Principal Engineer

Shell; City of Westminster; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading energy company in the United Kingdom is seeking a seasoned professional to lead technical architecture and engineering for their trading portfolios. This role demands over 13 years of experience in software delivery, with a strong emphasis on collaboration and innovation within a high-stakes trading environment. The right candidate will ensure seamless integration of engineering teams and strategic alignment with business objectives, contributing to energy transition initiatives. Flexible working hours and a competitive salary are part of the offered package.

Benefits

Flexible working hours

Competitive salary

Training and development programs

Qualifications

• 13+ years of experience in software or architecture delivery.
• 10+ years leading software engineering teams.
• Extensive experience in architectural roles.

Responsibilities

• Own technical strategy and architectural design.
• Lead cross-functional collaboration and engineering decisions.
• Drive innovation and continuous improvement in trading portfolios.

Skills

Technical architecture leadership

Collaborative management

Strong communication skills

Experience in trading environments

Education

Bachelor's degree in a relevant field

Tools

Azure

Node.js

Python

Job description

Key Responsibilities

• Finance.
• Operations.
• Front Office Market Analysis (forecasting, modelling).
• Trading Data & Analytics processes.
• Own and drive technical architecture, design, and standards for software products in Commodities Trading.
• Confidently lead architecture decisions across portfolios, managing divergent opinions.
• Create pragmatic, implementable technical designs balancing risk, complexity, cost, and value.
• TOGAF (or similar framework) experience and Enterprise Architecture tooling.

Documentation & Coordination

• Address Business Process, Data, Application, Technical, and Information Security aspects of IT Solutions, documenting in High-Level Design documents.
• Coordinate and develop information with third parties (Data Architects, IRM, IDSO, ET SOM, Business stakeholders), internal and external to Shell.

You should exhibit deep technology leadership with a good balance of hands‑on experience in designing and engineering technical solutions, problem‑solving mentality and logical thinking. This role is a single point of engineering and architecture leadership with end‑to‑end accountability for technical strategy and delivery of the products/projects within the Front Office Trading portfolio. You will report into the Crude and Products Delivery Manager but also serve on the Crude and Products Architecture LT. Strong leadership skills, including fostering collaboration, driving consensus, and effectively communicating complex technical concepts, are essential. The ideal candidate will not only lead in their area of expertise but also play a key role in shaping and transforming the role itself – identifying opportunities, driving innovation, and delivering impact that extends beyond the initial remit. As the organization grows, this role is expected to evolve, offering continuous opportunities for development, influence, and leadership.

What you bring

• Industry Knowledge:
  • Understanding of all major global futures exchanges.
  • Knowledge of the full exchange‑traded derivatives trade lifecycle.
  • Substantial years’ experience in Commodity Trading & Price Risk Management or Capital Markets / Investment Banks to bring credible externalisation of mindset and approach, ensuring cost: value competitiveness.
  • Familiarity with market data providers (Bloomberg, Refinitiv, etc.) and liquidity aggregation platforms.
  • Understanding of financial regulations such as MiFID II, EMIR, and FCA guidelines.
  • Knowledge of the Life of a Deal (LOAD).
  • Compliance & Regulation.
• 13+ years of experience in software or architecture delivery with 10+ years leading software engineering teams.
• Extensive years of experience in architectural roles, with 5 years leading portfolios.
• Build and maintain motivated teams, ensuring recruitment, development, and collaboration.
• Direct workload of engineers and architects, partitioning tasks, and assigning accountability.
• Recruit talent and support high‑performing teams in both architecture and engineering.
• Collaborate with business and IT stakeholders for strategic and day‑to‑day technical decisions.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills with 5+ years’ experience in trading environments.
• Listen to and interpret needs of technical and business stakeholders, manage expectations, and facilitate discussions.
• Be an active participant in the wider Tech Lead and engineering communities.
• Diagnose problems and implement innovative solutions fitting into the wider Shell Trading picture.
• Manage dependencies, overcome obstacles, and maximise value against constraints, managing trade‑offs or technical debt.

Technical Skills and Mastery

• Trading System & ETRM:
  • Experience with the entire Trading system landscape and capabilities around Life of a Deal.
  • Experience architecting and designing ETRM services and capabilities, ideally within an Endur application landscape.
• Desirable Technologies & Programming Languages:
  • Expert in one or more of the programming languages (Node.js, .Net, .Net Core, Python, C++) with Cloud Native Platform Development (AWS, Azure).
  • Expert in one or more of the front‑end development technologies (specifically React).
  • Expert in one or more of Data Development (SQL Databases, No SQL, Cloud Datastores) technologies.
  • Hands‑on experience with Databricks/Spark, Azure Data Factory – a bonus.
  • Exposure to SAP HANA, Salesforce, API management, Multifactor authentication, Collibra, Purview.
• Azure Platform & Cloud Native:
  • Hands‑on experience in architecting applications into the Azure platform, including migrations/re‑platforming of legacy systems.
  • Engineering and architecture experience in designing and building containers, Microservices, Cloud Native applications, and federated Data platforms (Data Mesh).
• Data Management & Diverse Data Types:
  • Strong knowledge of data management: engineering, pipeline development, warehousing, storage, lifecycle management, privacy, security.
  • Experience with diverse data types: big data, high‑velocity streaming, IoT, low‑latency event triggers, longitudinal time series.
  • Proficient in SQL and NoSQL databases.
• Azure Services & Integration:
  • Significant experience with Azure Functions, Web Apps, distributed/event‑driven architecture (event hub, event bus, Kafka), ELK.
  • Intermediate to advanced exposure to Azure Active Directory, Azure Data Factory, Azure Data Lake, Azure Storage, Azure Kubernetes Service, CosmosDB, Azure SQL Data Warehouse.
  • Integration experience with Confluent/Kafka, API Management, Logic Apps.
• CI/CD & DevOps:
  • Proven years of experience in CI/CD delivery using Git/GitHub, VSTS/Azure DevOps, Terraform, Ansible.
• Agile & Engineering Standards:
  • Practical agile experience in both start‑up and enterprise environments.
  • Lead the engineering community to follow Shell Engineer Management standards, ensuring consistency and reuse.
  • Understand and deliver core engineering GPA objectives.
  • Create a collaborative environment for technical roles to drive clear decisions and consistency.

You bring your skills and experience to Shell and in return you work with talented, committed people on one of the most important challenges facing our planet. You'll have the opportunity to develop the skills you need to grow in an environment where we value honesty, integrity, and respect for one another. You'll be able to balance your priorities as you become the best version of yourself.

Personal Growth & Benefits

• Progress as a person as we work on the energy transition together.
• Continuously grow the transferable skills you need to get ahead.
• Work at the forefront of technology, trends, and practices.
• Collaborate with experienced colleagues with unique expertise.
• Achieve your balance in a values‑led culture that encourages you to be the best version of yourself.
• Benefit from flexible working hours, and the possibility of remote/mobile working.
• Perform at your best with a competitive starting salary and annual performer‑related salary increase – our pay and benefits packages are considered to be among the best in the world.
• Take advantage of paid parental leave, including for non‑birthing parents.
• Join an organisation working to become one of the world's most diverse and inclusive in the world. We strongly encourage applicants of all genders, ages, ethnicities, cultures, abilities, sexual orientation, and life experiences to apply.
• Grow as you progress through diverse career opportunities in national and international teams.
• Gain access to a wide range of training and development programmes.

We'd like you to know that Shell has a bold goal: to become one of the world's most diverse and inclusive companies. You can get to know more about how we're working towards that goal, click here. We are committed to attracting a broader and more diverse pool of candidates. If this position doesn't feel like the perfect fit for your qualifications right now, we'd still love to hear from you. Consider creating a profile in our Talent Community so we can keep you in mind for future opportunities that may align with your skills.

Shell in The United Kingdom Shell UK remains one of the North Sea's biggest producers, supplying around 10% of the UK's total oil and gas needs. But perhaps the most recognisable face of Shell in the UK is our network of over 1,000 Shell‑branded service stations. In the years ahead, as the UK looks to strengthen energy security and deliver its 2050 net‑zero goal, Shell UK aims to play a crucial role. We aim to be a major investor in the UK energy system by helping our customers decarbonise with a focus on transport and industry.