Principal Engineer (Front-End)

Hastings Direct; Bexhill-on-Sea; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Car Allowance

Annual Bonus

Flexible Working

Private Healthcare

Dental Plans

Life Assurance

Pension Matching

Wellbeing Programs

Leave Allowance

Job summary

Hastings Direct is seeking a Principal Engineer (Front End) to lead, coach and shape engineering standards within our CIO‑led Technology Engineering function. You will drive high‑impact delivery for customer facing web and mobile platforms while aligning engineering decisions with business outcomes.

The role blends hands‑on technical leadership with strategic influence in a fast‑paced environment, including shaping the Centre of Excellence and improving CI/CD pipelines.

Qualifications

• Strong transformational leadership and ability to influence decisions.
• Excellent mentoring and people development capability.
• Extensive experience in application and/or web development within an Agile environment.

Responsibilities

• Lead engineers through line management, mentoring, sponsorship and feedback.
• Address high‑priority business challenges with strategic and technical input.
• Improve delivery pipeline for speed, reliability, and consistency across the SDLC.

Skills

Transformational leadership

Mentoring & coaching

Agile development

Jira/Octane

Cloud platforms

React development

GitHub

CI/CD pipelines

Azure DevOps/Jenkins

Tools

Jira/Octane

GitHub

Azure DevOps

Jenkins

Job description

Principal Engineer (Front End)

We’re a digital insurance provider with ambitious plans to become The Best and Biggest in the UK market. Over the past few years, we've made significant investments in our data and tech capabilities, particularly within our CIO function. Our CIO team is at the forefront of driving innovation and ensuring our technology infrastructure supports our ambitious goals. We’ve nurtured our 4Cs culture, fostering collaboration, creativity, and continuous improvement.

We’re proud of the journey we’re on as a company and know that our continued success will rely on the contribution of our talented colleagues. The CIO team plays a crucial role in this journey, working on cutting‑edge projects that enhance our digital presence and improve customer engagement.

We provide insurance to over four million customers, but we know there’s even bigger opportunity out there. The fact you’re now reading this job advert means we’ve tempted you to find out more about – we really hope you like what you see, and you’ll join us to share in the success of the exciting chapter that lies ahead.

We understand some people may not apply for jobs unless they feel they tick every box. If you are excited about joining us and think you have some of what we are looking for, even if you’re not 100% sure, we would love to hear from you. Our CIO team is always looking for passionate individuals who are eager to make a difference and contribute to our success.

This is a Hybrid opportunity available from our offices in Leicester or Bexhill.

At Hastings Direct, we’re transforming how we build, deliver, and scale technology across the organisation. We’re looking for an experienced Principal Engineer to play a critical leadership role within our Technology Engineering function, helping shape engineering standards, drive delivery excellence, and influence enterprise‑wide outcomes.

This is a highly visible role, combining hands‑on technical leadership, strategic influence, and people development within a fast‑paced CIO environment. We are looking for a strong leader of people who can inspire high performance, coach and develop engineering talent, and set the standard for technical excellence while driving meaningful business impact.

What You’ll Be Doing

As a Principal Engineer within the Technology Engineering team (CIO), you’ll play a key role in developing engineers through line management, mentoring, sponsorship, and delivering clear, constructive feedback.

You’ll be deployed to the highest‑priority business challenges, quickly resolving complex issues and helping the organisation learn how to prevent them in future. You’ll provide strategic and technical input to improve project outcomes and influence the company’s direction through high‑impact delivery.

Working closely with stakeholders, you’ll shape and improve the delivery pipeline by identifying gaps and leading solutions that increase speed, reliability, and consistency across the SDLC. You’ll also identify opportunities to reuse and enhance existing platforms to maximise engineering investment.

You’ll lead the Centre of Excellence for your domain, driving tooling improvements, establishing best practices and controls, and embedding continuous learning. As a recognised role model, you’ll champion high standards, link technical decisions to business impact, and foster a high‑performance engineering culture.

Technical Skills & Experience Required

What we’re looking for

• Strong transformational leadership skills, with the ability to influence decisions and implement new processes aligned to business goals
• Excellent mentoring and people development capability
• Extensive experience in application and/or web development within an Agile environment

Tools & Technologies

• Strong experience with at least one Agile methodology (Scrum, Kanban, SAFe) and tools such as Jira or Octane
• Expert knowledge of cloud platforms
• Advanced coding expertise in React or React native app development frameworks
• Expert use of GitHub for source control
• Strong understanding of build, release, and deployment automation
• Proven ability to design and integrate CI/CD pipelines using tools such as Azure DevOps or Jenkins
• Deep experience with continuous integration platforms (Azure DevOps, Jenkins, or equivalent)

Application Domains

• Customer‑facing web and mobile e‑commerce
• Document templating and production systems
• Distributed n‑tier architectures
• Web services and API‑driven / service‑oriented architectures
• Operational reporting platforms
• Desirable: Monitoring tools such as Grafana, Dynatrace, or equivalent

Regrettably, we are unable to offer sponsorship for this role.

Reward

Salary – Attractive salary based on experience + Car Allowance (pay reviews also completed each year)

Competitive Bonus Scheme – All colleagues are eligible for our annual 4Cs performance bonus, which is usually paid in March. The scheme is based on Hastings’ performance against our business goals and your own personal performance.

Flexible Working – We champion a flexible and hybrid working approach so please speak to your recruiter to discuss in more detail, including days in the office and at home.

Physical Wellbeing – We like to help our colleagues take a proactive approach in keeping themselves well, that’s why we fund our colleagues to be able to claim against everyday health care through our healthcare cash plan.

Financial Wellbeing – As well as providing you with 4x your salary with our life assurance cover and income protection at no extra cost, pension contribution match up to 10%, we are proud to provide you with an AWARD WINNING package which includes – discounts and cashback at everyday retailers and on our own products, fee free independent mortgage advice, and free access to financial wellbeing support.

Mental Wellbeing Programme – At Hastings Direct we understand that mental health cannot not be scheduled, that’s why we have a range of support to help you keep yourself well. We have the thrive mental health app, our colleague assistance programme available 24/7, our own in house mental health first aiders, support groups and a dedicated team to make sure we are covering your needs

There’s more! – 27 days annual leave + Bank holidays, with the option to buy or sell one of your contracted weeks, access to private healthcare, dental plans, discounted health assessments, cycle to work and tech schemes, discounted and free onsite facilities, social events throughout the year and much more.

Hastings Group is an equal opportunities employer which means we treat people fairly. We welcome applications from all suitably skilled persons regardless of their gender, age, race, disability, ethnic background, religion/belief, sexual orientation, gender reassignment or marital/family status. Please also note that we have a thorough referencing process, which includes credit and criminal record checks.

At Hastings Direct, we’re committed to creating an inclusive environment where everyone has the opportunity to succeed. If you require any reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process, we encourage you to be open with us. Our recruitment team is here to provide the support you need to ensure a fair and accessible experience for all.