Principal Engineer

hkex; Greater London; On-site; GBP 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

HKEX in London is seeking a Principal Engineer to drive the technical direction and architecture of complex distributed systems. The role focuses on design, delivery, and secure, scalable cloud-native applications using Kubernetes, Kafka, and modern DevOps practices.

You will lead technical discussions, set standards, and mentor teams while collaborating with product, security, and operations to deliver business-critical capabilities.

Qualifications

• University degree in Computer Science, Engineering, related STEM discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
• Significant hands-on software engineering experience in Java, building and operating distributed systems.
• Deep experience with microservices, APIs, event-driven architectures (Kafka) and integration patterns.
• Design and build secure, cloud-native applications using modern engineering practices (Kubernetes).
• Strong knowledge of secure software development, including authentication, authorisation, encryption, and secure-by-design principles.
• Experience with Kubernetes, container platforms, and scalable production environments.
• Practical DevOps expertise across CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code, GitOps, automated testing, and deployment automation.

Responsibilities

• Drive the technical direction, architecture, design, and delivery of complex platforms and applications.
• Provide leadership through hands-on software engineering, mentoring, and cross-team influence without people management oversight.
• Establish engineering standards, best practices, and secure-by-design principles across the organisation.
• Engage with senior stakeholders and external parties to influence strategy and technology decisions.

Skills

Java

Microservices

Kafka

Kubernetes

CI/CD

Security by design

Architectural leadership

Stakeholder management

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Docker

OpenShift

Prometheus

Grafana

Job description

Principal Engineer

Shift Pattern: Standard 40 Hour Week (United Kingdom)

Scheduled Weekly Hours: 40

Corporate Grade: C - Vice President

Reporting Line: (UK Division) Information Technology

Location: UK-London

Worker Type: Permanent

The Principal Engineer is a senior individual contributor responsible for driving the technical direction, architecture, design, and delivery of complex software platforms and applications. The role provides leadership through hands‑on software engineering, technical expertise, mentoring, and influence across teams, without direct people management responsibility. Success in this role means building secure, scalable, and resilient software systems, establishing engineering best practices, improving developer productivity and enabling the efficient delivery of business‑critical capabilities.

Academic and Professional Qualifications Required Classification

University degree in Computer Science, Engineering, related STEM discipline, or equivalent practical experience.

Required Demonstrable Experience Of

• Significant hands‑on software engineering experience in Java, building and operating distributed systems.
• Deep experience with microservices, APIs, event‑driven architectures (Kafka) and integration patterns
• Define and influence engineering strategy, architecture standards, and technical roadmaps.
• Design and build secure, cloud‑native applications using modern engineering practices (Kubernetes),
• Strong knowledge of secure software development, including authentication, authorisation, encryption, and secure‑by‑design principles.
• Experience with Kubernetes, container platforms, and scalable production environments.
• Practical DevOps expertise across CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code, GitOps, automated testing, and deployment automation.
• Ability to lead technical design discussions, conduct reviews, and make pragmatic engineering decisions.
• Proven ability to work autonomously and drive initiatives from concept to delivery.
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills, influencing both technical and non‑technical audiences.

Bonus Knowledge

• Experience in financial services, trading systems, or other regulated environments,
• Python, Scala, or other modern programming languages, - OpenShift, Docker, Kubernetes, Helm,
• Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) practice,
• Observability tooling such as Prometheus, Grafana, Splunk, OpenTelemetry, or Elastic.

Personal Qualities

• Analytical and pragmatic problem solver focused on outcomes, resiliency, and maintainability.
• Strong ownership mentality with the ability to independently lead technical initiatives.
• Collaborative and influential, building trust across engineering, product, operations, security, and business stakeholders.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to promote engineering best practices, drive continuous improvement, and share technical knowledge effectively

Corporate Grade Description

Core Functional Responsibilities of a Vice President: The successful candidate will act as a subject matter expert, providing technical leadership, defining engineering standards, influencing strategic technology direction, and supporting complex delivery initiatives across the organisation. The role is expected to engage regularly with senior stakeholders and external parties where required. Experience Criteria of a Vice President: Incumbents at this level possess significant engineering and industry expertise. They are recognised technical leaders capable of influencing architecture, security, reliability, platform strategy, software delivery practices, and long‑term technology decisions across multiple domains.