Principal Software Architect

PeopleCheck; London; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 105,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading company in compliance-driven industries seeks a Principal Software Architect to enhance system health and build a resilient infrastructure. The role involves architecting key initiatives, collaborating with a tech team, and driving improvements in architecture and automation in a supportive, agile environment in London.

Benefits

Additional leave

Company events

Company pension

Cycle to work scheme

Private medical insurance

Referral programme

Sick pay

Work from home

Qualifications

• 5+ years in backend/system architecture or senior engineering roles.
• Hands-on expertise in designing scalable, high-availability systems.
• Strong experience with Docker and CI/CD tools.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement CI/CD pipelines ensuring reliability.
• Architect automated test suites and enhance modularity.
• Define robust error-handling patterns and security standards.

Skills

Backend/System Architecture

Scalable Systems

High-Availability Systems

Automated Test Suites

Docker

RESTful APIs

Security Standards

Job description

Principal Software Architect

2 days ago Be among the first 25 applicants

Get AI-powered advice on this job and more exclusive features.

PeopleCheck provides fast, accurate background-screening solutions for compliance-driven industries. As we scale up our platform, we need a seasoned architect to help us build a rock-solid, maintainable codebase and resilient infrastructure—ensuring excellent user experience, security, and rapid feature delivery.

Role Overview

You’ll be the senior architect driving PeopleCheck’s system-health, architecture, and scalability initiatives. Reporting to the CEO and collaborating closely with our tech lead, frontend engineer, and product manager, you'll:

• Assess and evolve our current stack, delivering impactful improvements within your initial months.
• Utilize your previous architecture experience to guide design decisions and establish best practices.

Key Responsibilities

• Automated Testing & Validation
• Design and implement comprehensive CI/CD pipelines ensuring thorough coverage and reliability on critical APIs.
• Architect a fully automated test suite (unit, integration, end-to-end) and mirror staging/production environments (e.g., Docker)
• Further enhance modularity and maintainability of our backend architecture following single-responsibility principles.
• Enhance or evolve our existing architecture with microservices best practices.
• System Health & Monitoring
• Define robust error-handling patterns, integrating structured logging and alerting for swift root-cause analysis.
• Optimize and maintain infrastructure abstraction and scalability strategies for robust performance during peak loads.
• Security & Compliance
• Strengthen and maintain industry-leading security standards around credential management and database access.
• Ensure secure coding and data protection best practices throughout our stack and infrastructure.
• Documentation & Knowledge Sharing
• Lead architecture/design reviews, write thorough runbooks, and collaborate with the team on SOLID/fp-based design

Required Experience & Skills

• 5+ years in backend/system architecture or senior engineering roles
• Hands-on expertise in designing and operating scalable, high-availability systems
• Deep understanding of system design patterns: modularity, microservices, SRP (SOLID), functional decomposition
• Proven track record of delivering automated test suites (unit, integration, end-to-end) and driving 90–100% coverage on critical paths
• Comfortable with Docker, CI/CD tools (e.g., Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI), and environment mirroring
• Strong experience with Node.js (or equivalent), RESTful APIs, and code structuring
• Familiarity with cloud platforms (Linode/AWS/GCP) and infrastructure-as-code principles
• Excellent communicator—able to present past case studies and guide stakeholders

Preferred Qualifications

• Background in compliance or background-screening services
• Experience with microservices design and orchestration (Kubernetes, ECS)
• Knowledge of advanced observability tools (Datadog, New Relic, ELK)

Why Join Us?

• Impact: Help define the technical roadmap together with our tech lead of a mission-critical compliance platform.
• Ownership: Lead key initiatives end-to-end with direct influence on architecture and product.
• Growth: Work alongside senior tech experts and expand your skills.
• Culture: Small, agile team—fast decision-making, collaborative environment, work/life balance.

Apply Today if you’re passionate about building resilient, scalable systems and eager to share your success stories with a driven, compliance-focused team in London.

Job Type: Full-time, Permanent

• Additional leave
• Company events
• Company pension
• Cycle to work scheme
• Private medical insurance
• Referral programme
• Sick pay
• Work from home

Schedule:

• Monday to Friday

Language:

Work Location: Hybrid remote in Richmond TW9 (London)

Seniority level

• Seniority level

  Mid-Senior level

Employment type

• Employment type

  Full-time

Job function

• Job function

  Engineering and Information Technology

• Industries

  Information Services

Referrals increase your chances of interviewing at PeopleCheck by 2x

Get notified about new Principal Software Architect jobs in Richmond Upon Thames, England, United Kingdom.

Senior Software Engineer - Card Integrations - Visa / Mastercard

London, England, United Kingdom 1 week ago

Senior Software Engineer (VP) – Equity Derivatives Technology

London, England, United Kingdom 2 weeks ago

Senior Software Engineer (SolstiCE) – Equity Derivatives Tech - VP

London, England, United Kingdom 2 weeks ago

Senior Software Engineer, Robotics & Microscope Control

London, England, United Kingdom 1 month ago

London, England, United Kingdom 1 week ago

London, England, United Kingdom 3 weeks ago

Senior Lead Software Engineer- EMEA / APAC Energy Lead (Commodities)

London, England, United Kingdom 2 weeks ago

Senior Lead Software Engineer - Team Lead - Accelerator Business

London, England, United Kingdom 1 week ago

London, England, United Kingdom 1 week ago

London, England, United Kingdom 5 days ago

London, England, United Kingdom 1 month ago

London Area, United Kingdom £90,000.00-£105,000.00 12 hours ago

Senior Software Engineer – Deal Manager Experience

London, England, United Kingdom 2 weeks ago

Senior AI/ML Engineer (Data Science & Software Focus)

London, England, United Kingdom 3 weeks ago

London, England, United Kingdom 5 days ago

IC3 - Senior Software Engineer I - Business Account management team

London, England, United Kingdom 2 weeks ago

Staff Software Architect (EU Remote/Hybrid, CET Timezone)

London, England, United Kingdom 1 month ago

Senior Software Engineer - France Global Payroll

London, England, United Kingdom 1 day ago

City Of London, England, United Kingdom 1 month ago

Senior Software Engineer (C++), Endpoint Client

London, England, United Kingdom 2 weeks ago

Software Architect - Containers / Virtualisation

London, England, United Kingdom 1 week ago

London, England, United Kingdom 3 days ago

London, England, United Kingdom 2 weeks ago

London, England, United Kingdom 1 month ago

London, England, United Kingdom 1 week ago

Senior MacOS Agent Software Engineer - Endpoint DLP

London, England, United Kingdom 6 months ago

London, England, United Kingdom 3 weeks ago

Maidenhead, England, United Kingdom 6 days ago

London, England, United Kingdom £90,000.00-£130,000.00 1 month ago

London, England, United Kingdom 2 weeks ago

London, England, United Kingdom 1 month ago

London, England, United Kingdom 2 weeks ago

London, England, United Kingdom 2 weeks ago

Senior Software Engineer - Age of Empires (Remote)

London, England, United Kingdom 2 days ago

We’re unlocking community knowledge in a new way. Experts add insights directly into each article, started with the help of AI.