Principal Engineer

Collinson (Singapore); Greater London; On-site; GBP 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive reward package

Opportunities to learn and develop

Job summary

Collinson Group in Greater London is seeking an engineering leader to own the pillar's technical strategy, guiding multiple squads toward high‑quality, scalable solutions. You will lead hands‑on architecture and development, write real code, and mentor engineers while championing SOLID, automated testing and CI/CD.

Collaborate with Product Managers and Directors to align technical approaches with business needs, and drive observability with DataDog, AWS, Terraform and Kubernetes.

Qualifications

• Experience designing large, distributed, data-driven systems in the cloud.
• Proven track record leading an engineering team or squad.
• Familiar with Jest and Pact for testing.
• Ability to architect scalable, high-throughput systems.
• Experience deploying production systems with Terraform and Helm.
• Experience with GitHub Actions as a CI/CD platform.
• Strong observability mindset with DataDog or similar.
• Champions SOLID principles and automated testing.

Responsibilities

• Own the technical strategy for the pillar guiding squads toward high-quality, scalable solutions.
• Lead hands-on architecture and development, writing real code and building proofs of concept.
• Ensure teams follow engineering best practices with security, performance and observability in mind.
• Mentor Lead Engineers and squad engineers to grow their potential.
• Champion SOLID, automated testing and CI/CD for fast, safe deployments.
• Build highly observable systems using DataDog and related tools.
• Collaborate with Product Managers and directors to align tech with business needs.
• Work with GitHub Actions, Terraform, Kubernetes and AWS for resilient deployments.
• Explore AI-driven ideas to embed AI in engineering processes.

Skills

TypeScript

Node.js

React

AWS

Kubernetes

GraphQL

JavaScript

CI/CD

DataDog

Tools

Terraform

Helm

GitHub Actions

DataDog

Docker

Kubernetes

Job description

Job Description

Key Responsibilities

• Technical Leadership: Own the technical strategy for the pillar, guiding multiple squads towards high-quality, scalable and well-architected solutions.
• Hands-On Architecture & Development: Lead the design and development of complex, high-scale systems. This means writing real code, building proofs of concept and diving into problem-solving.
• Engineering Consistency: Ensure teams within the initiative follow engineering best practices, write clean and maintainable code, and maintain high standards in security, performance and observability.
• Mentorship & Coaching: Support and upskill Lead Engineers and squad engineers, helping them grow into their full potential.
• Modern Software Practices: Champion SOLID principles, automated testing and CI/CD best practices, ensuring deployments are fast, safe and seamless.
• Observability & Performance: Help teams build highly observable systems using DataDog and other tools, making sure we can see and fix issues before they impact users.
• Collaboration: Work closely with Product Managers, Senior Product Directors, Delivery Managers and Engineering Managers to ensure our technical approach aligns with business needs.
• Infrastructure & Deployment: Be comfortable working with GitHub Actions, Terraform, Kubernetes and AWS to ensure our systems are resilient and scalable.
• AI & Future Tech: Push the boundaries of AI-driven development, with the space to explore ideas on how to embed AI into our engineering processes.

Knowledge, Skills and Behaviours

Essential

• Tech stack: Comfortable with TypeScript (Node.js and React), AWS (EKS, Lambda, Aurora RDS), Kubernetes and GraphQL, with extensive knowledge of JavaScript more generally, the AWS ecosystem and running containerised applications.
• Past Experience: Proven experience designing large, distributed, data-driven systems in the cloud, and of running an engineering team or squad previously.
• Test-Driven Development: Very familiar with testing frameworks such as Jest and Pact.
• Architecture & Problem Solving: Able to architect a system that scales, handles high throughput and integrates seamlessly with a complex ecosystem.
• CI/CD & Infrastructure as Code: Experience deploying production systems using Terraform and Helm, and experience with GitHub Actions as a CI/CD platform.
• Observability Mindset: Believes in measuring everything, and has worked with DataDog (or similar) to ensure teams have visibility into system health.
• Software Craftsmanship: Writes high-quality, maintainable code, champions SOLID principles, and understands when to be pragmatic versus when to be purist.
• Mentorship & Leadership: Experience mentoring engineers at all levels, providing guidance, reviewing designs and ensuring teams stay on the right track.

Reward & Benefits: What's in it for me?

We want our people to feel recognised, supported and able to thrive both at work and beyond it.

We offer a competitive reward package designed to support your financial, physical and mental wellbeing, alongside opportunities to learn, develop and be recognised for the contribution you make. Benefits vary by role and location, and full details will be shared as part of the application process.

Equal opportunities: Our commitment to inclusion

Collinson Group is an equal opportunities employer. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, identities and experiences, and believe that different perspectives make our business stronger.