Principal Engineer

CDP; Greater London; On-site; GBP 79,000 - 99,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Pension plan

Life insurance

Training & development

Flexible working

Job summary

CDP is a global non-profit organisation focused on environmental disclosure and data-driven decisions. The Principal Engineer for Platform Integration & Architecture will lead improvements to how CDP’s services and systems integrate, drafting the current and target states and guiding a practical roadmap.

The role is hands-on and involves collaboration with tech leads, squads and stakeholders across Engineering, Architecture, QA, Product, and Platform teams.

Qualifications

• Extensive hands-on experience designing and improving integration architecture across multiple services.
• Strong engineering background in modern web stacks.
• Ability to document and communicate architectural decisions clearly.
• Experience aligning multiple teams on shared technical approaches.

Responsibilities

• Audit and document existing platform architecture and integrations across services.
• Produce architecture diagrams and documentation to support delivery and decision-making.
• Identify bottlenecks, debt, and propose concrete changes.
• Define and advocate shared integration principles across squads.
• Create a pragmatic roadmap for improving integration architecture with milestones.
• Support squads to deliver the roadmap with design input and reviews.
• Collaborate with Engineering, Architecture, QA, Product, Platform and Infrastructure teams.

Skills

Node.js

React

Nest.js

Azure

Architecture design

Documentation

Communication

Hands-on engineering

Tools

Git

Job description

CDP is a global non-profit that runs the world’s only independent environmental disclosure system. As the founder of environmental reporting, we believe in transparency and the power of data to drive change.

Partnering with leaders in enterprise, capital, policy and science, we surface the information needed to enable Earth-positive decisions. We helped more than 24,800 companies and almost 1,000 cities, states and regions disclose their environmental impacts in 2024. Financial institutions with more than a quarter of the world’s institutional assets use CDP data to help inform investment and lending decisions.

Our team is truly global, united by our shared desire to build a world where people, planet and profit are balanced. Visit cdp.net or follow us @CDP to find out more.

About the Team:

The Engineering function designs, builds and maintains the platforms, tools and systems that power our products. We support the business by delivering resilient, secure and scalable solutions aligned to strategic priorities.

About this role:

The Principal Engineer for Platform Integration & Architecture is accountable for improving how CDP’s services and systems integrate. You will document and make legible the current state, align engineering leaders on shared integration principles, define the target integration model, and drive a practical roadmap to get there. You will work closely with tech leads and squads, staying hands-on where needed, and supporting delivery through design input, reviews, and decision‑making. This is the first Principle Engineer role, we envisage this become its own team of senior engineers who are at the same grade as Tech Leads and but have stand alone responsibilities.

What you will do:

• Audit and document the existing platform architecture and integrations across services and systems.
• Produce clear architecture diagrams and documentation that supports both day-to-day delivery and longer‑term decision‑making.
• Identify integration bottlenecks, inconsistencies, and technical debt, and propose concrete changes.
• Work with tech leads to agree shared integration principles and guidelines across squads.
• Define a target integration model suitable for CDP’s future needs, including patterns for service boundaries and interactions.
• Create a pragmatic roadmap for improving integration architecture, with clear priorities and milestones.
• Support squads to deliver the roadmap, including design collaboration, code and approach reviews, and unblocking decisions.
• Internal stakeholders include: Engineering squads, Architecture, QA, Product, Platform and infrastructure colleagues (as relevant to integration work).

Actively contribute to an effective and engaged team, clear on its purpose and contribution, by:

• Ensuring you know what is expected of you, through regular 1:1’s, having clear objectives in place, and participating in open and honest performance and development conversations
• Ensuring a respectful and inclusive workplace, where team members communicate openly, share knowledge so it can be used, and respect difference
• Living the CDP Values and demonstrating the behaviours appropriate to your position
• Extensive hands‑on experience designing and improving integration architecture across multiple services.
• Strong engineering background in modern web stacks, with deep practical experience in CDP’s stack (Node.js, React, Nest.js) and working knowledge of Azure‑based systems.
• Experience setting standards and aligning multiple teams on shared technical approaches, without slowing delivery.
• Ability to reverse‑engineer unclear systems, improve them incrementally, and explain trade‑offs in plain language.
• Strong written communication, producing documentation that engineers actually use.
• Practical, collaborative working style with a bias towards shipping improvements and raising overall engineering quality.

Salary and benefits: The salary banding for this role is £78,969 - £98,711/year, 30 days’ holiday plus bank holidays, generous non‑contributory pension provision, Employee Assistance Programme, life assurance, training and development, flexible working opportunities and other benefits.

Final offer amount depends on multiple factors such as candidates experience and expertise, geographic location, total compensation, and market data.

This is a permanent role based at CDP’s London office. Interested applicants must be eligible to work legally in the UK and live within a commutable distance of the London office and be comfortable with 2 days in the office per week. We cannot sponsor this role.