Principal Software Engineer

MHR; Ruddington; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

60+ internal training courses

GP access for you and family

Extra holiday days

Family leave

MHRewards discounts

Employee recognition programs

£2,000 referral bonus

On-site restaurants

Private medical insurance

Dental coverage

Job summary

MHR is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to shape our products and technical direction. You will drive architecture, influence delivery, and actively contribute to complex engineering problems while mentoring teams.

You will apply .NET and Azure with modern practices such as cloud-native design, distributed systems, and test-driven development to deliver high-impact solutions.

Qualifications

• Extensive hands-on software engineering experience with .NET and Azure.
• Proven technical leadership and mentoring across engineering teams.
• Experience delivering cloud-native, distributed systems with high quality.

Responsibilities

• Define strategy, influence architecture and guide delivery across the org.
• Lead complex engineering initiatives while staying close to code.
• Mentor engineers and raise technical standards.

Skills

.NET

Azure

Cloud-native architecture

TDD

AI-assisted engineering

Mentoring engineers

Technical leadership

Stakeholder communication

Distributed systems

Tools

.NET tooling

Azure services

CI/CD tools

Job description

At MHR, our employees are central to our success and play a key role in helping customers achieve sustainable high performance. With a team of over 900 professionals, we work to make things flow smoothly, whether it's for large organisations or individual employees. As businesses face rapid changes in the world of work, our team is here to help them adapt and thrive.

By focusing on the core needs of efficiency, productivity, growth, and impact, our employees use their expertise to deliver real solutions through our People and Finance platform. This system, which covers finance, HR, payroll, and learning, helps businesses run more smoothly and make better decisions in real time.

With over 40 years of experience behind us, MHR’s track record as a high-performance organisation is built on clear goals, a shared vision, and strong communication - all of which we pass on to our customers.

MHR is more than just a place to work; it’s a platform for empowerment. Joining us means bringing innovation, technology, and teamwork seamlessly removes obstacles, enhances your skills, and allow you to focus on what’s most important to you- work that matters.

With us, you’ll grow, find your flow, and make a lasting difference in your career, your team, and your impact.

Your Career

Join MHR as a Principal Software Engineer, leading complex engineering challenges that shape our products and technical direction. You will operate across the organisation, defining strategy, influencing architecture and guiding delivery while remaining actively involved in solving complex engineering problems and supporting implementation of critical technical initiatives.

Drawing on experience with Microsoft technologies such as .NET and Azure, you’ll apply modern programming practices including cloud-native design, distributed systems, and test-driven development.

You will also champion AI-assisted development to improve engineering efficiency, quality, and innovation. This is a high-impact position combining hands-on software engineering with technical leadership and mentoring. While you'll shape strategy and architecture, you'll also remain close to the code, leading the delivery of complex solutions, validating technical approaches and setting engineering standards through practical contribution.

Your Team

You’ll work across cross-functional Agile teams, partnering closely with engineers, architects, and stakeholders.

Through influence rather than authority, you’ll help align teams and foster a collaborative, inclusive culture focused on continuous improvement.

Your Impact

This role will see you defining and executing technical strategy, shaping scalable, resilient architecture aligned with business goals.

You'll drive engineering excellence through both technical leadership and hands-on contribution. Working alongside engineering teams, you'll tackle complex technical challenges, contribute to critical areas of the codebase, perform in-depth design and code reviews, and use modern engineering practices such as test-driven development and AI-assisted tooling to improve quality, scalability and delivery outcomes.

What you’ll bring to the role and MHR

• Extensive hands-on software engineering experience with .NET, including designing, building and evolving complex enterprise applications, with the credibility to lead technical decision-making through practical delivery experience.
• Demonstrable experience remaining technically hands-on at a senior technical leadership level, contributing code, guiding implementation approaches and supporting teams through complex engineering challenges.
• Expertise in scalable architecture and cloud-native systems
• Proven ability to deliver technical strategy and complex initiatives
• Advocate of TDD, continuous improvement, and AI-assisted engineering
• Strong collaboration and stakeholder communication skills
• Experience mentoring engineers and raising technical standards

Benefits to support you personally and professionally

Alongside the opportunity to work with an incredible team and express your individuality, we offer a range of personalised benefits including:

• Access to over 60 internal training courses, professional qualifications, and cross-departmental mentoring and coaching programs
• 24/7 access to a GP through Help at Hand for you and your family, confidential mental health support, and paid sick leave
• Ability to purchase or sell additional holiday days beyond 25 days and bank holidays
• Enhanced Family leave
• My MHRewards offering discounts at over 900 retailers
• Monthly employee recognition program and departmental awards
• Referral bonus scheme of up to £2,000
• Employee-led social events such as running clubs, football teams, book clubs, and bake-offs
• On-site subsidised restaurants offering a variety of fresh meals daily
• Opt-in benefits schemes such as private medical insurance and dental coverage

We value the well-being, financial stability, and inclusivity of our employees, and strive to provide a supportive working environment.

At MHR, we’re completely committed to creating a supportive and inclusive workplace where all voices are heard, and everyone feels valued and supported.

Whatever your background, abilities and experiences, if you’re excited by this role we want to hear from you. If you require assistance for an interview, please let us know and we’ll make sure your needs are met when you arrive.

If we receive an exceptionally high volume of applications, we reserve the right to close this vacancy earlier than originally advertised.