Principal Engineer

Care Quality Commission; United Kingdom; Remote; GBP 52,000 - 59,000; Full time

Job summary

A public health organization is looking for a Principal Engineer to lead the design and delivery of Azure-based services. You will mentor engineering teams and promote the adoption of emerging technologies, such as AI, ensuring compliance with best practices. The role offers a competitive salary and comprehensive benefits, including annual leave and training opportunities.

Benefits

Annual leave starting at 27 days

Training and development opportunities

Wellbeing initiatives

Qualifications

• Experience designing and managing Azure-based cloud infrastructure.
• Ability to design and build CI/CD processes and pipelines.
• Experience mentoring and supporting technical teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead design and delivery of Azure cloud-based services.
• Champion adoption of emerging technologies like AI.
• Guide engineering initiatives through governance processes.

Skills

Cloud Adoption Framework

Terraform

CI/CD processes

DevOps

Mentoring

Job description

Overview

Grade A: £52,737 (National Framework) or £58,409 (London Framework – if you are London office based or homebased and live within the boundary of the M25). There is also an additional homeworking allowance of £581 per annum for those working from home.

Contracted Hours: Full time 37 hours per week

Contract Type: Permanent

Location: Home Based

Closing Date: 12 October 2025 at 11.59pm

Role context

Make a difference. Every role at CQC contributes to our mission. In the Technology Directorate, our Engineering team is at the heart of transforming how we deliver digital services that protect people and improve care.

Responsibilities

Picture this In the last 12 months, as a Principal Engineer in the Engineering Team, you would have:

• Led the design and delivery of Azure cloud-based services that support critical transformation programmes, ensuring they are secure, scalable, and user-focused.
• Championed the adoption of emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence, helping shape governance and operational processes for future innovation.
• Helped create a library of reusable IAC modules to standardise and mature our code base.
• Guided engineering initiatives through complex governance processes, ensuring alignment with best practices and organisational goals.

You’ll play a key role in the organisation by:

• Designing and maintaining software and cloud engineering processes that support automation, testing, and deployment.
• Building, designing and operating scalable cloud services in collaboration with software, platform, and QA teams, ensuring reusable patterns, code and standards are utilised.
• Reviewing project designs to ensure they meet performance, security, and scalability standards.
• Leading the development of engineering standards and patterns and ensuring they are followed across teams.
• Mentoring colleagues and engineers to improve design, coding, and testing practices.
• Following a well-architected framework ensuring solutions are secure, scalable and cost effective.
• Ensuring the Azure platform is secure, well architected and best practices and patterns are followed.

What we’re looking for

Show us What we’re looking for in your application:

• Demonstrated experience: Using Cloud Adoption Framework to design and manage Azure-based cloud infrastructure. Using infrastructure as code tools like Terraform to define patterns and modules for reusable code and solutions.
• Proven ability: to design and build CI/CD processes and pipelines to support a DevOps approach to build and deployment.
• Evidence of leadership: in mentoring and supporting technical teams and guiding non-technical stakeholders through complex engineering changes.

To progress your application, you’ll need to provide evidence of your right to work in the UK. Without valid right to work you won’t be eligible for the role. We are unable to offer sponsorship for this role. Some roles may also be subject to a satisfactory DBS check.

Next steps

If you apply, you’ll need to create a profile and complete an online application form. Your application will be completely anonymous. Please see our information for applicants for more details on the process. We contact every applicant to let them know the outcome of their application, so you will hear from us whether or not you are shortlisted. You can read the full details of the role in the Job Description. If you’d like an informal chat about the role contact – Shuaib Butt, Deputy Director of Engineering, [e-mail]. For general enquiries, please email [e-mail].

The Benefits

We offer a wide range of benefits, including:

• Annual leave starting at 27 days per year, rising to 32.5 days with service, plus bank holidays (usually 8 days per year).
• Training and development opportunities.
• Wellbeing initiatives, such as gym discounts and meditation.
• NHS pension scheme, with around 14% employer contribution.
• Discount schemes (including eligibility for a Blue Light card, at a cost of £4.99 and valid for 2 years), reward vouchers, car leasing and more!

Please see our benefits page for the full list.

Equity and inclusion

We know job descriptions can feel intimidating. If this role interests you, we encourage you to apply. Your unique perspective, skills, and experience could be exactly what we need. We promote a workplace where fairness, respect and inclusion are a priority. See our ED&I page for more about this. We welcome applications from everyone, and colleagues can find support and community among our employee networks. This includes people of any:

• Age
• Sex
• Gender identity or expression
• Sexual orientation
• Religion or belief
• Ethnicity
• Disability

A Note on AI: AI tools can be great for research and refining ideas, but we want to learn about you. If you use AI or chatbots to help with your application, ensure your submission reflects your real skills and experience. Do not copy and paste AI-generated answers. Providing false or insincere examples goes against our core values and may lead to your application being withdrawn or termination of employment.

Accessibility: If you need adjustments to our process, we’ll work with you to remove any barriers. Please visit our accessibility page for more. If you’d like to chat, please contact [e-mail].