Principal Software Engineer - International

Marks & Spencer Plc; City Of London; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

20% colleague discount

Competitive holiday allowance

Discretionary bonus schemes

Strong pension and life assurance

Induction and training support

M&S Choices perks portal

Family policies and parental leave

Wellbeing support and virtual GP

Job summary

Marks & Spencer Plc is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to provide senior technical leadership across its International Fashion, Home & Beauty domain. You will shape platforms that support international growth, collaborating with Engineering, Product, Architecture and Delivery teams to design scalable, secure, and reusable solutions.

The role drives technical direction, sets engineering standards and leads complex multi-team delivery across marketplaces, fulfilment and customer experiences.

Qualifications

• Experience leading technical teams on complex software platforms.
• Proven track record delivering large-scale, high-availability systems.
• Shaping technology strategy and long-term architectural direction.
• Deep cloud and platform engineering expertise across modern stacks.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical excellence across full SDLC for core features and platforms.
• Define scalable integration patterns for product, price and availability flows.
• Shape technology direction and influence investment decisions.
• Promote clean code, architecture, automation and DevOps practices.
• Drive ownership: build, run, monitor and improve services.
• Mentor internal teams and align multi-team delivery in complex environments.

Skills

Technical leadership

Strategic thinking

Communication

Stakeholder management

Coaching & mentoring

Ownership and accountability

Tools

Java

Spring

Spring Boot

Micronaut

React

Next.js

TypeScript

Angular

Azure Cloud

Kubernetes

Kafka

IBM MQ

SQL Server

MongoDB

Redis

OpenTelemetry

Dynatrace

Job description

All the details

As part of the M&S Software Engineering team, you'll be joining a well-loved British brand, working on solutions that serve millions of loyal customers and thousands of colleagues. With ethical values at the heart of the business and technology leaders who understand modern software engineering, this is an exciting time to join us as we become a digital-first, engineering-led organisation.

We are looking for a Principal Software Engineer to provide senior technical leadership across our International Fashion, Home & Beauty domain. You will shape and modernise mission-critical platforms that support international growth, working closely with Engineering, Product, Architecture, Delivery and partner teams to design robust, scalable, secure and reusable technology solutions.

This role is central to enabling M&S to scale across international stores, digital commerce channels and partner propositions. You will set technical direction, raise engineering standards and help build platforms that support product, price and availability flows, partner and marketplace integrations, fulfilment, warehouse and logistics integrations, and market-specific customer experiences.

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:

• Lead technical excellence across the full software development lifecycle, from solution design through launch and live operation of core product features, strategic platforms and business-critical programmes.
• Define and evolve scalable integration patterns for product, price and availability flows, fulfilment capabilities, partner onboarding, marketplace integrations and market-specific customer experiences.
• Shape technical direction and influence Technology and Product investment decisions, engineering team structures and delivery approaches to ensure sustainable, scalable outcomes.
• Champion engineering excellence by promoting clean code, clean architecture, automation, DevOps principles and pragmatic engineering practices that improve maintainability, productivity and delivery quality.
• Drive operational ownership and "you build it, you run it" practices, enabling teams to build, release, monitor and continuously improve the services they own.
• Provide technical leadership and guidance to internal engineering teams and external delivery partners, creating alignment across complex multi-team and multi-supplier delivery environments.
• Build engineering capability through mentoring, Communities of Practice, innovation initiatives, recruitment support, onboarding activities and contributions to the wider engineering community.

Who You Are

Your skills and experience will include:

• Significant experience providing technical leadership across complex software engineering environments, with a proven track record of strategic thinking, technical innovation and successful large-scale delivery.
• Strong expertise in software engineering fundamentals, including clean code, clean architecture, design patterns, distributed systems and solution design for highly complex, business-critical platforms.
• Demonstrable experience shaping technology strategy and implementation approaches, ensuring alignment with business objectives, engineering standards, governance requirements and long-term architectural direction.
• Deep knowledge of cloud and platform engineering, including cloud-native architectures, Kubernetes, networking, security, observability, reliability engineering and automation practices.
• Strong understanding of quality engineering, test strategies, testing quadrants, testing pyramids, continuous integration, continuous delivery and DevOps ownership models.
• Excellent communication, stakeholder management and influencing skills, with the ability to engage and guide senior technical and non-technical audiences while driving consensus across multiple teams.
• A strong leadership mindset with high levels of ownership, accountability and coaching capability, helping senior engineers and stakeholders make effective technical decisions without over-prescribing solutions.

Tech Stack

M&S uses a variety of technologies and, as part of our modernisation drive, will continue to introduce new ones. Technologies currently include:

• Java, Spring, Spring Boot and Micronaut
• React, Next.js, TypeScript and Angular
• Azure Cloud and Kubernetes
• Kafka and IBM MQ
• SQL Server, MongoDB and Redis
• OpenTelemetry and Dynatrace

Desirable Experience

• Experience within retail, international commerce, supply chain or logistics environments, including warehouse management systems, fulfilment platforms, marketplace aggregators, partner integrations and complex customer or partner ecosystems.
• Experience working with third-party vendors, system integrators and outsourced delivery models, with the ability to maintain engineering quality, architectural standards and delivery consistency across mixed internal and external teams.
• Experience leading engineering communities or Communities of Practice, presenting at internal or external technology events, and demonstrating entrepreneurial thinking to drive innovation, continuous improvement and organisational change.

What's in it for you?

Working at M&S means being part of something bigger - helping to deliver quality, value and service to millions of customers every day. We're inclusive, fast-moving and always evolving, with a strong sense of purpose and a focus on doing the right thing.

Here are just a few of the benefits that make working here even more rewarding:

• 20% colleague discount on all M&S products and many third-party brands for you and someone in your household, available once you've completed your probation.
• Competitive holiday allowance with the option to buy more.
• Discretionary bonus schemes linked to your performance and ours.
• Strong pension and life assurance to help plan for the future.
• Tailored induction and training to support your development from day one.
• Exclusive perks and savings through our M&S Choices portal.
• Market-leading family policies, including parental, adoption and neonatal leave.
• 24/7 wellbeing support, including virtual GP access and mental health services.
• One paid volunteer day a year to support a cause that matters to you.

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.

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