Principal Software Engineer (DevSecOps)

Leonardo; Southampton; Hybrid; GBP 110,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Leonardo is seeking a Principal Software Engineer (DevSecOps) to accelerate secure, high-quality software delivery across defence and security programmes. You will shape enterprise DevSecOps capability, drive automation, and embed security throughout the SDLC.

You will mentor teams, design and implement CI/CD pipelines, and ensure environments across cloud, on‑prem, and hybrid remain secure, reliable and scalable.

Qualifications

• Degree in Computer Science or related discipline.
• Experience delivering software in a complex engineering environment.
• Hands-on with security-focused software delivery.
• Strong communication and mentoring skills.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to Leonardo's enterprise DevSecOps platform.
• Mentor teams adopting DevSecOps practices.
• Plan and implement DevSecOps across cloud, on-prem, and hybrid environments.
• Design, deploy and maintain development, test and operational environments.
• Drive automation across software delivery and infrastructure provisioning.
• Develop and maintain automation frameworks, CI/CD pipelines and deployment processes.
• Apply effective change, configuration and release management practices.
• Support deployed services, ensuring high levels of performance, security and availability.
• Collaborate with engineers, platform teams and stakeholders to improve delivery capability.
• Champion secure-by-design principles across the software development lifecycle.

Skills

CI/CD tooling

Cloud security

DevSecOps

Mentoring

Agile

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related

Job description

Your Impact

As a Principal Software Engineer (DevSecOps), you will play a key role in accelerating the delivery of secure, high-quality software across Leonardo's defence and security programmes. You will help shape and evolve our enterprise DevSecOps capability, enabling teams to deliver features and updates rapidly, reliably and securely.

Job Description

As a Principal Software Engineer (DevSecOps), you will play a key role in accelerating the delivery of secure, high-quality software across Leonardo's defence and security programmes. You will help shape and evolve our enterprise DevSecOps capability, enabling teams to deliver features and updates rapidly, reliably and securely. Working within our software engineering community, you will champion modern engineering practices, drive automation, and embed security throughout the software development lifecycle. Through your technical leadership and mentoring, you will help build a collaborative DevSecOps culture focused on innovation, continuous improvement and operational excellence.

What You’ll Do

• Contribute to the delivery and evolution of Leonardo's enterprise-wide DevSecOps platform.
• Support and mentor teams adopting DevSecOps practices, tools and ways of working.
• Contribute to the planning and implementation of DevSecOps capabilities across cloud, on-premises and hybrid environments.
• Design, deploy and maintain development, test and operational environments.
• Drive automation across software delivery and infrastructure provisioning to improve quality, consistency and efficiency.
• Develop and maintain automation frameworks, CI/CD pipelines and deployment processes.
• Apply effective change, configuration and release management practices.
• Support deployed services, ensuring high levels of performance, security and availability.
• Collaborate with engineers, platform teams and stakeholders to improve delivery capability and engineering practices.
• Champion secure-by-design principles across the software development lifecycle.

What You’ll Bring

You will have a degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Systems Engineering, or a related discipline, together with experience delivering software solutions within a complex engineering environment.

We Are Looking For Candidates Who Can Demonstrate

• Experience designing, building and operating secure-by-design environments.
• Hands‑on experience with Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) practices and tooling.
• Knowledge of cloud, on-premises and hybrid environments, including associated security considerations.
• Experience with enterprise DevOps and DevSecOps tools supporting modern software delivery.
• A background in software engineering, platform engineering, IT operations or a related discipline.
• Experience with requirements management, configuration management and version control tools.
• Knowledge of infrastructure-as-code, automation and deployment technologies.
• Experience working within Agile development environments.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to mentor and influence technical teams.
• A passion for automation, continuous improvement and engineering excellence.

For a full list of our company benefits please visit our website.

Security Clearance

This role is subject to pre-employment screening in line with the UK Government’s Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS). An additional range of Personnel Security Controls referred to as National Security Vetting (NSV) may apply, this could include meeting the eligibility requirements for The Security Check (SC) or Developed Vetting (DV). For more information and guidance please visit: https://careers.uk.leonardo.com/gb/en/security-and-vetting

Leonardo UK operates a grade-based salary framework with broad bands. The salary range shown reflects the approved grade band for this role, or a narrower hiring range published within that band, and is benchmarked against the external market. Exceptions above the standard range are managed through governance controls to protect internal equity.

Leonardo is a global leader in Aerospace, Defence, and Security. Headquartered in Italy, we employ over 53,000 people worldwide including 8,500 across 9 sites in the UK. Our employees are not just part of a team—they are key contributors to shaping innovation, advancing technology, and enhancing global safety.

At Leonardo we are committed to building an inclusive, accessible, and welcoming workplace. We believe that a diverse workforce sparks creativity, drives innovation, and leads to better outcomes for our people and our customers. If you have any accessibility requirements to support you during the recruitment process, just let us know.

Primary Location

GB - Luton - Cap. Green 300

Additional Locations

GB - Basildon, GB - Edinburgh, GB - Lincoln, GB - Newcastle, GB - Southampton

Contract Type

Permanent

Hybrid Working

Hybrid