Principal Engineer / Architect (SaaS)

TL;DR

Principal Engineer / Architect (SaaS): Defining and evolving architecture for a growing SaaS platform with an accent on scalability, performance, and modernisation. Focus on leading technical debt reduction, performance optimisation, R&D strategy, and innovation in data platforms and AI opportunities.

Location: Leeds (Hybrid - 2 days per week in office). Applicants must already have the right to work in the UK. Sponsorship is not available.

£70,000 - £80,000 + strong pension + private healthcare

Company

Expanding SaaS platform provider seeking senior technical leadership to drive architectural evolution and innovation.

What you will do

• Define and maintain system architecture standards, guide platform evolution, and support major technical decisions across teams.
• Lead technical debt roadmap, frontend modernisation, and system restructuring for long-term maintainability.
• Identify and resolve performance bottlenecks, optimise databases, and improve scalability and reliability.
• Mentor developers, promote best practices, and solve complex technical challenges.
• Collaborate on infrastructure, CI/CD, monitoring, and data platform capabilities like ClickHouse and ElasticSearch.
• Define R&D strategy, evaluate emerging technologies, run proofs-of-concept, and drive innovation including AI and automation.

Requirements

• 6+ years' experience in software development.
• Experience designing and evolving large-scale systems.
• Strong background in .NET and cloud-based architectures.
• Experience with performance tuning and optimisation.
• Degree in Computer Science or equivalent.
• Deep understanding of software architecture principles, strong coding (C#, SQL), system integration patterns.
• Experience with modern frontend frameworks (e.g. React).
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills; right to work in the UK required.

Nice to have

• Experience with AWS and distributed systems.
• Experience with data platforms or analytics systems.
• Experience contributing to R&D, evaluating new technologies, AI/ML trends.

Culture & Benefits

• Strong pension and private healthcare.
• Great benefits package with excellent support for engineering excellence.
• Hands-on technical leadership in a growing organisation.
• Culture of continuous improvement, innovation, and pragmatic outcomes.