Principal Software Engineer - Store Payments & Infrastructure

Join M&S as a Principal Engineer within our Store Payments & Infrastructure team and play a pivotal role in shaping the technology that supports millions of customer transactions and thousands of colleagues across our stores. As the most senior engineering level within M&S, you'll provide technical leadership across multiple teams and domains, setting technical direction, driving engineering excellence and ensuring technology strategy aligns with business objectives. Working closely with the Head of Engineering and Solution Architect, you'll help design, build and evolve scalable, resilient solutions while mentoring engineering leaders and influencing strategic decisions across the organisation. We're looking for a highly experienced technical leader with deep expertise in architecture, engineering best practice and organisational influence, who is passionate about developing talent and delivering business outcomes through technology.

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 system design, solution architecture and technical strategy across multiple teams and domains, ensuring alignment with business goals, technical standards and long-term roadmaps.
• Drive engineering excellence by defining and upholding architectural principles, quality standards, best practices and technical governance across the organisation.
• Mentor and coach engineering managers, staff engineers and key technical talent, supporting capability growth, talent development and high hiring standards.
• Partner with business and technology stakeholders to align engineering priorities with strategic objectives, influence decision-making and communicate technical trade-offs.
• Champion operational excellence by embedding quality, reliability and security into engineering processes, leading responses to critical issues and improving engineering productivity.

Who you are

Your skills and experience will include:

• Extensive experience in system design, architecture and technical leadership across complex domains.
• Proven ability to define, communicate and deliver technical strategy, vision and roadmaps across multiple teams and business areas.
• Strong mentoring and coaching skills, with experience developing engineering managers, staff engineers and senior technical talent.
• Experience aligning technology decisions with business objectives and influencing organisational strategy within large and complex environments.
• Deep understanding of engineering best practices, software quality, reliability, security and operational excellence.

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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