Principal Software Engineer – Aircraft Systems & Cloud

DEA Specialised Airborne Operations; Retford; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

DEA Aviation, the UK-based lead operational company within the DEA Group, seeks a Principal Software Engineer to own airborne software architecture and AWS cloud infrastructure in a highly regulated setting. You will deliver robust, secure, end-to-end aviation mission systems and collaborate across the organisation to raise technical standards.

The role combines hands-on software development with system design, cybersecurity updates, and observability practices.

Qualifications

• Hold a degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
• Proven track record of owning software delivery from inception through to production and maintenance.
• Thorough understanding of software development lifecycles, requirements management and traceability - e.g. Agile, V-model, DOORS.
• Must be eligible for UK SC clearance.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain scalable applications using Python and React.
• Contribute to solutions from design through to delivery and support, with guidance from senior engineers.
• Develop applications, including Progressive Web Apps, using React, Flask, and Python backends.
• Build and integrate REST APIs and contribute to event-driven services.
• Troubleshoot and resolve issues across business and aviation systems, owning resolution.
• Deliver robust changes consistently and communicate progress clearly.
• Write and maintain clear technical and user documentation.
• Work within a multi-disciplinary team, contributing to customer and regulatory requirements.
• Write clean, maintainable code and continuously improve your approach.
• Build reusable components and contribute to front-end architecture using React.
• Apply basic resilience patterns such as retries and timeouts, with support from senior engineers.
• Consider performance and scalability, including latency and reliability.
• Contribute to microservices-based systems and API development.
• Follow secure development practices and support security requirements.
• Help implement observability through logging and monitoring tools.
• Use CI/CD pipelines to build, test, and deploy your work.

Skills

Python

React

AWS

REST APIs

OOP

Linux

Data-driven decisions

Communication

Teamwork

Observability

Regulated environments

Education

Degree in Computer Science or Software Engineering

Tools

Docker

Git

CI/CD

Job description

DEA Aviation, the UK-based lead operational company within the DEA Group, seeks a Principal Software Engineer to own airborne software architecture and AWS cloud infrastructure in a highly regulated setting. You will deliver robust, secure, end-to-end aviation mission systems and collaborate across the organisation to raise technical standards.

The role combines hands-on software development with system design, cybersecurity updates, and observability practices.