learning. If you have the required skills and experience and are looking to play a key role in shaping enterprise-scale AWS platforms, we would love to hear from you.