Principal Software Engineer - Squad Lead Engineer

Elsevier; City Of London; On-site; GBP 100,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible working hours

Country-specific benefits

Wellbeing initiatives

Job summary

Elsevier is seeking a Technical Lead to steer a cross-functional squad, balancing hands-on development with leadership through influence. You will shape technical direction, drive delivery planning, and collaborate with Product, Architecture, QE, SRE/Platform teams to deliver secure, scalable software solutions.

You will translate product objectives into strong designs, maintain quality through automated testing and security checks, and uphold agreed definitions of ready and done.

Qualifications

• Demonstrated experience leading through influence across design, delivery, and operations.
• Strong track record in distributed services, data platforms, or high‑throughput apps.
• Advanced knowledge of Agile/Lean practices, backlog refinement, and risk-based planning.
• Experience with test strategy, automation, CI/CD quality gates, and release readiness.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the first line of technical escalation for the squad’s services/components.
• Facilitate team ceremonies with a focus on flow and outcomes.
• Translate product objectives into sound technical designs and implementable stories.
• Design and implement complex features; fix bugs and improve performance.
• Define and uphold readiness/done criteria including code quality, tests, security, and observability.
• Establish/maintain CI/CD pipelines, quality gates, and branching/release strategies.
• Drive quality strategy: test pyramid, contract tests, data management, and environments.
• Partner with SLOs, alerting, runbooks, incident response, and post-incident learning.

Skills

Tech leadership

Distributed services

Agile/Lean

Test automation

Java/JVM

JavaScript/TypeScript

Python

C/C++

Tools

CI/CD platforms

Containers

Cloud technologies

Job description

Are you passionate about leading technical excellence while remaining hands‑on in building high-quality software? Do you enjoy influencing teams, shaping engineering practices, and delivering reliable, secure, and observable solutions in a collaborative environment?

About our Team

Our global team support products education electronic health records that introduce students to digital charting and prepare them to document care in today’s modern clinical environment. We have a very stable product that we’ve worked to get to and strive to maintain. Our team values trust, respect, collaboration, agility, and quality.

About the Role

As a Technical Lead, you will act as the technical facilitator and engineering leader for a cross‑functional squad, balancing hands‑on software development with leadership through influence. You will help shape technical direction, guide delivery planning, drive quality strategy, and collaborate closely with Product, Architecture, QE, SRE/Platform teams, and partner squads to deliver secure, reliable, and scalable software solutions.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the first line of technical escalation for the squad’s services/components
• Facilitate team ceremonies (refinement, technical grooming, sprint planning, design reviews) with a focus on flow and outcomes
• Translate product objectives into sound technical designs and testable acceptance criteria; decompose epics into implementable stories
• Design and implement complex features; complete complex bug fixes and performance improvements
• Define and uphold Definition of Ready/Done including code quality, automated test coverage, security checks, and observability
• Establish/maintain CI/CD pipelines, quality gates, and sensible branching/release strategies
• Drive a pragmatic quality strategy: test pyramid balance, contract tests, data management, environments, and non-functional testing
• Partner with TIO on SLOs, alerting, runbooks, incident response, and post‑incident learning

Requirements

• Demonstrated experience leading through influence (tech lead, feature lead, guild lead, or similar) across design, delivery, and operations
• Strong track record in at least one domain: distributed services, data platforms, or high‑throughput web/mobile applications
• Advanced knowledge of Agile/Lean practices including backlog refinement, technical grooming, and risk‑based planning
• Experience with test strategy, test automation, CI/CD quality gates, and release readiness
• Proficiency in one or more of the following: Java/JVM, JavaScript/TypeScript, .NET/C#, Python, C/C++, SQL, Linux, or Windows
• Experience with relational and non‑relational data stores, performance tuning, and data modelling
• Knowledge of CI/CD platforms, containers, cloud technologies, observability, and monitoring practices
• Understanding of secure coding, performance optimisation, reliability engineering, and incident response

Work in a Way That Works for You

We promote a healthy work/life balance across the organisation. We offer an appealing working prospect for our people. With numerous wellbeing initiatives, shared parental leave, study assistance, and sabbaticals, we will help you meet your immediate responsibilities and your long‑term goals.

We know your well‑being and happiness are key to a long and successful career. We are delighted to offer country specific benefits.

We are committed to providing a fair and accessible hiring process. If you have a disability or other need that requires accommodation or adjustment, please let us know by completing our Applicant Request Support Form or please contact 1-855-833-5120.

Working Pattern

Working flexible hours - flexing the times when you work in the day to help you fit everything in and work when you are the most productive.

About the Business

A global leader in information and analytics, we help researchers and healthcare professionals advance science and improve health outcomes for the benefit of society. Building on our publishing heritage, we combine quality information and vast data sets with analytics to support visionary science and research, health education and interactive learning, as well as exceptional healthcare and clinical practice. At Elsevier, your work contributes to the world’s grand challenges and a more sustainable future. We harness innovative technologies to support science and healthcare to partner for a better world.

We are an equal opportunity employer: qualified applicants are considered for and treated during employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, sex, national origin, citizenship status, disability status, protected veteran status, age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law.

USA Job Seekers: EEO Know Your Rights.