Principal Software Engineer

Marks and Spencer; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work (2 days in office)

Inclusive culture

Job summary

Marks & Spencer in Manchester is seeking a Principal Engineer to set technical direction, lead architectural decisions and align technology investments with business goals. This senior individual contributor role combines deep engineering expertise with mentorship and broad influence across the organisation.

You will own the technical strategy for the People & Labour sub-domains, modernising Azure microservices, APIs, event-driven integrations and data flows while collaborating with HR, Payroll,

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in system design and technical leadership across complex domains.
• Proven track record modernising Azure-based distributed/microservices architectures.
• Strong mentoring, influencing and stakeholder management skills.
• Understanding of HR/People and Labour domain concepts is beneficial.
• Ability to balance technical excellence with business outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Own the technical strategy and roadmap for the People & Labour sub-domains, focusing on modernising Azure microservices, integrations and data flows.
• Lead system design and architecture across teams, products and enterprise platforms, guiding API, event-driven and SaaS integration decisions.
• Mentor engineering managers and staff engineers to raise technical standards and engineering excellence.
• Partner with HR, Payroll, Workforce Management, Product, Architecture, Security and Data stakeholders to align technology with business objectives.
• Drive operational excellence with observability, resilience, CI/CD, and secure coding practices.

Job description

This is a hybrid position with 2 days a week in our office in Manchester

The Principal Engineer is the most senior individual contributor in engineering, setting technical direction, leading architectural decisions and aligning technology investment with business strategy. They combine deep technical expertise with mentorship and broad organisational influence to enable secure, resilient and maintainable solutions.

Aligned to the People & Labour sub-domains, this role leads the modernisation of the Azure microservices and integration estate supporting colleague, HR and workforce management capabilities. The ecosystem includes SaaS platforms such as Oracle HCM and Blue Yonder Workforce Management, along with Azure services that integrate with external providers. The successful candidate will combine strong engineering judgement with an understanding of people, HR and labour processes.

Due to high interest, this role may close earlier than advertised. We recommend applying as soon as possible.

What you'll do

Your key accountabilities will include:

• Owning the technical strategy and roadmap for the People & Labour sub-domains, with a particular focus on modernising Azure microservices, integrations and data flows.
• Leading system design and architecture across teams, products and enterprise platforms, guiding decisions on APIs, event-driven architecture, SaaS integration and build-versus-buy approaches.
• Mentoring engineering managers, staff engineers and key engineering talent, fostering technical excellence, continuous improvement and high hiring standards.
• Partnering with HR, Payroll, Workforce Management, Product, Architecture, Security and Data stakeholders to align technology and business objectives and communicate technical trade-offs effectively.
• Driving operational excellence through improved observability, resilience, incident management, CI/CD, developer experience and the adoption of AI across the product and software development lifecycle.

Who you are

Your skills and experience will include:

• Extensive experience in system design, architecture and technical leadership across complex, business-critical domains.
• Proven experience modernising Azure-based distributed or microservices architectures.
• Strong knowledge of APIs, asynchronous messaging, SaaS integration, observability, security, resilience and continuous delivery.
• Understanding of People and Labour domains, including areas such as core HR, colleague lifecycle, payroll, absence, time and attendance, labour forecasting or workforce scheduling.
• Strong mentoring, influencing and stakeholder management skills, with experience handling sensitive colleague and workforce data.

Experience with technologies and platforms including:

• APIs and Integration Services
• Event-Driven Architecture and Asynchronous Messaging
• CI/CD and Modern Engineering Tooling
• Observability, Monitoring and Resilience Tooling

Everyone’s welcome

We are ambitious about the future of retail. We’re disrupting, innovating and leading the industry into a more conscientious, inspiring digital era. We’re transforming how we work together and offering our most exciting opportunities yet. Marks & Spencer strives to be an inclusive organisation, trusted and admired by our colleagues, customers and suppliers. Join us and make change happen.

We are committed to building diverse and representative teams, where everyone can bring their whole selves to work and be at their best. We support each other and work together to win together.

If you feel you'd benefit from any support or reasonable adjustments during any stage of the recruitment process, please don’t hesitate to let us know when completing your application. This information will be picked up by our team, so we can try and put steps in place to help you be at your best through this process.