Principal Software Engineer

Hargreaves Lansdown group; West of England; Hybrid; GBP 110,000 - 140,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Discretionary bonus

25 days holiday

Hybrid working

Pension up to 11%

Private medical insurance

Health care cash plans

Wellbeing support

Volunteer days

Bike facilities

Deli/coffee facilities

Job summary

Hargreaves Lansdown is seeking a Principal Software Engineer in Bristol on a hybrid basis. You’ll shape high-level architectures, set guardrails, and empower teams to deliver data-driven solutions with a focus on approachability and collaboration.

You will lead essential architectural decisions, guide AWS-based container strategies, and drive Observability, security, and best practices while coaching engineers towards excellence.

Qualifications

• Demonstrated leadership in legacy technology transformation.
• Strong expertise in modern architectural patterns, cloud-native design, and container orchestration.
• Skilled communicator able to influence and engage at every level of the organisation.
• Proven ability to balance trade-offs, costs, and technical constraints.
• Experience coaching teams towards engineering and architecture best practices.
• Deep understanding of design patterns, security, networking, observability, and system flows.
• Adept at producing clear, concise architectural documentation.

Responsibilities

• Define and document high-level solution architectures, clearly outlining trade-offs, risks, and dependencies.
• Provide clear architectural principles and best-practice guidelines that empower teams to design excellent solutions.
• Foster a culture of data-driven decision-making, defining cross-team metrics that support continuous improvement.
• Promote strong documentation practices, including Architectural Decision Records, Solution Memos, and C4 diagrams.
• Guide cloud architecture choices, particularly around container orchestration and the use of AWS services.
• Champion best practices for observability, logging, security, and networking.
• Identify opportunities to enhance Developer Experience and efficiency through smarter tooling and frameworks.
• Support engineering teams with mentoring, pairing, and skills development.
• Lead conversations around Event-Driven Architecture, cost forecasting, and designing for the future state.
• Partner with Product and Engineering Managers to align priorities and delivery approaches.

Skills

Leadership

Cloud-native design

Architectural influence

Communication

Decision making

Coaching teams

Documentation

Security & observability

Event-Driven Architecture

Tools

TypeScript

React

Node.js

Terraform

AWS

Kubernetes

ECS

Docker

Lambda

SQS

DocumentDB

Job description

As a Principal Software Engineer in our Investment Growth Tribe, you'll be a senior technical leader, playing a key role in our technology transformation. This is a strategic role, where you'll shape and communicate high-level architectures, set clear and supportive guardrails, work on POCs with teams, support them during challenging times, and empower engineering teams to deliver high-quality, data-driven solutions. It's about influence, clarity, and enabling teams to thrive - with a focus on being approachable, engaged, and collaborative.

What You'll Be Doing

• Define and document high-level solution architectures, clearly outlining trade-offs, risks, and dependencies.
• Provide clear architectural principles and best-practice guidelines that empower teams to design excellent solutions.
• Foster a culture of data-driven decision-making, defining cross-team metrics that support continuous improvement.
• Promote strong documentation practices, including Architectural Decision Records, Solution Memos, and C4 diagrams.
• Guide cloud architecture choices, particularly around container orchestration and the use of AWS services.
• Champion best practices for observability, logging, security, and networking.
• Identify opportunities to enhance Developer Experience and efficiency through smarter tooling and frameworks.
• Support engineering teams with mentoring, pairing, and skills development.
• Lead conversations around Event-Driven Architecture, cost forecasting, and designing for the future state.
• Partner with Product and Engineering Managers to align priorities and delivery approaches.

Essential

• Demonstrated leadership in legacy technology transformation.
• Strong expertise in modern architectural patterns, cloud-native design, and container orchestration.
• Skilled communicator able to influence and engage at every level of the organisation.
• Proven ability to balance trade-offs, costs, and technical constraints.
• Experience coaching teams towards engineering and architecture best practices.
• Deep understanding of design patterns, security, networking, observability, and system flows.
• Adept at producing clear, concise architectural documentation.

Tech stack

• TypeScript / React / Node.js / Terraform
• AWS: Kubernetes / ECS / Docker / Lambda / SQS / DocumentDB

Desirable

• Previous experience as a Solution or Enterprise Architect.
• Background in enterprise systems and legacy-to-modern transitions.
• Familiarity with PHP and/or Java
• Understanding of Developer Experience optimisation tools and frameworks., Full-time, with hybrid working, a minimum of 2 days in our Bristol office.

Here at HL, we're the UK's number 1 investment platform for private investors, based in Bristol. For more than 40 years we've helped investors save time, tax and money on their investments.

We believe we have a workplace like no other, with constant learning, dynamic teams, and a great ethos. We're steered by core values that promote service, quality, innovation, and opportunity in everything we do.

Benefits

• Discretionary annual bonus and annual pay review
• 25 days holiday plus bank holidays and 1-day additional Christmas closure
• Option to purchase an additional 5 days holiday
• Flexible working options available, including hybrid working
• Enhanced parental leave
• Pension scheme up to 11% employer contribution
• Income Protection and Life insurance (4 x salary core level of cover)
• Private medical insurance
• Health care cash plans - including optical, dental, and outpatient care
• Health screening programme
• Help@hand - confidential support including mental health counselling and remote GP
• Wellhub - unlimited access to fitness providers and wellness coach sessions
• Variety of travel to work schemes with bike storage and shower facilities
• Inhouse barista and deli serving subsidised coffee and sandwiches
• Two paid volunteering days per year
• dependant on role level
• only available to select during our annual benefits window, in November each year