Principal Software Engineer
Role details
Job location
Tech stack
Job description
As a Principal Engineer, you will help shape the technical direction of platforms used by the global research community. You will work across teams to modernise systems, improve reliability, and guide the responsible use of AI where it delivers clear value. This role combines technical leadership with hands-on contribution., * Set clear technical direction across teams and support the delivery of shared goals
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Guide the design of secure, scalable, and resilient services, APIs, and data flows
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Contribute directly to high-impact work, including system modernisation and risk reduction
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Coach engineers and strengthen engineering practices such as observability, automation, and incident learning
Requirements
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Experience working at senior, staff, or principal engineer level across multiple teams or domains
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A track record of influencing technical decisions and supporting change at scale
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Experience designing and evolving distributed systems, services, and APIs in cloud environments
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Strong backend engineering experience (for example with Java and Spring Boot), and comfort working in modern product development teams
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A collaborative approach, with clear communication and thoughtful decision-making around quality, risk, and delivery
Event-driven systems and messaging technologies (for example Kafka or SNS/SQS)
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Frontend development experience, such as React
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Containers, Kubernetes, infrastructure as code, and CI/CD pipelines
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Applying AI or GenAI techniques in production, such as prompting, retrieval workflows, or large language model integrations
Benefits & conditions
We promote a healthy work/life balance across the organisation. With an average length of service of 9 years, we are confident that 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 long-term goals.
- Working remotely from home or in our office in a flexible hybrid style
- 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
Working with us
We are an equal opportunity employer with a commitment to help you succeed. Here, you will find an inclusive, agile, collaborative, innovative and fun environment, where everyone has a part to play. Regardless of the team you join, we promote a diverse environment with co-workers who are passionate about what they do, and how they do it.
Working for you
At Elsevier, we know that your wellbeing and happiness are key to a long and successful career. These are some of the benefits we are delighted to offer:
- Generous holiday allowance with the option to buy additional days
- Access to learning platforms and encouragement to book up to 10 days focused learning/development time per year
- Health screening, eye care vouchers and private medical benefits
- Wellbeing programs
- Life assurance
- Access to a competitive contributory pension scheme
- Long service awards
- Save As You Earn share option scheme
- Travel Season ticket loan
- Maternity, paternity and shared parental leave
- Access to emergency care for both the elderly and children
- RELX Cares days, giving you time to support the charities and causes that matter to you
- Access to employee resource groups with dedicated time to volunteer
- Access to extensive learning and development resources
- Access to employee discounts via Perks at Work
